While we are no longer bound by the law of the Old Testament, God has provided those thirty-nine books “for our learning” and “for our admonition” (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11). There is certainly much for us to learn and many warnings to heed. When those instructions and warnings correspond with clear laws, principles and regulations from the New Testament, it further reinforces God’s emphasis to us of these eternal truths.
As previously studied, God created and sanctioned the male-female relationship on man’s first day of existence. Many years later, God’s wrath rained down on multiple cities as punishment for their wickedness (Gen. 18:16-19:29). Specifically, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them…indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh” (Jude 7, NASB). The ESV calls their activity an “unnatural desire,” for the men of the cities were having sex with other men (see Gen. 19:5), contrary to the natural design of sex created by God in Genesis 1. The very fact that the word “sodomy” exists to this day testifies to the vile nature of the sexual activity in those cities. Now, do not overlook the fact that God chose to destroy, with fire and brimstone, these cities and their inhabitants. This is in the Bible for our admonition. Homosexuality is sinful and punishable in the eyes of God.
The third book of the Bible emphasized how God’s people in the Old Testament could acceptably approach a holy God. The key to having access to the presence of a holy God and being acceptable to a holy God is for man himself to be holy (as defined by God Himself)—“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). In the chapter before that verse and the chapter after that verse are two very explicit statements regarding homosexuality. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination” (Lev. 18:22). “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them” (20:13). An abomination is something that is loathsome or detestable to God. Every Bible reader should underscore these verses.
Some have attempted to discard these passages in Leviticus by suggesting that the “abomination” is also used of certain fish, birds, insects and animals, and therefore (in their minds), it cannot apply today. “Abomination” is also applied to bestiality (Lev. 18:23), idolatry (Deut. 27:15), lying (Prov. 12:22), pride (Prov. 16:5), etc. Shall we also discard these passages and accept these practices? The truth is that when an act that is condemned in the New Testament is delineated as an “abomination” in the Old Testament (Rom. 15:4), that further fortifies the detestable nature of this act to God—both then and now. Homosexuality is an abomination to God!