"I Can't Accept a God Who Doesn't Accept Me"

Last Tuesday, I met a young woman who told me this. We were talking about what God requires of us and His moral laws. She said that she was a lesbian and that she could not accept God because He could not accept her. She had to catch her bus soon after this so I did not get to speak to her more, but I wish that I could have explained the following to her.

God can and does accept people steeped in all kinds of sin from lying to homosexuality to murder and everything in between. (Romans 5 "But God showed his own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us). However, God does not and cannot accept sins. (Leviticus 26 "If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.") What this woman wanted, was not for God to accept her, but for God to accept her sins.

She did not want to give up her sins because she did not see Christ as infinitely valuable and beautiful. Instead, she saw her wicked passions as more valuable than Christ. Christ will not accept a person who does not put Him first because to be saved we must confess and have faith in Jesus Christ as LORD. (II Timothy 2: Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ... "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.") When you confess someone as LORD, you are pledging to obey that person ... making that person your boss. You will obey the person or thing that you truly serve. (Romans 6: "Or do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness")

This woman would not submit to Christ as LORD and that is why she is unacceptable to God - not because of her sins. All of us who have been saved by Christ still sin every day, but we are not condemned because Christ took our punishment. What is different between those who are saved and this woman is not the presence of sin in our lives, but the submission to Christ. Followers of Christ hate their sin and struggle against it every day because we see Christ as infinitely more valuable than our wicked passions. We want to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect because we love and are so thankful to Christ for his mercy.

I pray that God opens this woman's eyes to see Christ as more valuable than anything in her life including her most treasured sins.