Transformed – teen devotion – June 16, 2019
Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
John 3:3
Born this Way
“I was born this way. I was born gay.” Did you know there is a way to understand that to be true? That’s because people are born sinful, and none of us were born any differently. This is what David confessed about himself when he said, “Surely I was born sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). The apostle Paul helps us understand more clearly how devastating the effects of sin are on all of us. In Romans 7:18a, Paul shares that sin corrupts us absolutely: “I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”
This means all people have the capacity to be any kind of sinner. We all have the same capacity to be liars and thieves as being gay. At the same time, we each have our different sins and gravitate toward particular perversities for various reasons. If it helps, think of all sin in your heart as either asleep, waking, or active and dominating your life. Usually when people say they are born gay, they are confessing that homosexuality is active in their life.
Although saying, “I was born this way” is biblically true, sin is not okay with God. That is also biblically true. Jesus points out in our passage from John 3:3 that the whole reason he came as our Savior from sin is because we weren’t born right with God. When Jesus tells us that a person must be born again, that means there’s something wrong with our first birth.
Thanks be to Jesus that he came to give us second birth, and you have been given second birth through faith in the waters of baptism. Keep holding on to your second birth! It is your forgiveness in Christ. Keep pointing others imprisoned by their first birth to the freedom of being born again.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are all born sinful. Help us to remember that you give second birth through your Spirit. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us baptism where we are born again. Help us to live holy lives, born anew. Amen.
This devotion is part three of five devotions on the topic of LGBTQ. Be sure to come back for more insight from God’s Word on how to address this issue.
