Genetic Testing and Family Planning

A video on genetic testing.

Listen carefully to what Devin's mother says.  Had she known she were a carrier for Fragile X Syndrome, she would have had her eggs fertilized outside of her womb, tested, and implanted only healthy eggs.  This son whom she obviously loves and adores would not have been born.  She would rather have his just forming life destroyed than let him be born with a disability.

This is what we are doing with the gift of genetic testing?  Reverting to eugenics- from which the science of genetics evolved?  What kind of people can reason like this?

Oh, that's right.  All of us.

The human heart is deceitful and desperately sick.  (Jeremiah 17:9)  We live in sin and obey the devil, the one at work in the sons of disobedience.  We've all lived that way, following the inclinations of our sinful nature.  By our very nature, we are subject to God's wrath.  (Ephesians 2:1-3)

God says to take tender care of the weak.  (1 Thessalonias 5:14)  He commands we learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, and plead the widow's cause. (Isaiah 1:17)

But we don't do it, and so God's justice demands consequences.  The wages of sin is death.  (Romans 6:23)  But, God in His great mercy, sent His Son as a propitiation, to absorb the wrath of God and to suffer our consequences.  The good news is that, God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinning Christ died for us.  And now all who repent and believe in Christ and his work on the cross will be saved.  (Romans 3:21-26, Mark 1:15)

We're then given a new nature.  No longer children of wrath, we are children of God.  (Romans 8:15, Titus 3:7), heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), given His righteousness (1 Corinthinas 1:30).  And, now, we're told to renew our minds (Ephesians 2:23).

So, we don't reason like Devin's mom anymore.  With our renewed minds, we know that as God knit Devin in his mother's womb, Devin's form was not hidden from God.  God knew Devin had Fragile X Syndrome.  And, yet, Devin was fearfully and wonderfully made, a wonderful work.  How precious are God's thoughts toward Devin!  And Devin's mother.  (Psalm 139:13-16)

And also with our renewed minds, as we now seek God and His ways, we do as He commands.  We stand up for the weak, needy, poor, oppressed, and the very, very tiny.  We love justice.  We show the hope of God to Devin's mom and to Devin.

We don't let murder in the name of genetic testing just happen.  We do something about it.  

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.  (Proverbs 14:12)

Why Can't a Person in a Committed Homosexual Relationship Wholeheartedly Follow Christ?

From the blog post of Tony Jones.

If you are one who thinks that homosexual sex is sinful, can you please explain to me WHY a gay or lesbian person who is in a long-term, monogamous relationship would not be able to wholeheartedly follow Christ?

My only stipulation is this: You may not quote one of the six verses in scripture that mentions homosexuality.  Instead, you must use theological and/or philosophical arguments to attempt to convince me that when you have genital contact with someone of your own gender, it somehow inhibits your relationship with Christ.

Yes, Mr. Jones, I have an answer for you.  Why can't a person in a committed homosexual relationship wholeheartedly follow Christ?  Because no one can wholeheartedly follow Christ!  No one seeks God.  (Romans 3:10-12)

Wholeheartedly following Christ (obeying God, loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength) is a law.  The Law of God demands perfection.  But, instead, all have sinned- we are all under it (Romans 3:23, Romans 3:9).  We are  children of wrath by nature (Ephesians 2:1-3) and enemies of God (Colossians 1:21). We are sons of Adam, born in sin, and sinful from conception (Romans 5:12-13, Psalm 51:5).  

Mr. Jones, have you wholeheartedly followed Christ all your life?  Do you obey the Law- always?  Again, the Law demands perfection.  And we can't do it.  So, therein enters the cross.

Jesus didn't come to teach us new laws or even how to follow the already established one.  He didn't come to teach us a 'better way to live' (which is a law).  He came to fulfill the Law.  (Matthew 5:17)  Sent by His Father (John 8:42), Jesus came to call sinners (Matthew 9:12-13), 'that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind' (John 9:39), and to die for them (John 12:23-29).  

In doing so, Jesus doesn't abolish the Law (Matthew 5:17), but He sets us free from the yolk of the Law (We are no longer slaves to it.)  (Galatians 4- Galatians 5:1)  

What does this mean?  For mankind, who has had the Law of God written on our hearts (Romans 2:14-16), we are invited to enter the rest that Jesus Christ provides from the pain and conflict of striving through works (such as wholeheartedly following Christ) (Matthew 25:30, Hebrew 4:10).  

How do we enter that rest?  

Well, the Law demands perfection, and it demands justice when it is not obeyed.  However, for His name's sake, for His glory John 12:28), and for His love of the world (John 3:16) God sent His One and Only Son to meet that demand for justice.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although, the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.  This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who had faith in Jesus.  (Romans 3:21-26)

We enter into that rest through faith- faith in Christ and His atoning work on the Cross.  For even Abraham, his righteousness was a result of faith.  (Galatians 3:5-9)  "A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law,because by works of the law no one will be justified."  Galatians 2:16 (emphasis mine)  We are no longer imprisoned to sin, but are justified by faith in Christ.  (Galatians 3:23-26)

And, now, I would point out, Mr. Jones, that you have asked two distinct questions.  You asked why can one living in a committed homosexual relationship would not be able to wholeheartedly follow Christ.  The answer would be because no one can do that.  No one can follow the law.

And you ask for thoughts on why practicing homosexuality inhibits one's relationship with Christ.  Yet, you ask me not to use the Scriptures that reference homosexuality, only philosophical and theological arguments.  

When one understands that one's relationship with Christ is dependent on Christ and His work on the Cross, not on our work of wholeheartedly following Him, we understand that through faith in Him, the Spirit is given to us, and through the Spirit, we are given santicfication.  "...Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?... Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"  (Galatians 3:2-3)  If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law, yet when we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of our flesh.  (Galatians 5:16-18)

If you remember, while Jesus has fulfilled and freed us from the Yolk of the Law, He has not abolished it.  He has set, clearly, His desire and commands for our sexuality.  When Scripture is read in context, we see clearly in Genesis 1 and 3 that man and woman are created in the image of God and together reflect that image.  We also see that it is not good for man to be alone, so God gives Him woman.  We see that the people that God loves, Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament, are represented as a feminine Bride that our masculine Bridegroom pursues, changes (calls to repentance), saves, and loves like a jealous lover.

That being said, I cannot completely respect your stipulation to ignore Scripture pertaining to homosexuality.  For the Bible must be read in whole and in context.  (It's interesting that you imply that a committed homosexual relationship would be more acceptable- more Biblical?- than homosexual promiscuity.  Is that assumption part of Scriptural references to sexuality taken out of context?)  As it says in 2 Timothy 3:15-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."  

Homosexuality inhibits one's relationship with Christ because it is sin.  (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:9-11, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:18-27).   "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."  1 John 1:6- 10

And, yes, my answer ultimately is- because the Bible says so.  

Oh, but there's good news!  Christ died even for the sin of homosexuality.  The Spirit makes us new!  (1 Corinthians 6:11)  We still struggle with our sin, as we will until we die.  But forgiveness is promised for those who put their trust in Christ and there is hope in the change that comes from sanctification through the Spirit.