A well known figure and professed evangelical recently stated that he was sure Jesus would approve of gay marriage. This is hardly the first time anyone has tried to enlist Jesus’ support for legitimizing homosexual relationships and so-called “gay marriage.” Those making such claims usually advance one or both of the following lines of argument: 1. Jesus never even spoke about homosexuality, so he must not have opposed it. 2. Jesus promoted love and acceptance, so he surely would approve of any loving relationship. This reasoning seems to presuppose a disconnect between the teaching of Jesus and the Old Testament, pitting Moses and the law against Jesus and the gospel. This is a false dichotomy that fails to reckon with the reality of Jesus’ identity as well as the context of his teaching.
Jesus’ teaching is perfectly congruent with everything set forth in the Old Testament Scriptures. This should hardly be surprising since, in one sense, all of Scripture is Jesus’ teaching. As the eternal Son of God, the Living Word, the One who was with God and was God from before the beginning of time, the whole Word of God is, also, the Word of Christ. When the Old Testament speaks, God speaks. Hence, when the Old Testament speaks, Jesus Christ speaks. In the incarnation of Christ and his earthly teaching, there is a quantum leap forward in the progression of revelation and the flow of redemptive history. There is not, however, any contradiction between Old Testament and New or between law and gospel or between Moses and Christ. Any attempt to interpret Jesus’ teachings, recorded in the gospels, in isolation from the Old Testament and/or the rest of the New Testament is bound to miss the mark.
Jesus must be understood within the larger context of Scriptural revelation. We also need to keep in mind the immediate cultural context into which he spoke. Jesus’ earthly ministry took place within the context of first century, Palestinian Judaism, a culture steeped in the history and religion of the Old Testament. If Jesus failed to give specific instruction concerning the morality or immorality of homosexuality, it’s most likely because this wasn’t a burning question in the minds of his hearers. There was no debate on that issue. It was clear enough, from the teaching of the law, that homosexual practices were forbidden, just as other sexual sins were.
Rather than conflicting with the Old Testament, Jesus’ teaching only affirmed and explicated the moral standards of the law and the sexual ethic of the Old Testament. That teaching is rooted in the very creation of man, male and female, and the institution of marriage between a man and a woman in Genesis 1 and 2. Any sexual practice that falls outside that unique, covenantal institution of marriage falls into the broad category of “sexual immorality.” Jesus re-affirmed the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, quoting directly from Genesis:
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matt. 19:4-6 ESV)
It is also relevant that, in this context, Jesus is correcting an error of his contemporaries. While homosexuality was not a subject of debate among the Jewish religious leaders, the grounds for legitimate divorce was. Jesus did more than just “pick a side” in the contemporary debate over the morality of divorce and remarriage. He asserted and applied the Old Testament’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. This is but one example of the way that Jesus made authoritative application of the Old Testament to address errors and questions among his contemporaries. He did not hesitate to correct the false interpretations and aberrant traditions adopted by the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. He corrected those who sought to justify divorce for trivial and unlawful reasons. He also rebuked them, at times, for condemning those whom Scripture did not condemn, and he severely chided their legalistic neglect of mercy (Matt. 9:13; 12:7 for example). However, he never once hinted or implied that they were being legalistic or twisting the Scriptures by condemning homosexuality as a sinful practice.
On the contrary, Jesus’ teaching merely expounds the sexual standards of the Old Testament law. Without singling out the sin of homosexuality, Jesus agreed with the sinfulness of the broad category of “sexual immorality” or “fornication” (Matt. 15:19). How would Jesus and his contemporaries have defined sexual immorality? The answer, again, derives from the positive teaching of the Old Testament regarding God’s purpose for sexuality and marriage. Anything that falls outside the marriage relationship of one man and one woman, according to God’s design in the beginning, amounts to some form of sexual immorality. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) homosexual practices. This is brought out most clearly in texts like Genesis 19 and Leviticus 18:22-23 and 20:13.
Given the context of Jesus’ ministry and the inherent relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament law, it is hardly “decisive” to say, “Jesus never mentioned homosexuality.” In the absence of teaching to the contrary and in light of Jesus’ affirmations of the Old Testament’s view of sexual morality, we can only conclude that Jesus would not have approved of “gay marriage” any more than he would approve of adultery or any other sexual sins.
Additionally, we have Jesus’ teaching continued and expounded in the rest of the New Testament. The risen and ascended Christ continued his ministry through his appointed apostles. We have their teaching and ministry recorded, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament as well. Here, too, we find continuity with the Old Testament law on sexual morality. The New Testament writers and apostles univocally condemned “sexual immorality”, the same broad category of sin mentioned by Jesus. There are also texts that address homosexuality more specifically. Paul, unlike Jesus in his earthly ministry, did work among people for whom homosexuality was a more commonly accepted practice. In 1Corinthians 6:9, Paul listed homosexual behavior among other sins. Also, in Romans 1:24-28, homosexuality is clearly condemned. All of this is in keeping with the teaching of all of Scripture, beginning in Genesis. God created mankind male and female for a unique, God-honoring, exclusive and covenantal relationship. It is only within that beautiful relationship of marriage, between a man and a woman, that sexual expression is proper, lawful and God-honoring. This is the uniform testimony of the law, the prophets, Jesus and the apostles and New Testament authors.
There are those who would argue that, if we reject “gay marriage” and call homosexuality “sinful”, then we are in conflict with Jesus’ message of love and acceptance. Ironically, it turns out to be the other way around. It is those who advocate for blanket approval of sinful behavior who miss the real message of Jesus’ love and acceptance. The love of Jesus is something far deeper and richer than a sort of passive, general acceptance. Jesus did not come to just tell us how much we are loved and that we are all “okay.” Jesus is the gift of God to fallen sinners. Indeed, God loved us as sinners. But God, who is holy and righteous and infinitely good, cannot just “accept” us the way we are. Our sin demands justice. In love, God gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for sinners. Far from accepting our sin and sinfulness, Christ came to pay the penalty for sin in order to provide forgiveness and righteousness and peace with God. His love is a cleansing and sanctifying love. His love, far from denying the sinfulness of sin, faced the ugliness, horror and just penalty of our sin head-on. The depth of the mercy and love of God, in Christ Jesus, is demonstrated in the cross of Calvary, where the wrath of God was poured out on his own Son so that sinners may be justified, cleansed and accepted through his blood and righteousness.
To deny the seriousness and guilt of sin, whether the sin of homosexuality or any other sin, is to undermine the true love of God. We only see the depth and wonder of God’s love in light of the seriousness of sin. God’s love is not demonstrated toward sinners in simply accepting and approving of them, as is. Rather, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8 ESV) We do not serve or glorify God by giving approval to that which God condemns. Rather, we glorify God when we recognize the guilt and heinousness of all sin and then look to Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as the only and all-sufficient Savior from sin.