Pride Month & the Lost 2nd Use of the Law
As the culture celebrates that which should be suppressed, and kids are encouraged to explore hints of desires that were once easily corrected through both social stigma and proper understanding of desire as it relates to sexuality, we can expect more people to identify as other than “straight”+ their biological gender. In the end, it’s a disordering of the order of creation, a destruction of society, and an attempt to dethrone God.
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
—Romans 1:32
“George, what are you afraid of if Gay Marriage is legalized? Its not like people will become gay. People don’t choose to be gay.” That was an oft-repeated point in the time leading up to the Obergefell decision. In the years since, we have seen homosexuality go from merely tolerated to Gay Marriage being legalized, corporations tripping over themselves to cash-in, school books celebrating it and kids encouraged to explore it, dragshows for children, and now the Presidential Declaration that June is Pride month.
In the midst of all of this, I have heard repeated concerns from parents with stories of gender and sexual confusion running rampant in their children’s middle schools. One friend in North Carolina told me that in the public school where his daughter goes that 50% of the girls identify as other than straight-female. A friend in Florida laments how all the middle school girls have girlfriends. One man in a Christian Facebook group asked for prayer because his daughter who is struggling to make friends came home and told him that she is bisexual because a popular girl in her class came up and spoke to her and she became flush. Naturally, this to her meant she must be gay, because that’s what she’s hearing in school. It can’t be that she was just glad to be noticed.
Are these stories just anecdotal? Or is something going on? And why is this phenomenon heavily weighted toward adolescent girls? Abigail Shrier, who is not a Christian, explored an aspect of this in her 2020 book entitled Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze that is Seducing Our Daughters. Her observations are heartbreaking, the statistics are telling, and what is happening is nothing short of child abuse.
And while 50% may be difficult to believe, the statistics do bear out a huge increase in youth identifying as something other than heterosexual + their biological gender. In reporting on this phenomenon, US News cited a study showing that 17.8% of girls between ages 15-17 identify as other than heterosexual. Nearly 18%! This compared to a much lower 6% for boys. When both genders are taken together, that is an overall 41% increase in just 5 years! A Christianity Today piece cites a recent Barna Study that shows that “Teenagers in Gen Z are at least TWICE as likely as American adults to identify as LGBT.” That’s a 100% increase between current teenagers and adults.
It is common for social scientists to explain this phenomenon in this way:
…we cannot be certain if this represents a true increase of this magnitude, or if it reflects at least in part, greater comfort by teens with acknowledging a non-heterosexual identity on an anonymous questionnaire…
—Dr. Andrew Adesman
It is reasonable that this explains some of the increase, but 41% over 5 years, and 100% increase over adults? Not likely.
What’s this have to do with the Moral Law?
This is where Calvin’s Institutes, Book II helps us out. Calvin explains that while Christians are saved by Grace through faith there is still validity to the Moral Law of God. In that, he gives his “3 uses of the law”:
- It is a Mirror – It shows us that we don’t live up to God’s standard.
- It Restrains Evil in Society – Civil Law is modeled after the moral law.
- It shows us what is pleasing to God and encourages us to walk in that manner by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
While there has been much controversy over the 3rd use of the Law being abandoned among Christians, we are seeing the same happen with the 2nd use of the Law. This has even occurred among Christians who have bought into the lie that gay marriage should be allowed because we aren’t a Christian nation. We are supposed to after-all have a separation between the Church and State, so the argument goes.
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How Do I “Count it All Joy”?
Take cheer, troubled one—the Lord’s work is not done. The same Lord that used the cross for the redemption of the world is at work in your trials for His greater purposes. In this, we can have joy.
Like the inhospitable cold corridors of the emergency hallways we entered, so were the years of trials and tribulations my family endured. Life-altering pain, weekly doctor’s visits, IVs, and deeply weary souls underneath it all consumed the last five years of our life. Like a thief who comes to steal, it has physically, emotionally, and spiritually robbed us, leaving us depleted, weary, and wondering if we would survive. Joy has been rarely perceptible through our enduring loss. However, the seeds of a greater work, and yes, even of a greater delight have begun to sprout and flourish as we peer under the surface of what God is doing. A work that God is doing not only in us but in all who endure trials.
Joy does not arise naturally from us as we suffer the effects of the fall of this life. Why would James exhort the readers of his epistle to “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2)? His words seem to be jarring initially, especially at the beginning of a letter to exiles who have been dispersed from their homes. We would expect words that seem more sympathetic, perhaps, intermingled with pity and compassion. The brother of our Lord, however, gets straight to the point and exhorts the opposite expression of natural emotion—joy amid trial. These seemingly cold words of James are actually filled with warm gospel truth and hope as they point the troubled soul to the root from which the true healing balm comes.
Our hearts often pleaded for God to remove our burden as it felt all-consuming and far too weighty to bear, and yet in those moments we found deeper appreciation for the sufferings of our Lord. Jesus’ need to withdraw to a solitary place in the garden of Gethsemane and plead in sorrowful anguish to have this cup removed, yet He surrendered to the will of the Father. As He hung on the cross, with His earthly life excruciatingly draining away, He recognized and even delighted in a work greater than the pain. The salvation of the world was taking place through the anguish of His soul (Isa. 53:11); redemption through His suffering and His shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). If God used the worst suffering for the greatest good, then surely He can and does use our suffering for good as a part of His greater redemptive work.
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The Truths of Which We Now Sing (1 Tim 3:16)
Written by R. Fowler White |
Sunday, December 18, 2022
We sing because we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners. We sing because we have received and are resting upon Christ alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel. Don’t sneer at us who sing. Join us in our confession and sing with us the truths that express the great mystery of godliness, once hidden now revealed in Christ: Christ manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.The Apostle Paul wrote in First Timothy 3:16 (NASB95): By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
As we have entered another season of celebrating the incarnation of God the Son, we sing of that great mystery of godliness that, as expressed in the phrases of 1 Tim 3:16, has now been revealed in Christ. So let’s be clear: by mystery we don’t mean something esoteric or cryptic, but rather truth made known only by divine revelation. About this particular mystery there is said to be common consent in God’s confessing church. It is a mystery summarized here in six lyrical phrases from what was most probably an early Christian hymn, sung in three stanzas of two lines each. Let’s consider the truth revealed in each line.
We sing of the incarnation of Christ: He who was manifested in the flesh. According to the Apostle Paul, our song begins with the fact that that Child in the feeding trough was the pre-existent Son of the Father, God of God, God with God, who has permanently taken to Himself human nature, having become forever thereafter one Person with two natures, divine and human. Miraculously conceived and preserved from sin’s defilement by the Holy Spirit, His birth began His suffering. That suffering became hostility and insult; then betrayal, abandonment, scorn, rejection, condemnation; then torment, facing the terrors of death, feeling and bearing the weight of God’s wrath as a sacrifice for sin, enduring painful, shameful, cursed crucifixion. His death brought an end to the earthly phase of His manifestation in the flesh. Of His incarnation we sing in our song, because with it the historical accomplishment of our redemption began. But there is more to our song.
We sing of the vindication of Christ: He was vindicated [justified] by the Spirit. When He was manifested in the flesh, the Son became the servant who submitted Himself to God’s law and conquered Satan, sin, and death. He became the one Man whom God has justified by His works. Made alive by the Spirit, everything Jesus said and did was certified as faithful and true. We sing, then, of Christ vindicated, the only immortal and now glorified Man.
We sing of the appearances of Christ: He was seen by angels.
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Remember Who Overturned Roe
Roe v. Wade has been overturned. The Lord has answered our prayers. He has established the work of our hands and brought forth fruit from our labors. And now we can declare with the psalmist that “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!” (Ps. 126:5). Tomorrow there will still be work to do. But today let us proclaim that the Lord has done great things for us. And let us be glad.
Roe v. Wade has been overturned. We’ve waited decades to see those words in print. When something so monumental and so long sought after comes to fruition, it can be hard to make sense of. We know the facts—the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs case overturned Roe. But how are we to understand what brought us to this moment? And what should we do now?
As I’ve tried to begin answering those questions, the words of Psalm 126 come to mind. It’s a psalm of celebration, briefly reflecting on a time “when the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion” by delivering his people from captivity (v. 1), and it offers us a guide as we celebrate another deliverance of sorts.
Tell a Better Story
The psalmist writes that God’s people “were like those who dream” (v. 1). We, too, may find our situation surreal. We may have spent years hoping for Roe‘s reversal and yet find ourselves unable to grasp the fact that it has happened. We need to take time to let it sink in that the dream has become a reality. Then, let us be like the Israelites, our mouths “filled with laughter” and our tongues with “shouts of joy” (Ps. 126:2). This is a moment to celebrate! Remember the prayers you’ve prayed, the hours spent volunteering, the letters written to elected officials. Remember the brothers and sisters in Christ you’ve labored alongside. Pause and take time to experience the joy of what has happened today.
As you do, a story will likely begin to take shape in your mind. When we try to make sense of historic moments, our minds tend to arrange the facts we know into a narrative that helps us understand.
Some of us will tell the story of Roe being overturned as a story of nine justices and how they voted. Some will tell a story of giving a voice to the voiceless and defending the powerless. Some will tell a story of political strategy and the evangelical vote. Some will tell a story of good triumphing over evil, the righting of a wrong. Some will tell the story of a goal accomplished and the dawning of a new era. All of these stories help us understand aspects of what has happened. But let’s not miss the truth that, ultimately, the story of Roe v. Wade being overturned is a story about God.
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