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Homosexuality, Marriage, and the Church
WHAT IS AT STAKE— DOCTRINALLY?
Let us look now at some the doctrines of Scripture that are at
stake in this debate over homosexual behavior.
THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION, PARTICULARLY THE
DOCTRINE OF HUMANITY AS THE
IMAGO DEI
In Genesis 1:26-27 “the high point and goal has been reached to
ward which all of God’s creativity from v. 1 on was directed.”6Here
in lofty grandeur is portrayed the creation of humankind (
haadam
) as
the image of God:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according
to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all
the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps upon the earth .” So God created humankind in his own
image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he
created them. (Gen. 1 :26 -27 ,
n r s v )
The sexual distinction between male and female is fundamental to
what it means to be human. To be human is to live as a sexual person.
Humankind-in-fellowship as male and female is fundamental to what
it means to be in the image of God.7As Karl Barth expresses it, “We
cannot say man [humankind] without having to say male or female
and also male and female. Man [humankind] exists in this differentia
tion, in this duality.”8The
mode
of human existence in the divine im
age is that of male and female together. In Genesis 1 “heterosexuality
is at once proclaimed to be the order of creation.”9
Certainly homosexual practice strikes at the very roots of God’s Cre
ation order for humans made in His image. The rationale of the prohi
bitions in Leviticus 18 and 20—including homosexual behavior—rests
upon the foundational principles of Creation order in Genesis 1:27-28:
the creation of all humanity in the image of God as “male and female,”
unique and distinct from the rest of God’s creation, and the command to
“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” “These principles describe
the order and structure of humanity in two relationships: to (iod and to