In the political arena there has been much discussion of Gay marriage lately, as President Obama has changed his position in support of Gay marriage.  I do not want this blog to be political, but the issue of Gay marriage comes up from time to time.  It is an issue that exposes what peoples real values are.  It also tends to make Christians make up their mind about what’s important for our society.  I believe that the Bible is the revealed word of God to all mankind.  The morality from the Bible about sex being within marriage between a man and a woman is a moral absolute that applies to all people.  It is not something that becomes out of date because it is not man who defines marriage.  God’s word has the authority to define absolutes for all people to live by.  There may be various legal definitions of marriage.  They can be either right or wrong because God sets the moral standard and laws should be based on the moral standard.  The laws should be based on the Biblical moral standard because that is healthier for society and for individuals by God’s design.  You could also look at it in a pragmatic way related to child rearing and argue that it is a good means of raising children, totally apart from what people believe about the Bible.  Most religions in the world have a similar concept of marriage to what the Bible teaches, with some exceptions.  So you could argue that traditional marriage is a cross-cultural global societal norm and be correct for most people in the world.  Thus, traditional marriage should not be abandoned or devalued.  In an evolutionary atheistic world view, marriage would be something that was merely invented for practical convenience sake in raising children.  If marriage is something man invented, then why wouldn’t it be something man could reinvent to be something different?  This is a logical question.  There has been resistance to God’s definition of marriage and the morality that goes with it all through history.

Human beings have always tried to come up with some kind of substitute for God’s standard of marriage.  People tend to attempt to lower the moral standard to make it seem easier for them to live by.  But the substitutes for marriage all have problems.  God’s design is best.  Multiple wives was perhaps the first variation (polygamy).  This was allowed by God in ancient times but was not really recommended.  Genesis shows some of the complications and conflict that can arise from the practice.  A more modern substitute for marriage is living together, where two people do not have to make a life-long commitment to each other.  Gay marriage is another kind of substitute for God’s standard.  American society used to frown on people living together but not any more.  Divorce has become so common that some have proposed that marriage be changed into a contract that is only in effect for a limited number of years.  One man wrote a book arguing that in about 50 years robotics technology would advance enough that people would be marrying robots.  There are still religious groups that practice polygamy, mostly Muslims in certain Arab nations.  The practice is illegal in the United States, even though there are occassionally Mormon or religious cult groups that engage in the practice.  I fear that in coming years we will see a variety of efforts to redefine marriage.  Gay marriage may only be the first of these movements.  Christians have to stand up for the truth of traditional marriage and for what is healthy for society in times like these.  Man’s efforts to invent substitutes for marriage have a way of exposing over time the wisdom of God’s design, though most people do not recognize this.  Unfortunately some people’s lives end up going through much pain before they turn around and find the right way.  I wonder what the prevailing opinion in society will be toward Gay marriage, say 40 years from today?  What will children who grew up in Gay households think of it when they are adults?  Society values tend to swing back and forth over generations sometimes.  Perhaps values can swing back to the right, in time.

There are many who think of the opposition to Gay marriage as discrimination and they present the issue as a civil rights issue.  But this is a fallacy because a moral argument against homosexuality is not related to discrimination.  God determines right and wrong, not human beings.  If the laws approve of something which God does not approve of, the legal status (and social acceptance) does not take away from adverse consequences of the immoral lifestyle.  God is completely nondiscriminatory in applying the standards of morality.  This is true whether people “believe” it or not.  All people have reason to acknowledge right and wrong about sex and marriage from their own experience.  If I make a moral argument against homosexuality, that is not about discrimination.  It is saying that a kind of argument exists that the homosexuals deny.  They do not accept a moral argument because they don’t accept biblical morality.  They do not accept a moral absolute that applies to all people the same way.  So they don’t agree with me, but that does not give them a basis for saying that I am encouraging discrimination.  Discrimination is something different than a moral argument against homosexuality.  When I was 20 or 30 years younger, the gays had a legitimate issue over discrimination in the work place.  But that was different than the present situation in our society and it is not the same as what they are trying to accomplish about marriage.  Gays want states, and the nation, to redefine marriage just for them.  I say this is wrong because gays do not have the right to redefine marriage.  In fact, it seems to me it is odd for gays to want something similar to traditional marriage but allowing for their lifestyle.  With so many giving up on marriage anyway, why are they trying to have something similar to the traditional institution?  In a way they are trying to be traditional, but in a manner that is not allowed by biblical morality.  I believe God’s design for marriage is healthier for society and for individuals.

Human beings have a fundamental problem.  It is a problem some acknowledge and some do not.  It is the sinful nature we all have that tends to resist what God wants in our lives.  It is one thing to acknowledge the existence of evil in the world, but another thing altogether to face up to evil in your own heart.  God led the ancient nation of Israel in a covenant governed under the Law of Moses.  There were elaborate procedures for atoning for sin and dealing with what was called “uncleanness.”  Reading about all this in Leviticus you think to yourself, “How did they do all this?”  It would have been a tough thing to live by.  I think the law taught the Israelites about the pervasive nature of sin and how it affects everything we think and do.  There are certain important things in Old Testament times that were teaching about atonement and sacrifice for sin, things that point to what Jesus was to do one day.  One of these important lessons was the story of Abraham being told to sacrifice his only son.  God asked Abraham to do a very tough thing as a test and when it came time to do it, God stopped him and provided a substitute sacrifice.  But it raises the issue of how is the life of a ram equal to the life of a man?  It isn’t equal, but it was a lesson that God would provide a solution for sin.  Another lesson on atonement was an annual practice by the ancient Israelites.  It was part of the special annual sacrifices on the Day of Atonement.  After other steps were taken to deal with the priests own sins, there was a practice of taking two young goats, sacrificing one and setting the other one free far away in the wilderness.  The blood of the sacrificed one was used to ceremonially “cleanse” the altar.  The priest put his hands on the other goat’s head and figuratively placed all the sins of the Israelites on that goat, the one that came to be called the scapegoat, and then that goat was taken far away and set free.  This teaches the lesson of one individual’s sin being treated as transferred to another and of sin being put away.

These both bear similarities to what Jesus did in dying for the sins of the world.  Like Abraham almost had to do, God gave the life of his only Son.  Like the scapegoat, the “spotless” sinless one had our sins laid on him and he was put away as if he was guilty.  Imagine being guilty of a crime in which the penalty is death, but after the judge renders a verdict, the judge gets down off the bench and turns himself in to take the penalty for the accused!  Then the accused is allowed to go free.  We are the accused and Jesus took our penalty.  How can Jesus death be a substitute for the sins of the world?  It is because he is both fully God and fully human.  Because he is a sinless human, he can die for humans, the just for the unjust.  Because he is God, his life is valuable enough to pay the price.  Also because Jesus was given all authority in heaven and Earth by God the Father, he had authority to determine his own death.  In John 10:18 (NIV) Jesus said this about his life and death, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus’ life and ministry from a worldly natural perspective could appear to be a failure.  Jesus was very popular with the masses and he did great miracles.  The people of Israel wanted to make him King but he never pursued any political power or economic gain.  In the end he was rejected, largely because the Jewish leaders rejected who He was.  He was hated in the end enough that the crowds wanted a murderer set free instead of Jesus!  Pilate, who was no softy, wanted to release Jesus but he gave in to the pressure from the Jews.  Jesus, as the Old Testament said he would do, did not even try to defend himself when he was being tried.  Jesus allowed his ministry and his life to end in being rejected by his people and then being crucified like a criminal.  It appeared to the disciples and perhaps to the Jewish leaders that the whole thing would have been over after Jesus died.  The Jewish leaders had seen other controversial leaders come and go and be forgotten.  They may have thought Jesus would have just been another forgotten movement.

But death could not hold Jesus.  The solution was for Jesus to go through the suffering first to make atonement, then much later in history He will return to reign as King of the world.  Jesus did not give in to Satan’s temptations in life and Satan did not prevent Jesus from his mission.  Even though the disciples had trouble understanding and believing what Jesus told them about his death and resurrection.  Even though there was a traitor among Jesus twelve disciples, and even though Peter denied that he knew Jesus.  None of these things stopped God’s plan.  Jesus’ death also did not stop God’s plan, but became a key part of it.  When Jesus was on the cross people mocked him because it looked like a defeat.  But what was physically like a defeat was spiritually a victory.  God’s solution to man’s problem is not intuitive for fallen humans to understand.  The resurrection authenticates Jesus as being both God and Man, and proved everything he said about himself to be true.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, it also means he is alive and able today to save those who believe in him.  The Jewish leaders could only deal with his resurrection by making up lies and then ignoring the issue.  Jesus body was not dumped into a mass grave with other criminals, as some have alleged.  That would have made it very easy to refute the Apostles and others who claimed to see him risen from the dead.  He appeared to many people over a 40 day period.  Jesus also gave believers hope when he said he would be with us always and when he said he was going to prepare a place for us.  Jesus defeated Satan by what appeared from a natural human perspective to be a defeat.  Since that meant there was an atonement for sin that was sufficient for anyone and everyone, the only remaining thing was for people to hear the good news and believe it.  That began the so-called “Church Age,” which we are now in.  So for whoever believes, sin no longer has the power to dominate their life.  There is power to change, a child-father relationship with God, and purpose for living life.  Easter is a rememberance of Jesus resurrection and a reminder of God’s solution to man’s problem.