By Grant Hawley

Introduction

Lady Gaga has a popular anthem for the homosexual community called "Born this Way." The lyrics say,

I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

The idea of the song is to support homosexuality based on the idea that some people were born homosexual. If they were born that way, it's who God made them. Why should they seek to change instead of just leaving nature alone?1

We're All Born This Way

You may feel like it's unfair for God to condemn something that you feel is a part of who you are and is beyond your control. Here's the hard but liberating truth: It doesn't matter if you were born this way or not. Sin is part of human nature, and it has been since Adam took a bite of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In a sense, we were all born this way. Not necessarily homosexual, of course, but we were all born with sin on the inside driving us to do things that aren't pleasing to God. This thing inside us is part of our nature and is bigger and more powerful than we are. But sin is not part of Christ's nature and it isn't bigger or more powerful than He is.

When it comes to people who aren't believers, what they do in their own homes is really their own business as far as I'm concerned. My message to them is, "Jesus loves you. He died for you and rose from the dead so that He could offer you an eternity of happiness and closeness with Him without any strings attached."

And for believers who practice homosexuality or any other sin, I don't condemn you. I love you because God loves you (John 3:16). I want you to be happy in the Lord, to live richly in Him, and to have the sweet fellowship that comes with walking in harmony with Him. There's nothing better in life (Sorry Conan, you're wrong about that one.).

Freedom or Self-Justification?

We don't have to be perfect to have that fellowship, but we do need to confess when we sin if we want restored fellowship. To confess, in Greek, means to say the same. We have to say the same thing that God does about our sin. We can't do that if we are involved in self-justification.

God doesn't condemn parts of who we are because they are immoral. He already did His work of condemnation in the cross of Christ and He condemned our whole lives—the moral and the immoral—when we died with Christ on His cross. When Christ died, the whole world died with Him "if One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor 5:14).

But He has also given us a new life, His own life, which can never and will never be condemned because it is perfect, sinless, beautiful.

We can choose to be defined by how we were born and remain a slave to sin, or we can choose to be defined by how we were born again and experience true freedom.

We can choose to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ and have all the lasting joy that comes with it, or we can choose self-justification and have a short-term boost in confidence.

For us in Christ, we have a choice.

1 People disagree about whether or not homosexuality is genetic. I may address that issue at some time in the future, but not now.