Intersect: a man and a woman

INTERSECT (Where the Bible Meets Life) is a regular column of ONE Magazine featuring Dr. Garnett Reid, a member of the Bible faculty at Free Will Baptist Bible College. Email Garnett greid@fwbbc.edu

Some would have us believe that legalizing homosexual marriage poses no threat to traditional families. For those who believe the Bible is God’s revealed truth, however, this view presents several problems. First, Scripture declares that marriage is honorable (Hebrews 13:4) since God Himself unites a man and a woman in this intimate bond (Matthew 19:6). Homosexuality is not honorable and is, in fact, sin. No amount of interpretive twisting can wriggle the truth out of Genesis 18-19, Leviticus 18-20, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.

To see the hard-core tragedy of this sin, we must go back to God’s intent in creation. The notion of homosexual marriage violates His design of uniting male and female (Genesis 2:24). The two genders balance and complement each other. Theirs is the consummate partnership precisely because they are opposites. As God blesses this union with children, both parents—male and female—contribute uniquely to a child’s nurture.

By God’s design, a man is not a “mother” in any sense of the word, nor is a woman a “father.” No sociological shifting can legitimize gay parents. Courts and social pundits may decree this practice legal and normal, but the innate human personality God gave us knows better. Watch the children. As their personalities grow, they’ll tell you how much they need mother (a woman) and father (a man).

This assault on God’s design compels Christians to live out our relationship with God through our marriages. After all, this intimate union is the closest metaphor in human experience to the believer’s relationship with God (Ephesians 5:22-33).

This whole issue of children further complicates any defense of homosexual marriage. God’s first commandment to humans was to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). As J. Budziszewski observes, laws concerning marriage between male and female protect the future of society by insuring that there is a future society. Marriages keep “the great wheel of generations turning” by fostering human procreation. Homosexual unions are sterile and do not contribute to this ultimate purpose.

Same-sex marriages also fail to meet God’s basic intention for men and women in the marriage union: a one-flesh partnership. The Creator fashioned the female to be a “helper suitable” for her husband (Genesis 2:20, 23). Though equal in nature (made in God’s image) and purpose (God told them to subdue . . . and have dominion over the earth), they work together through uniquely different roles within the family.

This assault on God’s design compels Christians to live out our relationship with God through our marriages. After all, this intimate union is the closest metaphor in human experience to the believer’s relationship with God (Ephesians 5:22-33). A same-sex relationship can never provide what God intended: abandoning ourselves to a lifelong commitment of self-giving for the good of our opposite, our ultimate partner in God’s best experience for His creatures on this earth.