Monday, December 6, 2010

Justification is by faith

Justification comes by grace through faith and not through any human effort.(1) Establishing a suspect standard of holiness for service in the Church contradicts our confessions where we proclaim that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,(2) but equally that all have been set free from bondage to sin and death in Christ.(3) We are freed for service - a service which we unjustly and selectively deny to some who Christ has claimed.(4)


Commentary
1. Unlike suspect theories like complementarianism, which have almost no support in scripture, much less in reason, justification by faith is essential to Reformed theology.

2. That having been said, let it not be taken to imply that we believe that LGBTQ persons are somehow intrinsically sinful because of their good and inborn sexual identity.  We do not believe this is the case - only that LGBTQ persons are just as capable of sin as any other persons, and are no more able to justify themselves by their good works than any other persons.

3. That is to say, our brothers and sisters in Christ who happen to be LGTBQ are indistinguishable from our brothers and sisters who are heterosexual where justification is concerned.

4. This claim of Christ upon us is something we can never demonstrate decisively nor prove.  The evidence of this claim is in our inward conviction and in our outward behavior.  Again, this is exactly the same for heterosexuals and for LGBTQ persons.

2 comments:

Douglas Underhill said...

The first few here are pretty short - they mostly state what are essentially 'givens' in a Reformed theological context, and talk about how these Reformed theological ideas each support LGBTQ ordination.

Nick Larson said...

Preach it brother!