If I understand Romans 1:18-32 right, God has given the human race over to "impurity, so that [our] bodies would be dishonored among [us]" (v. 24)." This was done because we "exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator" (v. 25). What dishonoring of our bodies God had in mind is clearly homosexuality, the "degrading passions" mentioned in verse 26 and the "burn[ing] in their desire for each other" (i.e. of the same sex) and "comitting indecent acts" of verse 27. Of course the list of sins in verses 29-32 makes certain that all of us have been personally afflicted with this punishment from God. But, it is clear that God intended His punishment of the human race for their rejection of His glory to be as degrading as possible, thus we are given homosexuality. It appears also that He wants this sin to portray the exchange for which we are being punished: rather than love and honor One who is gloriously different from ourselves, we choose to love and honor mankind (our own kind) instead. Oh how we all need to understand the message God put in the punishment!
1/24/09 6:30 PM
