Marriage, Sexuality, & Leviathan

Introduction

Francis Schaeffer began his classic work, A Christian Manifesto, published almost forty years ago now, with the following words…that I believe apply just as much today, if not more so, than they did when they were written.

“The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals. They have very gradually become disturbed over permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion. But they have not seen this as a totality – each thing being a part, a symptom, of a much larger problem. They have failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in world view – that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole.” Francis Schaeffer

Put these words in a blender with the incessant pietism in the church that fails to see the Lordship of Christ over, not just, one’s life but the totality of the cosmos. Add to that, a nice large helping of the growing statism of our cultural milieu and you get clown world.

So, if our problem is seeing things in bits and pieces and not in wholes in regard to society and in regard to the government…the question they arises, what are the pieces and what are the wholes? Schaeffer points out some the pieces: permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion…then, rightly concludes that these are symptoms of a much larger problem. The much larger problem being that of a cultural shift in world views.

The point being, that we are treating symptoms and not the cause, and because we are treating symptoms and not the cause we are stuck in a perpetual state of reoccurring symptoms…or perhaps, if you will allow me to use a more popular term today – Variants. What this means for the people of God is that we are puzzled and troubled by the never-ending game of wack-a-mole that we can’t get out of.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the desecration and defilement of marriage which would be a symptom of the much greater cause of the idolatry of statism.

What’s Really Going On?

On Jan. 7 th 2022, Bill C-4 was passed into Canadian Law by unanimous vote…This is, the now famous bill that outlawed “conversion therapy” in Canada. The Bill made it illegal to cause another person to undergo conversion therapy…made it illegal to remove a child from Canada to undergo conversion therapy abroad…made the promotion or advertising of conversion therapy illegal, and also made it illegal to receive any type of material benefit from the provision of conversion therapy.

How does the Bill define “conversion therapy”? Glad you asked,

“conversion therapy, which is defined as a practice, treatment or service designed to: change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; repress or reduce non- heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour; repress a person’s non-cisgender identity; or repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.”

This Bill also made it illegal to professionally assert that,

“a particular sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression is to be preferred over another.”

However, the Bill goes on to assuage our consciences, saying,

“It would not criminalize conversations in which a person expresses an opinion”

The purpose of the Bill is described in the Bill itself in the following way,

“The Bill would promote the aims and values of the Charter’s equality rights. Equality entails the promotion of a society in which all are secure in the knowledge that they are recognized at law as equally deserving of concern, respect, and consideration. The Bill would discourage and denounce harmful practices and treatments that are based on myths and stereotypes about LGBTQ2 people. These include myths and stereotypes that the sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of LGBTQ2 people are undesirable conditions that can or should be changed.”

As, should be apparent to everyone, we can see clearly through the language of Bill, it’s not a matter of whether but which. That is, it is not a matter of whether you are going to worship, but rather a matter of which God you are going to worship. It is not a matter of whether sexuality and the proper expression thereof is going to be defined for us, but rather a matter of Who has the authority to do said defining.

In his book, Making Gay Okay, Robert Reilly observes,

“Misnaming things necessarily leads to moral and political disorder...What is arbitrary is by definition tyrannical.”

This is because what is arbitrary is by definition antichrist. This is certainly true regarding human sexuality and marriage, and yes, the two are inextricably and unavoidably connected, in their nature and character.

Therefore, the source from which all streams flow, or rather, the cause from which all symptoms stem, is that of authority…Namely, who has it. Who has the authority (and therefore, ability) to define what marriage is, what a man and what a woman are and what is the proper use and context of human sexual expression?

Bill C-4 is a wonderful test case because of what it unabashedly and unapologetically lays out for us…That is, it is the sovereign state that has ultimate authority…and anything that differs from the states definition of marriage and sexuality is based on “myths and stereotypes”

It’s important to point out that long before Bill C-4 was unanimously passed in Canada, same-sex mirage had been the law of the land for some time…since 2004. You may say, “Yes, but that’s Canada” …which of course would be true, but that doesn’t really say anything other than to state the obvious. And if the assumption is, “that would never happen here” I would argue that it already has, which is evident in the passing of Prop 3 in Michigan and with the “Respect for Marriage Act” becoming Federal law. “It would never happen here” principally doesn’t hold any weight when you’re already there in principle, but you’re just a few years behind.

Sphere Sovereignty

It is no coincidence that the centralization of Government and the growth of Levithan have corresponded to the sexual revolution and destruction of family…all of which are connected because which have the same causal root – idolatry and godlessness.

To be brief: God has created the world in such a way that there are spheres/jurisdictions of authority, and we have a responsibility to obey the law/word of God within those

spheres…There is self-governance…the sign of which is the conscience which convicts us towards obedience.

There is family governance…the sign of which is the rod of discipline which is to convict us towards obedience. There is church governance…the sign of which is the keys of the kingdom of heaven which is to convict us towards obedience. And you have state governance…the sign of which is the sword which is to administer justice and is to convict us towards obedience.

The whole point of the oft-misunderstand Romans 13 passage is to put proper parameters around the civil sphere…that is, the civil magistrate has legitimate authority but it is bound by God and is to be administered according to the law of God, for God’s glory. Therefore, the state simply acknowledges and enforces the law, it does not create it because it is not the ultimate sovereign.

All of these spheres are meant to function together under the authority of God’s law which is absolute…when God is denied his glory, these spheres will compete for supremacy. If you exalt self apart from Christ you get libertarianism…If you exalt the family apart from Christ you get tribalism… If you exalt the church apart from Christ you get Roman Catholicism… If you exalt the state apart from Christ you get socialism, progressivism, communism…that is, Statism.

In order for the state to gain supremacy, it has to remove the others as a real threat…It has to co-opt their legitimate authority. As Marx said,

“The key to the holy family is the earthly family. To get rid of the former, the later must be destroyed in theory and in practice.”

For Marx, the ultimate target was the church, but how do you destroy the church? You first have to destroy the family. How do you destroy the family? You have to destroy it in theory and practice…remove the covenantal bond through the redefinition of marriage, while at the same time, making Biblical sexual norms derogatory, and all other forms of sexual perversion normative. As C. S. Lewis said,

“There are people who want to keep our sex instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us. Because, or course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance.”

I would just add, this principle applies not only to commerce but also to governance. This is why the sexual revolution is directly connected to the Marxist revolution, which on the surface, seems counter-intuitive…that is, how can you have libertinism coupled with centralization.

But these two feed off of each other like Lizzo at a Panda Buffet, or a fly on a turd…that is, the promotion of sexual license not only pacifies a people it also punishes the righteous making resistance harder, but all of this begins with rebellion against Biblical norms…which the godless state needs to promote its own agenda…which, if nothing else, certainly doesn’t include worshipping Christ as King.

Marriage And the Gospel

There may be those in the church, who, upon hearing what I just expressed, would say, “sure, but what does that have to do with the gospel?...Shouldn’t we be about the gospel and not about solving al the worlds problems?” To which, we may respond, “It’s the gospel that solves all the worlds problems.”

Not only that, but marriage is a gospel issue. Paul says in Ephesians 5:25-33,

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” If marriage is a gospel issue, which it clearly is, as defined by Paul,

“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

His church, that is, those whom He loved and gave Himself up for. This also means that human sexual identity (as biological male and female), as expressed in the covenant of marriage (one male and one female for life) is also a gospel issue.

There may also be those who will say something along the lines of, “So what?”…“If the state chooses to acknowledge same-sex mirage or they want to bless “transition surgery” and/or outlaw conversion therapy…what does that matter to you? Or, How does that affect your marriage?

If nothing else, Bill C-4 clearly shows that laws are not isolated things…and that the state has assumed authority, not just over one’s children and in one’s church, but also over one’s conscience as far as what can be professed as true or false.

But it’s also important that we see that this isn’t just Bill C-4, all law is pedagogical. That is, all law is instructive…it tells us what ought to be…and it is universal over its jurisdiction, in that, a law equally applies to all. For example, if the definition of marriage is changed to accommodate some, it is changed for all…that is, the new definition of marriage also applies to yours as well before the state.

The people of God should also care deeply about this issue, not only in that it’s a gospel issue, but it is also a reception of the gospel issue.

“False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resisting force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.” J. Gresham Machen

Conclusion

We began with bits and pieces and symptoms and playing wack-a-mole and such. The fact of the matter is that there are laws and policies that not only need to be changed but publicly repented of because they are abhorrent before the Lord and because they are hinderance to the advance of the gospel.

If this were to happen today we would rejoice and be exceedingly glad and praise

God…However, we must understand and be thoroughly convinced in our hearts and minds that all of the things for which we are disturbed are symptoms of a much greater problem…and that is the problem of a fallen heart that desires such things.

The good news is, that the Lordship of Jesus is total and all encompassing…it cuts all the way down and all the way through…When one repents and believes in Jesus, He begins a good work in you that works all the way through and all the way out. Which means, there isn’t a square inch of the universe that Christ is not sovereign over.

If the problem is with bits and pieces the solution is with an absolute Christ who shines the radiance of His glory over all of life…which not only enables us to bring everything under that light but gives us the desire to do so. Does this include our laws? It especially includes our laws. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.