MARRIAGE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)
Based on Holy Scripture and the consistent moral teaching of the universal Church, we believe:
God created all things to display His immeasurable glory (Colossians 1:16). The pinnacle of God’s creation was a man and woman. Distinct from the rest of Creation, God made them - male and female - in His image.
This fact - that God made each of us in His image to be His image bearers - tells us what it means to be human and what we believe humans were created to do. We believe all humans have innate dignity and worth because of Who created them.
As image bearers we are not just made BY God, we are made FOR God.
Being made by God means that He is our author, creator, and designer. Humans depend on God to give us life, form, order, and meaning. This means that, by walking in his design, we find our created purpose and bring Him glory.
Being made for God means we find our ultimate satisfaction and desires in the all- fulfilling relationship with our Creator. As image bearers, our purpose coincides with whom we are created to be. This has massive implications for the way we live our lives.
God, who does not make mistakes, designed each of us to display His image and glory in a way and in a context unique to each individual. This includes our inborn traits like gender, personality, and gifting as well as context, such as the family you were born into, the city, school, or job you spend your days at, and your marriage. Nobody else can express the Image of God exactly like you.
The image of God is no small thing or obscure doctrine. In ancient times, civilizations erected images of the ruler - for example, statues of Nebuchadnezzar - to demonstrate the sovereign’s rule over a conquered land. Defacing the image was not simply graffiti; it was treason. Hence God’s anger against murderers and the establishment of capital punishment for the crime (Exodus 9:6). It also explains the significance of God’s claim on His image bearers in Christ’s response to the Pharisees in Matt 22:20-22.
It is therefore no surprise that there is nothing more offensive to Satan than that image: it reminds him of his sure end. Indeed, in his rebellion he has spent all of human history attempting to deface and obscure God’s image. It is tragically consistent with his mission, then, that he would work overtime in a fallen world to distort biblical marriage, sexuality, and gender, since these are inextricably connected to the communication of God’s image in us.
Sexuality and Image Bearing:
As image bearers, we must align our purpose with whom God created us to be. This has massive implications for the way we live our lives. Sexuality – the comprehensive nature of the human as sexual being – involves our attractions, desires, and gender. This encompasses sex as both a biological feature and an activity in which individuals participate. Human sexuality is something given to image bearers as a key aspect of what it means to be human. It is not something dirty that we should be ashamed of, but rather something good that we should seek to steward according to God’s design.
The Christian vision of sexuality requires understanding the true nature of God’s reality. God created the universe with a design and order that reflects His own nature and He designed human beings to live in that created universe in accord with His design and instruction. Grounded in the creation story, God’s created design gives meaning and significance to every part of the human: body, mind, and soul.
Gender:
When God created His image bearers, He gave them two biological gender distinctions – male and female. Both male and female are made in the image of God, but each is distinct in biological realities and expressions of God’s creation. Gender is, therefore, not a social construct but rather a divinely created and embodied reality that God graciously gave to us. Together, God calls both male and female to represent His character in the world He created (Genesis 1:26-27)
We believe that rejection of one’s biological sex or expression of a gender identity other than one's biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person and contrary to God’s creation and design. Not only does such a rejection fail to communicate the image of God accurately, it actively communicates a false and distorted expression of that image that is contrary to His design.
Marriage and Singleness:
The beginning of the story establishes the Creator’s template for male and female uniting within a covenant relationship. As male and female come together to become “One flesh,” it is more than just sexual intercourse, but certainly not less. Sexual intercourse is to be found exclusively within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman. The purpose of sex is to express the one-flesh covenant bond of marriage. There is, therefore, a higher purpose for sex than simply the act of intercourse or expressions of sexuality for our own pleasure. Marriage points to the great love God has for his people (Ephesians 5:22-30)
“Marriage is lifelong one-flesh covenant union between two sexually different persons (a male and a female) from different families, united with the purpose of telling God’s story of faithfulness and creativity; and sexual relationships outside this covenant union are sin.”
-Preston Sprinkle, Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage?
We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other (1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4), and any sexual activity outside of the protections of a biblical marriage is sinful and offensive to God (Matthew 15:18-20; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union, as defined in Scripture (Genesis 2:18-25).
To be clear, marriage is one context in which many will express the image of God. But marriage is not necessary to be an effective or complete image bearer. In fact, the Apostle Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 7 that singleness is to be preferred over marriage because it allows the single individual to singlemindedly serve God.
Singleness is not wasting sexuality. Rather it reveals that indulging in sexual desires outside of God’s design is not a route to fulfillment. When single Christians steward their sexual desires according to God’s design, they point to the relationship that brings ultimate fulfillment.
Disordered Sexuality:
The creation narrative reveals our created purpose, desires, and direction as image- bearers. The narrative also reveals the exact point when humans rebelled against the Creator and why it is that human desires do not align with God’s design.
Genesis 3:1–7 reveals the point in time when human beings began to experience disordered desires. The fall of man resulted in complete devastation: broken relationship with God and with each other, and compromise of our ability to rightly see the world and God’s design. John Frame describes sin as a radical disruption in the core of our being. Sin did not corrupt the image itself, but rather the ability to live out our created purpose as image-bearers. Humans’ disobedience of the divine command of God resulted in an immediate fracture in all relationships and desires.
God’s word details the depths of how sin has marked humanity. Romans 1:21–23 and Ephesians 4:17–19 reveal that the heart of humanity has been “darkened.” 1 Cor 2:14 reveals that things the Spirit of God reveals are foolish to the natural person because “he cannot understand them.” The presence of sin plunges each of us into what Mark Liederbach calls, “moral vertigo.” Moral vertigo is the idea that sin has upended our perspective on the shape and nature of God’s reality. A pilot could experience this phenomenon, as his bearings become so distorted, he believes up is down and down is up. The same is true with the presence of sin. Sin overturns the order of creation, bringing God’s ultimate authority under our own.
Man calls what is evil “good,” and what is “good” evil. Sin misaligns our “true north” and points our worship towards lesser things. Romans 1:21–23 describes this as “exchanging the glory of the immortal God” for lesser things.
The presence of sin distorts our ability to live sexually pure lives. We are ALL now sexually disordered. Disordered sexuality is any form of sexual perception, desire, or expression that deviates from God’s intended creation order and design. Examples include: adultery, pornography, homosexuality, transgenderism, sexual immorality and fornication, polyarmory, and open marriages.
The cultural distortions of sexuality boil down to the choice before all humans: whether we acknowledge God created our sexuality or not. What we do with our bodies matters because our vision of bodies cannot be separated from what God tells us about creation. Pursuing sexual pleasure or sexual expression outside of God’s design is not just morally wrong; it is rejecting God’s authority on the subject.
Disordered sexuality does not negate image-bearing status. Our invitation to the gospel, leads us to seek forgiveness, love, satisfaction and transformation from the old self to the new self. Bringing about fresh loves, desires, and purpose that align with God’s created intention for human beings.
Just as the Bible is clearly countercultural in these terms, it is also countercultural in its teaching on how we are to address anyone struggling with such sins. Though God made each of us in His image, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). And we are a people Christ came to seek and save (Luke 19:10) through His Church. As His church, God calls us to be known for our love and care (John 13:35). All of us are guilty of sin in one or more of these categories, and so we extend grace to our fellow sinners as we would want the same grace offered to us.
The practice of City Church Melissa is to aim for the "messy middle," where we neither affirm the sin nor condemn sinners, but instead - as the visible community of God - work to love them as God loves them, encouraging them, praying with them, and struggling alongside them. We must all work together to more accurately display the image of God in all its individual expressions to a lost world desperate for a Savior, in the confident hope that one day He will return to make all things new in a world free from sin.
The altar call began in the mid to late 1700s as a way for pastors to talk to and counsel those in the service who were considering becoming a Christian. At the end of the sermon, the pastor would ask if any in the congregation wanted to accept Jesus into their heart as Lord and Savior. After raising their hand in affirmation, often they would come down to the front and recite the sinners’ prayer upon which they would be counted as a born-again believer.
In Romans 10:9, Paul does command, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Additionally, 1 John 1:9 states that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Does the Bible explicitly state, however, that the altar call is the proper avenue of confession? No, it does not. This does not make it unbiblical. It simply means that this particular medium of confession is not essential to receiving the grace of Christ.
THEOLOGY OF CONVERSION
Because we do see invitations to receive God’s gift of grace and commands to turn from our sin proclaimed by the Apostles, we know that conversion, as seen as a singular event in a person’s life, is biblical. (Read the Apostle Paul’s conversion account in Acts 9 for one example; consider John 3 for another.) The altar call, then, appears to create an opportunity for this conversion experience to occur.
While it is absolutely possible that a person who responds to an altar call becomes saved through the power of God, people often confuse “an external act with an inward spiritual change.” That is to say, some assume that because they raised their hand, walked to the front, and recited a prayer, they have been saved. The Bible clearly rejects this thinking; no outward act can save you (Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 3:1-2, Romans 4:2, Romans 11:6). This does not mean that preachers who give an altar call intend for their audience to perceive it this way, but history has shown that many people have, for whatever reason, believed that this process assures them of salvation.
(For more information about how one can be assured of their salvation read 1 John and listen to our sermon series entitled “So You Would Know.”)
Additionally, one giving an altar call tends to work under the assumption that he can persuade the human will into trusting God and repenting of sins. This, however, downplays and even ignores the biblical view of conversion. Jesus commands his disciples (the Twelve and us today) to preach his message of grace on a daily basis (1 Peter 3:15), but we must remember that our persuading does not change a person’s heart. The Holy Spirit moves a person’s heart to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior (John 16:8; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16). We believe that the Spirit can move through a preacher to speak to an individual, but we want to make sure that we do not try to take the work of the Spirit into our own hands, becoming the musician rather than being the instrument. Additionally, we do not want to confuse people into thinking that conversion only occurs within the context of a church service.
The altar call has a tendency to rely upon emotional manipulation to coerce members of the audience to take part in a ritual act that in and of itself does nothing. Certainly we implement the use of emotion to speak to people’s heart but not at the cost of using reason to speak to the mind nor at the cost of usurping the work of the Spirit.
Invite people throughout your sermon to “repent and be baptized” like Peter did in Jerusalem (Acts 2:38). But when you do, don’t just stand there waiting with emotionally charged music playing, staring them down until they relent. Rather, make several suggestions about how and where to discuss the matter further.
WILL CITY CHURCH MELISSA EVER HAVE AN ALTAR CALL?
Maybe. If it can be done in a non-manipulative way, which certainly it can, there is no reason why we could not. We do have a strong commitment to see non-believers become believers, but we find Christian writer Jonathan Leeman’s thoughts on the matter to be more biblically and theologically compelling:
- Invite people throughout your sermon to “repent and be baptized” like Peter did in Jerusalem (Acts 2:38). But when you do, don’t just stand there waiting with emotionally charged music playing, staring them down until they relent. Rather, make several suggestions about how and where to discuss the matter further.
- Ask people what they believe when they present themselves for baptism, just like Jesus made sure the disciples knew who he was (Matt. 16:13-17; also, 1 John 4:1-3).
- Make sure they understand what following Jesus entails (Matt. 16:24f; John 6:53-60).
- Explain that the fruit of their lives and persevering to the end will indicate whether or not they really believe (Matt. 7:24f; 10:22).
- You might even explain that Jesus has commanded your church to remove them from its fellowship if their life moving forward does not match their profession (Matt. 18:15-17).
You can read his full article on this topic here.
