Dead in trespasses and sins, the sons of disobedience needed new life—complete with a new heart, a restored will, and a new identity. And that is exactly what we receive in the resurrected Christ. Scripture and Scripture’s Christ do not offer a reparative therapy program; they deliver cosmically-critical, sin-forgiving, freedom-rendering, past-crushing, and utterly-transforming new life and new identity in Christ.

Starting with the title itself, there is much to like about the Rev. Dr. Greg Johnson’s book, The World According to God (InterVarsity, 2002). Now, nearly 20 years later, Johnson, the lead pastor at Memorial Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, is ready to rip portions of it out. Why? Because, as he put it in the recent Theology in the Raw podcast (#876) with host Dr. Preston Sprinkle, “There is something about sexual orientation that is deeply rooted, especially with men.”

That fact has led Johnson now to view the world differently. In particular, the last two decades have convinced him that he misunderstood same-sex attraction (SSA). His research reinforces his nearly 50-year personal experience: sexual orientation really does not change, and for him in particular, has “not shifted a millimeter.” Something had to change, and for Johnson, it is his theological orientation.

The frank podcast interview between Drs. Sprinkle and Johnson exposes Johnson’s changed theological paradigm. Though it carries a pervasive condescending tone—and with moments of laughter belittles those who do not share the understanding of the guest and his host—the podcast provides the gift of clarity to us: Johnson’s crystallized paradigm along with his expectation of our warm embrace of it.

As such, the podcast demands a response, even this brief one—especially as we approach the 48^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America.

Angry and Afraid?

Johnson characterizes those who oppose his views as an immature and likely small subset of the church (the PCA) who celebrate theological sword-rattling as their reason for existence. Johnson describes his earlier years in the faith as “cage-stage Calvinism,” where he too formerly raged with fury for the Reformed truth. He further concludes that those who take umbrage with his freedom to identify as a gay man, who refuse to concede that same-sex attraction is an unchangeable trait, and/or do not view SSA as an acceptable identification for a Christian do so out of fear and a failure to love their SSA brothers (or sisters). Johnson says,

What I’m trying to get us back to is that older narrative, not a paradigm of curing homosexuality but a paradigm of care—of actually loving our siblings who aren’t straight. Whatever terminology they use, and a big part of loving is not beating them up over what terminology they use. If they want to say they’re same-sex attracted, that’s fine, that doesn’t mean they’re supporting conversion therapy. If they want to say gay, that’s fine, that doesn’t mean they have a different sexual ethic. Stop manipulating people emotionally like this because they need love, they need community, they need the brotherhood.

If I am not mistaken, Johnson is talking about brothers like me who disagree with him. He sees us as unloving, emotional manipulators, riveted to fear rather than tethered to grace. Yet it is not evident that Johnson has himself departed the cage stage. This theological debate—and note well, it is a theological debate and Johnson is fighting it—must not be defined by cultural trends or “denominational politics,” and must not be treated dismissively by progressive culture warriors who view their opponents as uninformed and unkind fundamentalists. Such a misrepresentation of the concerns expressed by Johnson’s opponents is itself unhelpful, unfair, and unloving.

To be fair, some in the PCA are likely both angry and afraid. Some may see denominational fights as a badge of honor and a mark of gospel fidelity. But for many (most?) of us who oppose the Johnson SSA paradigm, we are not angry; we are deeply grieved. We believe God’s Word opposes Johnson’s SSA new theological position. In fact, I would contend that most in the PCA who oppose SSA as an unchanging orientation and an acceptable category of self-identification for Christians or pastors 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 have spoken recently against Johnson’s SSA paradigm. These men are no ivory-tower theologians, who hurl their theological darts from afar. These are men mindful of their own sins and of their constant dependence on the mercy of God. These are men 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 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 men 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 Johnson’s contention to the contrary, these are grace-filled men who do “put the gospel first.” They are grateful that men like Johnson obey God in their sexual behavior and who find contentment in their celibacy. Yet, for biblical and theological reasons, they do not find Johnson’s SSA arguments defensible—that fallen “sexual orientation is part of our identity.” These are men who believe God’s Word speaks directly to SSA identification and sanctification.

While all are rattled by the unrelenting blows of the current moral revolution, in their concerns about Johnson’s paradigm, these courageous and compassionate pastoral leaders are not caving to fear of man; they are reckoning with what it means to fear God and to love their neighbors. If you listen to the podcast with Drs. Johnson and Sprinkle, you will wait in vain for a biblical and theological defense. A sentimental and sociological one fills the airspace. Yet these SSA matters need careful, biblical, theological, confessional, pastoral response. They drive us to the very foundation of our faith concerning our source of authority. 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? 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 put it recently, 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 beloved PCA.

In fact, that air seems to have filled Johnson’s position on SSA. He has the freedom to use the self-identification language he wishes, and others have the freedom to use the language they wish. Johnson insists, “I tell people they can call me whatever they want so long as it’s not mean. I have been gay, I have been ex-gay, and I have been same-sex attracted. And I can’t say that any of those terminological shifts amounted to anything at the soul-level.” For him this freedom of self-determined identity and self-determined language applies to everyone, every creature at least.

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 make my sense of things the ultimate determiner of reality, it is not so. What is so is what God declares.

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.

To the point, identity—like guilt—is a theological fact, not a product of human perception. When in Adam, no matter how good you may have felt about yourself, and how blindly optimistic you were about the ability of your mind, will, and emotions, you neither knew yourself nor interpreted yourself accurately. You did not and could not please God. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). Period. No qualifications. No exceptions. No equivocation. No redefinitions.

In Christ: Resurrection and Identity

Dead in trespasses and sins, the sons of disobedience needed new life—complete with a new heart, a restored will, and a new identity. And that is exactly what we receive in the resurrected Christ. Scripture and Scripture’s Christ do not offer a reparative therapy program; they deliver cosmically-critical, sin-forgiving, freedom-rendering, past-crushing, and utterly-transforming new life and new identity in Christ.

Christ, on the cross, not only conquered the guilt of sin but the power of sin. Jesus’ victory has rendered a decisive breach with sin, and His children are no longer identified by it or mastered by it. This is why the Apostle Paul says, “So you must also [along with Christ Jesus!] consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).

Several important facts emerge in this text concerning identity and sanctification:

1. Unionwith Christ. Christ is raised forus; and we are raised with him (Eph 2:6; 1 Cor. 15:12ff).

• In the gospel, I not only receive the double graces of justification and sanctification, but I also receive the Christ who justifies and sanctifies me. I am His and He is mine. By His Holy Spirit, this inviolable bond between Son and the children of God, between the Redeemer and the redeemed, between Savior and the saved, provides the very framework for how we must see ourselves. We are in Christ. Full stop.
• Therefore, no matter how stubborn the sin, the temptation, the desire, the lust, or the sorrow, as one united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, we are not defined by our sense of things. The gospel frees you from this tyranny, including the self-labeling and/or self-destructive intimations of SSA.
• The deepest channels and strongest shackles of stubborn sin no longer define you. You are a new creation in Christ. The old things have passed away. New things in Christ have come.

2. FromChrist to Us. Our in-Christ identity bears directly upon our thinking and our use of language. As our Savior and Master, Jesus gives explicit mandates about self-identification, because we are united to him.

• We are delivered by, determined by, and defined by the success of Christ and the power of His resurrection. For this reason we must think and speak of ourselves according to our life in Christ.
• A look to our prior sinful self for identity is not only wrong; it absurdly and perversely defies the meaning of, power of, and nature of the work of Christ in His resurrection from the dead for us. His life is our life; His holiness, our holiness. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Only in disobedience do I think of myself or speak of myself otherwise.
• To think of ourselves in any way—even secretly—as still alive to sin is an open denial of the saving and sanctifying power of God in Christ.

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