Love Won
















Would you believe me if I said I believe homosexuality is a sin AND I love and care about all people, including those who identify as homosexual?


In the wake of the supreme court's decision last week, it would seem that the only way #lovewins is if I endorse both homosexuality and the right of homosexuals to marry.

But I don't, and I can't. 

As a follower of Jesus, I'm bound to both grace and truth. I realize the Christian church has had a hard time keeping a firm grasp on both of these, but the one is lost without the other.

Truth without grace ignores Jesus' sacrifice and our inability to save ourselves. It makes little of love, because love is what gave birth to grace.

Grace without truth is a lie. It denies our guilt before a righteous God and makes Jesus' sacrifice useless. He becomes nothing more than a good man who showed us how to love our neighbor and died for . . . . . what?

As Christians, we believe with deepest sincerity that the embrace of homosexual practice, along with other sins, keeps people out of the kingdom of God. And if our society celebrates it, we can’t both be caring and not say anything. Too much is at stake. This means it is an oversimplification to say that Christians — or conservative evangelicals — are simply against homosexuality. We are against any sin that restrains people from everlasting joy in God, and homosexual practice just gets all the press because, at this cultural moment, it’s the main sin that is so freshly endorsed in our context by the powers that be. . . The issue is sin. That’s what we’re against. 
~Pastor John Piper (emphasis mine)

Much has been said lately about keeping silent in the face of sin and injustice. People's passion for the oppressed has caused them to overcome fear of ridicule and even hate. It is this spirit in which I'm writing. I realize my stance lends itself toward being labeled as hatred, and that's scary. But I won't allow fear to silence me. 

I'm writing because of love. The love of God shown to me through Jesus, and the love I have for Him, for His word, for truth, and for the costly grace He secured for me and all who would repent of their sins and call on His name. 

Yes, love won on Friday . . . Friday a couple thousand years ago on a hill in Jerusalem.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 
that God sent his only Son into the world, 
so that we might live through him. 
In this is love, not that we have loved God 
but that he loved us 
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 
~1 John 4:9-10

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person
though perhaps for a good person one would dare 
even to die—
but God shows his love for us in that 
while we were still sinners, 
Christ died for us. 
~Romans 5:7-8

Because love won on the cross and will win in our world, I will love. 

Little children, let us not love in word or talk 
but in deed and in truth.
~1 John 3:18 
(I commend to you the entire chapter as an accurate & beautiful description 
of Christian love . . . "the kind of love the Father has given to us")

#lovewon