Author : Keith Sharp
Last month (February 2004) the President responded to the widening fracas over “gay marriages” by proposing a constitutional amendment to ban them. He did not mention specific language for such an amendment but endorsed the 1996 “Defense of Marriage Act,” “which defines marriage for the purposes of federal law as the legal union between a man and a woman.” (“The Christian Science Monitor.” Feb. 25, 2004) No, I’m not leading up to a political message nor am I primarily concerned in this lesson about the sin of homosexuality. Rather, I want us to think how this law marvelously illustrates the nature of authority.
How can it be said that a constitutional amendment will “ban gay marriages” when it doesn’t even mention them? In fact, if the proposed amendment follows the language of the 1996 law, it will not explicitly forbid anything. It will simply define the bounds of legal marriage in the United States. Anything which does not fit this description – a legal union between one man and one woman – is not marriage. Thus, by implication, legally recognized marriage in America will not include a union between two men, between two women, between one man and a plurality of women, etc. The law does not have to tell us everything that is not marriage. By setting the bounds of marriage, every other kind of relationship is excluded from being marriage.
That is the nature of authority. When the one in authority tells what is allowed, everything which contradicts this is implicitly disallowed. Authority is exclusive. It implicitly forbids everything inharmonious with what it explicitly allows.
The Lord Jesus Christ declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18) When the Father raised up Jesus from the dead, He
seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:20-23)
Thus, our obligation is to “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” This includes “whatever” we “do in word or deed.” (Colossians 3:17) To do things in His name is to act by His authority (cf. Acts 4:18). We must have authority from the Lord Jesus Christ for all that we do and say.
Thus, when the Lord defines what he wants in any area, that delineates what we have the divine permission to do in that regard. All that does not harmonize with what the Lord allows is implicitly forbidden.
This principle is also stated negatively. “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” (2 John verse 9). The American Standard Version has the phrase “goeth onward” rather than the term “transgresses.” The “doctrine (teaching – KS) of Christ” certainly includes His nature (verse 7) but also includes all truth that comes through Christ (verse 4). Thus, if we go beyond what the Lord teaches us to do and say, we do “not have God.”
Last week I accepted the invitation of a friend to attend a Bible class at the Holy Covenant Church of God in Watertown. A student asked the teacher if polygamy is sinful. The teacher stated the New Testament didn’t condemn it but sidestepped by asking why a man would want more than one wife. Now I’m sure that’s going to slow down a Mormon fundamentalist in the Utah mountains or a Muslim in the Middle East!
Polygamy is a sin. You see, Jesus defined marriage in the same way the Defense of Marriage Act does, but He went a step further. The Lord declared, “for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Matthew 19:5) Lord, what is marriage? Two people, a man and his wife, become one flesh. That leaves out homosexual unions, polygamy, and any other perversion of marriage. Why? Because the Lord stated what He accepts, and anything contradictory is implicitly forbidden.
I said the Lord went a step further than the federal government. Yes, He also forbade divorce “except for sexual immorality.” (Matthew 19:9) How soon do you think that will make its way into the constitution?
If homosexuals had an ounce of respect for the authority of Christ, they would repent. The Word of Christ explicitly condemns this abomination (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
But how do we know polygamy is a sin? Because the Lord defines marriage as the relationship between one man and one woman. Polygamy is excluded, not because the Scriptures explicitly forbid it, but because it does not harmonize with what Christ allows. To reject the exclusive nature of divine authority is to open the door to polygamy.
But that principle, the exclusive nature of divine authority, is true in every other area of life. We must have authority from the Lord Jesus Christ for all that we say and do in all facets of life. To act without His authority is to sever ourselves from God. What He has not authorized, we dare not do.
