The new Proud Whopper is the latest instance of a corporation coming out in support of the LGBT community. While evangelicals reject these types of campaigns as contrary to the Bible’s teaching about sexuality, the Proud Whopper provides us with an Acts 17 moment. Burger King has unwittingly made a statement about LGBT people that evangelical Christians can stand in agreement. I suggest that Christians use this opportunity to remember their own need for Christ, then engage in conversation with our neighbors and witness to the truth of the gospel. After all, whatever the intent of their promotion, Burger King is right. “We are all the same inside.” Consider the truth of Burger King’s statement:
1. We have the same worth. Every LGBT person, just like every other person, is a person of intrinsic value as one created in the image of God. We are all the same inside. Christians must treat all people, including our gay neighbors, as persons of immeasurable worth and dignity. We must recognize that even as sin distorts the image of God, we sinners remain image-bearers of our Creator. You and I and every LGBT person are tremendously valuable to God. So valuable, that He sent his Son to give his life so that we might be forgiven and enjoy eternal life and fellowship with Him.
2. We have the same condition. Homosexual sex violates God’s creative purposes and, like all forms of sin, is a rejection of God and his ways. That means that LGBT people have the same sin problem as you. While the outward expressions of sin may be different, they reveal the same spiritual condition. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We must do more than pay lip-service to this reality. We must treat LGBT people not as untouchables or a special class of sinner. We are fellow human beings with the same needs, desires, failings, and brokenness. When you see a gay person, remember that we are all the same inside. Gay people are not some unique brand of sinner. We all need Jesus and the forgiveness and reconciliation offered in Jesus Christ.
3. We are offered the same hope. Because we are all the same inside, we all need forgiveness and reconciliation with God. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The same gospel that changed you is the gospel that will transform any LGBT person who turns to God in faith. Yes, the Christian gospel is truth. But it is not the kind of truth that says to gay people, “I’m right and you’re wrong!” Rather, the gospel is the kind of truth that says God is real and He is there and he offers Himself in a very real way to gay and straight sinners alike. When we turn to Christ in faith, we are no longer identified by our sins. “Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” We appeal to gay and straight sinners alike, “Be reconciled to God.”
Will you be His witness to your LGBT neighbors and share with them the love of Jesus?
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Note: This post first appeared at behiswitnesses.com and is being reposted here by request
