God’s ‘good purposes for human sexuality’ as revealed in the Bible have been affirmed by prominent Christian leaders from the UK and USA.
Over 150 people, including John Piper, Michael Reeves, Vaughan Roberts and Rosaria Butterfield, have initially signed the document known as the Nashville Statement.
It says that the Bible is clear on marriage and gender and that God’s design for people and their sexuality “bring him the greatest glory and bring us the greatest good”.
Biblical conviction
Beginning with a verse from Psalm 100 that speaks of God as creator, the statement notes that Evangelical Christians “find themselves living in a period of historic transition”.
The general rejection of God’s design has led to a number of “shortsighted alternatives”, it says, asking: “Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age?
“Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life?”
Greatest freedom
As an answer to these questions, the Statement says that God’s good plan for people in the Bible “provides us with the greatest freedom”.
“Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it in overflowing measure. He is for us and not against us.”
It then lays out 14 articles with affirmations and denials on the issues of men and women, sex and salvation.
Included is a desire to “speak the truth in love” and an acknowledgement that eternal life is “available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone”.
Fruitful life
It affirms:
• God has designed marriage to be a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman;
• God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female;
• divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God’s original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing;
• people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life.
And the document denies:
• that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree;
• that the grace of God in Christ is insufficient to forgive all sexual sins and to give power for holiness to every believer who feels drawn into sexual sin.
The Nashville Statement, which is now open for all to sign, is also backed by Wayne Grudem, Christopher Yuan, Kevin DeYoung, Albert Mohler and Alistair Begg.