Christopher Yuan is that rare individual who has personally grappled with these issues in the crucible of life. Instead of reinventing theology or engaging in creative interpretation, he lives consistently with biblical beliefs even when it’s personally difficult or unpopular. In that respect, he is God’s gift to us, and I for one am profoundly grateful.

As I shared in my last blog, I deeply appreciate Christopher Yuan’s excellent new book Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.

This blog will be followed by one centered on another amazing and powerful book, Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry. These two books work together to give a remarkable picture of the power of God’s redemptive grace, the clarity of His Word, and His calling to live in sexual purity. I would recommend that every Christ-follower read and take to heart both of them. They are not just for people who have same-sex desires, but for all who seek to understand LGBT issues.

In the last decade there has been increasing confusion among evangelical Christians on the subject of sexual identity. One example is God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships. This book, printed and sold by a Christian publisher, tries to persuade God’s people the homosexual lifestyle is compatible with Scripture and the Christian life.

I first became familiar with Christopher Yuan when he wrote a Christianity Today review of God and the Gay Christian. I found his insights to be profoundly biblical and personal. If you want to hear Vines’s arguments and Yuan’s counter-arguments, I highly recommend reading this book review: Why God and the Gay Christian is Wrong.

Christopher’s chapters in Holy Sexuality and the Gospel on singleness, and the church as spiritual family, are a wakeup call for local churches to rethink our unwitting assumption that marriage is God’s calling for everyone. Scripture emphatically tells us otherwise, and demonstrates it in the singleness of Jesus who was not only God, but also the most well-adjusted human being who ever lived.

In our culture, sexual confusion and immorality is as rampant among people who’ve never had a homosexual temptation as those who have. What’s wrong with us that in some Christian circles it’s considered healthier to say yes to heterosexual lust than to say no to homosexual temptation?

Christopher Yuan is that rare individual who has personally grappled with these issues in the crucible of life. Instead of reinventing theology or engaging in creative interpretation, he lives consistently with biblical beliefs even when it’s personally difficult or unpopular. In that respect, he is God’s gift to us, and I for one am profoundly grateful.

Here’s an excerpt from Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, where Christopher writes about holiness and temptation:

God exhorts us in the Old Testament, and again in the New, “Be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44–45; 1 Peter 1:16). Holiness is the goal, and sanctification is the process.

Unfortunately, many Christians have envisioned an incorrect goal and a faulty process for those of us with same-sex attractions. I’ve explained in this book how everyone’s goal in regard to sexuality should be holy sexuality—chastity in singleness or faithfulness in marriage.

Read More