‘God is for sex’: Pastor tackles harms of sexual revolution, reflects on Christ’s words at Lausanne 4
INCHEON, South Korea — “God is for sex.” That was the clear message from the Rev. Canon Vaughan Roberts, rector of St. Ebbe's Church in Oxford, England, who advised Christians globally on how to respond to the myriad harms caused by the sexual revolution and distortion of God’s created order.
The sexual revolution that began as a countercultural movement in the 1960s isn't so anymore and is now “absolutely mainstream,” Roberts said.
Over the decades, the false promises of human flourishing pushed by those promoting the sexual revolution have led to the “almost complete collapse of family life in our culture and devastating effects on families, especially the most vulnerable: children,” he lamented.
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Instead of thinking about what classes they’ll be taking, as Roberts said he was doing as a young student, children are being asked to choose their pronouns, what sex they want to identify as, and their sexuality. This has only intensified their feelings of “isolation” and “confusion,” said Roberts, who described today's youth as the “anxious generation.”
The sexual revolution, Roberts said, has taught generations to give into their feelings and fleshly desires and that “any external forces must be resisted — whether it's from traditional morality, religion, or even biology itself.”
How should Christians respond?
Roberts says the process is a simple one that requires adherence to the scriptures with added humility and compassion in such a way that churchgoers can be honest about their struggles without fearing they'll be shunned.
“We must turn to God's never-changing Word and not just to a few proof texts, but to its main overarching themes: Creation, fall and redemption,” Roberts told the thousands of delegates gathered at Songdo Convensia international convention center for the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization on Monday.
“You can summarize God's design for sex and marriage in some very basic statements. God is for sex,” he declared, emphasizing that “sex is for marriage” as outlined in Genesis 2:24. “And in God's design, sexual union is designed to express, seal and strengthen the one-flesh union” between a husband and wife.
Roberts stressed that God’s instructions for human sexuality are not the way they are because He’s “a spoilsport, wanting to spoil our fun.” Instead, they are provided “for our good, that we might flourish individually, as families and as societies.”
But instead of adhering to God’s Word, some churches have capitulated to the many iterations of the sexual revolution. Declaring themselves as inclusive congregations, they drape the exterior and interior of their churches with LGBT and progress pride flags in the worship of inclusivity.
Such churches lack “theological integrity,” Roberts said, posing the question of what good can come from a church that merely repeats the same views of the non-Christian world and doing so in such a way that church leaders read into the Bible teachings that are not there.
“[T]hat kind of adaptation is missionally ineffective,” he added, noting that is also why revisionist churches are in “terminal decline.”
‘Churches need not be silent’
“We churches desperately need not to be silent. We've got good news to share,” Roberts rejoiced, highlighting that “the Christ who said come as you are did not say, ‘stay as you are.’”
While revisionist churches are seen as capitulating to the whims of the culture and disabusing the scriptures for the sake of worldly “inclusion,” some conservative churches are also not appropriately responding to members of their flock who are struggling with such issues as spousal abuse, same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria or even pastoral sexual abuse.
Roberts noted that although “revisionists keep quiet about repentance,” conservatives tend to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction and are “strong on repentance and holiness, but too often we focus on moral rules rather than the wonderful relationship which Christ came to offer to us.”
Addressing the issue of sexual sin, there isn’t one group that is more righteous than any other, he added, because all are guilty. And acknowledging that should influence how one responds to others.
As an illustration, Roberts said on any given Sunday at church, one might be seated next to a Christian struggling with same-sex attraction yet living daily to follow Christ either in their singleness or in marriage. “Brothers and sisters … does the tone and manner in which you speak invite them to be honest and open? Or does it force them into a secret, lonely isolation, which will only be an incubator of shame and sin?” Roberts asked.
“Too many feel unable to be open and honest about the struggles they feel for fear that they'll be dismissed and rejected” by their church family, he added.
In full transparency, Roberts said he, too, struggles with same-sex attraction that first manifested in his early teens. Despite wrestling with these feelings, he makes the decision daily to follow Christ. Being same-sex attracted is not part of his identity, but it is an “ongoing part of my reality,” he said.
Reflecting on 1 Corinthians 5, Roberts said sin “has corrupted every part of life, including our sexuality … and that should lead to humility.”
In that chapter, “Paul says we are not to judge the world in matters of sexual morality. Leave that to God,” he continued. “We're not, first and foremost, to issue a wagging finger to the world. Jesus was the friend of sinners. … That same chapter makes it very clear the Church should exercise discipline against unrepented sin.”
Another misapprehension Roberts sought to address is that of singleness, which he said is “viewed by so much of the Christian world as a problem to be solved.”
“Have they never read Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19 or Paul in 1 Corinthians 7? Single people are not single. If they're in Christ, they're related to Him. And we have a precious gift which enables special opportunities to serve Him and grow in delight and dependence on Him,” said Roberts, stressing that “there should be no isolated people in the Church of God, and yet too often there are.”
Christ revolution
What Christians have to offer the world is not only Christian morality but the truth of the Bible, Roberts explained.
As people struggle with sexual brokenness and even the challenges of navigating difficult seasons in marriage, the way to respond to all manner of problems rooted in the sexual revolution is to “respond with Christ,” he maintained.
“Don't just preach morality. Certainly, don't just preach condemnation. Preach and live Christ for the glory of His name,” he added. “[In] His teaching, He affirmed God's creation order and His example. He showed amazing love to sinners and then the relationship with Him, which we can enjoy in this present life by the Holy Spirit.”
Describing it as Christ’s revolution, Roberts said it’s the “greatest revolution the world has ever known, far greater than the sexual revolution. … And that is the perspective from which we need to look at this revolution going on in the world.”
The knowledge that God created sex for marriage and that one is to live one's life for Christ, Roberts said, is what transformed him.
“That conviction changed my life," he said. "It wasn't that I was suddenly gripped and excited by Christian morality. I was gripped and excited by Christ. I loved Him, and loving Him, I wanted to live for Him.”
