Recategorization of SSA as an untouchable identity fails the biblical and confessional test. This new perverse doctrine of sanctification requires befriending an identity that opposes Christ. Deciding that a particular besetting sin is no longer sinful may temporarily placate one’s emotions. But friendship with the world is enmity with God. And to whatever degree we find affinity with this new SSA identity paradigm, we need confession, not concession. We need repentance, not redefinition. We need authenticity, given by and defined by our Savior.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article was published on the Gospel Reformation Network website prior to the 48th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). It has been revised for publication in this magazine.

Angry and Afraid?

If you have not heard the roar, you have probably been living in a closet. Pleading for understanding, love, and authentic care, many now boldly demand the church to allow Christians to articulate and even celebrate gay identity. The newly emboldened chorus declares, “We are gay Christians. We are same-sex attracted (SSA) Christians. This is who we are. And who are you to question our identity?”

At the same time, it has become increasingly popular, even within self-consciously conservative Presbyterian and Reformed churches, to label those who advocate traditional views of sexuality and sexual identity as an immature and irrelevant subset of the church who relish theological saber-rattling over compassion. Evidently, we sword-wielding traditionalists battle out of fear; because of our lack of Christian compassion, we reject the supposition that SSA is an unchangeable trait and that “SSA” or “gay” provides a suitable label for a Christian. To the SSA identity advocates, we are unloving, emotional manipulators, riveted to fear rather than governed by grace.

Notably, though many Christians who demand freedom to identify as SSA complain of being ostracized, marginalized, and disenfranchised, they have not returned their own swords to their scabbards. Advocates of the new sexuality use their sense of pain as an emotional weapon, and the more sophisticated seek to reposition the warfare onto a social theory frontline rather than a biblical one. The SSA identity warriors jab fiercely and furiously, and many faithful Christians have found themselves pummeled. This theological debate—and note well, it is a theological debate, and those who embrace SSA identity are fighting it—must not be framed around allegedly innocuous contemporary trends or denominational politics, and must not be treated dismissively by progressive culture warriors who describe their opponents as uninformed and unkind fundamentalists. Such a misrepresentation of the concerns expressed by challengers to the SSA identity paradigm is itself unhelpful, unfair, and unloving.

To be fair, some in the church are both angry and afraid. Some may see denominational fights as a badge of honor and a mark of gospel fidelity. Some treat unkindly those who daily battle SSA. But for many (most?) of us who oppose the SSA identity paradigm, we are not angry; we are deeply grieved. We believe God’s Word expressly opposes this new theological position and gloriously delivers the unqualified remedy. In fact, I would contend that most in the church who oppose SSA as an unchanging orientation and an acceptable category of self-identity for Christians do so out of love for Christ, His Word, and His church, along with zeal for Christ’s disciple-making mission. They respond out of fear of God, conviction, and compassion; they humbly contend for biblical and theological reasons.

Many grace-filled brothers and sisters speak openly against the SSA identity paradigm. These humble servants are no ivory-tower theologians, hurling theological darts from afar. They are followers of Christ who are mindful of their own sins and of their constant dependence on the mercy of God. These are leaders whose own family members have exited their closets. These are men who shepherd congregations with people who identify, or have identified, as LGTBQ+. These are men and women who have shared the gospel with LGTBQ+ people, borne witness to their repentance and conversion to faith in Christ, and tearfully rejoiced with the angels. These are transformed saints who have counseled post-operative transgender converts, who are legally united in marriage and face the difficult discipleship decision about how now to honor God.

And despite many opponents’ contention to the contrary, these are grace-filled Christians who do put the gospel first. They rejoice when men and women who are same-sex attracted obey God in their sexual behavior and who find contentment in their celibacy. But they do not stop there, because they know the gospel delivers more. For biblical and theological reasons, they refuse to believe that fallen sexual orientation is immovable and that identity is merely a state of mind. These are believers who trust the power of the gospel to change sinners and who believe God’s Word speaks directly to SSA identity and confirms the power of the Holy Spirit for genuine sanctification.

While all are rattled by the unrelenting blows of the current moral revolution, in their concerns about the SSA identity paradigm, these courageous and compassionate Christian servants are not caving to fear of man; they are reckoning with what it means to fear God and to love their neighbors. By contrast, if you listen long and hard to those making the case for a Christian version of SSA self-identity, you will wait in vain for a cogent biblical and theological defense. Almost without fail, a sentimental and sociological one fills the airspace. Yet these SSA matters need careful, biblical, theological, confessional, pastoral response. Who we are in Christ drives us to the very foundation of our faith. When it comes to sense of identity, what is our final court of appeal?

Authority and Identity 

If you ask a group of evangelical or Reformed Christians to define “guilt,” most will describe a feeling of shame and sense of remorse. “Guilt is that feeling I have when I believe I have done something wrong.” Sounds basic, doesn’t it? Yes, but only to those who have imbibed the cultural waters of theology as primarily a matter of self-expression, a Schleiermachian-friendly paradigm where the interpretive framework for theology draws foremost upon the sensibilities of the human psyche. This is not your father’s guilt. And it certainly is not the way your heavenly Father defines it.

According to almighty God, guilt and feelings of guilt are not the same thing. In fact, guilt is not a feeling. God defines righteousness. God defines sin. God defines guilt. And to our point here, guilt is a fact—a divinely disclosed one based upon the explicit mandates of God’s Law. If you murder someone, you are guilty whether you feel badly or not. If you speak the truth in love to someone according to the need of the moment, you are not guilty whether or not you or your hearer feel badly.

Our “massively sentimental age,” as Brian Mattson has put it, has compromised our collective ability to navigate the gap between what is and what we perceive, what is true and what we feel. The hellish hegemony of the almighty self has poisoned the air we breathe, and sadly, the theological framework we now inhale and exhale. We should find little shock that this contaminated air has swept into our confessional churches.

It is time we breathe in God’s authoritative, life-giving Word afresh. According to Holy Scripture, God created you and me. He defines us. He interprets our status and identity. And His language matters. Though the cultural waters in which we swim seem to make our sense of things the ultimate determiner of reality, it is not so. What is so is what God declares, no matter what we think or feel.

Scripture gives lucid explanation concerning who we were in Adam and who we are now in Christ. The Bible makes identity binary: we are either identified by and with the first Adam or identified by and with the Last Adam. As covenant heads, they and their respective characters and conduct demarcate our identities.

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