The righteous will live by their faith

I want to get into a topic that is very different from what we normally deal with in these programs, but I think it has great importance for the time we are living not only here in the United States but also in the rest of our countries in Latin America and in Europe it's the same too.

It is about the issue of homosexuality and homosexual marriage or as civil unions are also called here and I think it is a subject that although it is a bit unpleasant and one would prefer to dedicate oneself to more issues of edification and spiritual growth and growth in our knowledge of the Will of God for our daily life, however, I believe that it is an issue that we have to deal with because of the urgency with which we are living this issue right now in our society.

And that is why I have chosen a passage that is found in Romans chapter 1 where it is precisely on this subject. And we can ask ourselves at first what is the biblical position, what is the position of the Scriptures regarding the issue of homosexuality and by extension homosexual marriage? What does the Word of the Lord tell us? And there is no clearer passage in all of Scripture than this passage that I want to read with you and from which I am going to start in this meditation.

The apostle Paul says in verse 18 of chapter 1 of Romans: "Because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the wickedness and injustice of men who hold the truth with injustice, because what is known about God is manifest to them because God manifested it to him. Because the invisible things of Him, His eternal Power and His deity become clearly visible from the creation of the world being understood through the things made in such a way that they have no excuse, because having known God does not They glorified as God nor gave thanks to him, but were puffed up in their reasonings and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man, birds, quadrupeds and reptiles . "

"For this reason also God" says here "gave them over to filthiness in the lust of their hearts in such a way that they dishonored each other their own bodies since they exchanged the Truth of God for a lie, honoring and worshiping creatures rather than the Creator who is blessed forever and ever, amen. "

I do not want to spend too much time in this segment of our study, in the total reading of the passage because it would take us a long time but I want to begin our reflection by looking at the reasoning of the apostle Paul and the line that he follows to reach the final conclusion that the behavior Homosexual whether on the part of men or women is totally abhorrent and contrary to the Will of the Lord.

But before that it is illuminating how the apostle Paul follows a form of theological reasoning that leads him to that final conclusion. Before he begins with the passage that we have read in verse 18 he says something very important in verse 16 and 17, he says: "Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew. first and also to the Greek, because in the Gospel "the apostle Paul says" the justice of God is revealed by faith and by faith "some translations say" from faith to faith "," by faith and for faith as it is written but the righteous by faith he will live. " Starting from there is where he says then that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, etc.

So what we see here is that: Paul is saying first, the Gospel shows us the justice of God revealing himself to man through faith. In other words, this reminds us of something that the apostle Paul says in another passage and that is that salvation is by faith and not by works. In the Gospel Paul says, the justice of God through the faith in which he believes is revealed in grace, mercy, forgiveness, salvation but when there is no faith, when there is rebellion, when there is resistance to the Word of God then what is The revelation of God is anger and then from there we see that Paul begins his meditation by talking about the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against men, etc.

In other words, there are two ways one can relate to God, be it from faith to faith that is to say by living a life of faith, by believing in the Word of God, believing in the principles of the Gospel, believing what God says about His Son Jesus Christ as Savior of the world and in that case the Gospel is revealed as a means of grace and salvation for the human being who receives it obediently, and if this is not done then the Gospel what it reveals is anger, condemnation, justice naked where there is no justification for man except the wrath of God because man is resisting the plan that God has developed to bring about the salvation of mankind as He has done through Jesus Christ.

Starting from that recognition, from those two options that human beings have, right? be it resistance which brings anger or faith in the Word of God which brings salvation and grace, this determines the destiny of every human being. Then we will see how this plays out more specifically later. In our next segment we will continue this meditation, God bless you.