I was talking to a friend today who asked me a very good question.
"Matt, where do you start looking when you are trying to come to a conclusion about this Same Sex Marriage thing, or anything other issue?"
Wow, glad you asked. At the end of the day my answer is the same of any issue, whether it's about marriage, sex, pornography, gambling, finances, parental roles, giving, whatever.
I said to him, "I start with a top down, big picture, 20,000ft view of what is going on in the Bible. What is the real story that is going on?"
I explained further, "You must understand what the Bible is about, who it's about, and why it's written to/for us."
The Bible is a book with one main character (God) and one main supporting character (man). Now I can go in a lot of directions from here, but I won't. That's for another day. But to continue our conversation.
"The Bible is about God and man. So a big picture approach to the Bible is to look at 1. What were we originally created for/to do? 2. Why? 3. What happened with sin? 4. What did God do about it? 5. What is our response? 6. And what is going to happen when we go home to be with Him someday. Essentially, What is all of this pointing toward?
He created us to reflect His Glory to His creation and for us to reflect back to Him the praise and worship from his creation. He created us male and female and gave them both characteristics of him. The marriage of man and woman created an image of the invisible God to all of creation. We were created to be priests and rulers over God's new creation and bring it under our rule and authority. (But not in the way that we think of rule and authority today). That's the Why answer. Sin entered the picture and messed it all up. But even before it happened God had a redemption plan in place to restore things to the way they were and the way they are supposed to be. He did this through His son Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection on the cross. Even in our sin God works in unfathomable ways so that he gets the glory. By embracing Jesus as Lord and Savior, and that He rose from the dead we are now his heirs and His adopted children. But Paul goes on to say that the church (all people who proclaim Jesus is Lord) is like a bride and Jesus is the bridegroom. He uses the analogy to say that if you want to see a picture of Jesus and his relationship with His church, then look at a married couple. Sure, even happily married couples have flaws, but guess what, so does the "church" today. Warts and all He loves us and gave Himself up for us.
So, after we've said yes to Jesus, He is working in our hearts to change us into the people he created us to be in this life and the next. He's grooming us for the next life. We are to partner with Him to bring about his kingdom which is here and now and prepare for the coming of His Kingdom which is not yet. Let me say this again, He is changing us, redeeming us, molding us into the people He originally created us to be, before the fall. He's putting things back in order and he's allows us and expects us to be a part of the journey. We are to participate in the Kingdom that is now in preparation for the Kingdom that is to come.
When we go home to be with Him we will experience no more sorrow or tears, no pain or suffering, we will have new bodies that won't fall apart or breakdown. He's redeeming us and putting everything back the way it was supposed to be. And we will worship and praise Him for it. All glory be to our God and Father. Amen.
So, back to the question that we started with. "Where do I start any issue from?" It's with the beginning and end in mind. The Bible starts with a marriage and ends with a marriage in Revelation. The big picture allows me to filter all sorts of information then.
We can get lost trying to figure out if alcohol is a sin, or what being modestly dressed means. Same goes for trying to understand issues like marriage, sexuality, Same Sex Marriage, pornography and so on. If you only spend time down at ground level you're going to end up confused. Don't start trying to understand your faith from the ground up. Get big picture and work your way down. Start with who we were originally created to be and end with the understanding that God is going to put all back together the way He originally planned. It's a lot easier to answer the other questions in life when we understand that.
"Matt, where do you start looking when you are trying to come to a conclusion about this Same Sex Marriage thing, or anything other issue?"
Wow, glad you asked. At the end of the day my answer is the same of any issue, whether it's about marriage, sex, pornography, gambling, finances, parental roles, giving, whatever.
I said to him, "I start with a top down, big picture, 20,000ft view of what is going on in the Bible. What is the real story that is going on?"
I explained further, "You must understand what the Bible is about, who it's about, and why it's written to/for us."
The Bible is a book with one main character (God) and one main supporting character (man). Now I can go in a lot of directions from here, but I won't. That's for another day. But to continue our conversation.
"The Bible is about God and man. So a big picture approach to the Bible is to look at 1. What were we originally created for/to do? 2. Why? 3. What happened with sin? 4. What did God do about it? 5. What is our response? 6. And what is going to happen when we go home to be with Him someday. Essentially, What is all of this pointing toward?
He created us to reflect His Glory to His creation and for us to reflect back to Him the praise and worship from his creation. He created us male and female and gave them both characteristics of him. The marriage of man and woman created an image of the invisible God to all of creation. We were created to be priests and rulers over God's new creation and bring it under our rule and authority. (But not in the way that we think of rule and authority today). That's the Why answer. Sin entered the picture and messed it all up. But even before it happened God had a redemption plan in place to restore things to the way they were and the way they are supposed to be. He did this through His son Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection on the cross. Even in our sin God works in unfathomable ways so that he gets the glory. By embracing Jesus as Lord and Savior, and that He rose from the dead we are now his heirs and His adopted children. But Paul goes on to say that the church (all people who proclaim Jesus is Lord) is like a bride and Jesus is the bridegroom. He uses the analogy to say that if you want to see a picture of Jesus and his relationship with His church, then look at a married couple. Sure, even happily married couples have flaws, but guess what, so does the "church" today. Warts and all He loves us and gave Himself up for us.
So, after we've said yes to Jesus, He is working in our hearts to change us into the people he created us to be in this life and the next. He's grooming us for the next life. We are to partner with Him to bring about his kingdom which is here and now and prepare for the coming of His Kingdom which is not yet. Let me say this again, He is changing us, redeeming us, molding us into the people He originally created us to be, before the fall. He's putting things back in order and he's allows us and expects us to be a part of the journey. We are to participate in the Kingdom that is now in preparation for the Kingdom that is to come.
When we go home to be with Him we will experience no more sorrow or tears, no pain or suffering, we will have new bodies that won't fall apart or breakdown. He's redeeming us and putting everything back the way it was supposed to be. And we will worship and praise Him for it. All glory be to our God and Father. Amen.
So, back to the question that we started with. "Where do I start any issue from?" It's with the beginning and end in mind. The Bible starts with a marriage and ends with a marriage in Revelation. The big picture allows me to filter all sorts of information then.
We can get lost trying to figure out if alcohol is a sin, or what being modestly dressed means. Same goes for trying to understand issues like marriage, sexuality, Same Sex Marriage, pornography and so on. If you only spend time down at ground level you're going to end up confused. Don't start trying to understand your faith from the ground up. Get big picture and work your way down. Start with who we were originally created to be and end with the understanding that God is going to put all back together the way He originally planned. It's a lot easier to answer the other questions in life when we understand that.
I love this. My favorite part? "We are to participate in the Kingdom that is now in preparation for the Kingdom that is to come." Amen, brother. Beautiful words.
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