AP

The Presbyterian Church of Australia’s Sex, Gender and Marriage Statement remains of the highest relevance to today’s Australia and deserves to be publicised in every PCA congregation.

The five-page statement, which the PCA finalised two-and-a-half years ago, is a succinct and comprehensive summary of scriptural teachings on marriage and sexual morality. Its intended readership includes PCA ministers, sessions, church institutions and congregation members. It is ideal for equipping congregations with a biblical view of these matters.

All ministers and elders of our denomination, it goes without saying, should act with courage and boldness and not shy away from faithful biblical teachings on gender, marriage and human sexuality. The PCA Statement’s contents are particularly suitable for regular Sunday preaching, Bible studies, training days, seminars or other special teaching events.

Dr Albert Mohler observed more than a decade ago: “What makes the current moral and sexual revolution so different from previous moral revolutions is that it is taking place at an utterly unprecedented velocity. Previous generations experienced moral revolutions over decades, even centuries. This current revolution is happening at warp speed.”

In less than a generation the common understandings of marriage, parenthood and sex that our Christian forebears took for granted for two millennia have been widely repudiated and overturned — to the great detriment of society. Easy divorce has been legalised and non-marital cohabitation normalised. New laws have sought to re-define the institution of marriage.

Ten years ago, Facebook declared that its users could identify from 58 supposed gender options. In the past 10 to 15 years, an ever-increasing number of gender-confused Australian children have undergone “gender-affirming care” — that is, irreversible and medically harmful hormonal and surgical interventions — in a futile attempt to change their gender. Precise statistics are hard to come by because of the reticence of the hospitals and “gender clinics” responsible for these malpractices.

In today’s litigious age, The Sex, Gender and Marriage Statement has an additional important purpose, which is “to provide some defence in anti-discrimination complaints by making the teaching of the church explicit”.

The Statement is divided into six parts:

1) A preamble

The preamble’s opening paragraph affirms “the biblical teaching that God created us male and female” and that “marriage is to be between one man and one woman”.

2) Rejoicing in God our Creator and his good order of creation

The Statement exhorts readers to remember that “all people are made in God’s image and have a common dignity and worth” and states: “No one should be mocked, hated, or bullied.”

It quotes the Westminster Confession of Faith’s definition of marriage as “a union of a husband and a wife, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life”. It declares: “Marriage is the only proper setting for sexual activity. It is the divinely ordained environment for the raising and nurturing of children.”

3) Mourning the effects of the Fall and our own sin as they distort God’s good order

This section is especially important. It contains robust Reformed Protestant teaching that confronts readers with the stark reality of sin in our lives and our need to repent.

The Statement reminds readers of the explicit teaching of Jesus that “sin begins prior to any such act, in the corruption of heart and eye (2 Sam 11) with a lustful, covetous look, a redirecting of desires, emotions and fantasies (Matt 5:27-28; Prov 6:23-29; Jer 5:8)”.

It continues: “All sexual temptations are to be resisted and are desires which should be mortified (Gal 5:24). There is a pastorally significant moral difference between experiencing sinful desires and seeking to mortify them, as opposed to cultivating desires into actions (James 1:14-15).”

4) Looking to Christ for redemption, proclaiming him as Lord and Saviour and seeking to live for him in ways consistent with God’s good order

The Statement proclaims: “Christ is the answer to the underlying problems for all people — including those facing sexual temptation, the consequences of sexual sin, broken and difficult marriages, loneliness, shame, and gender confusion.”

In answer to those who regard Christian morality as “harmful” to a person’s well-being, the Statement has this to say: “Truthfully and humbly naming sin and calling people to repentance are not harmful because of God’s gracious mercy and the sanctifying power and promised fullness of life in Christ (John 10:10; Acts 2:38, 2 Cor 7:10).”

In a pointed warning against the widespread adoption of “gender identity” inconsistent with one’s own immutable biological sex, the Statement calls on Christians to articulate “the truth about ourselves, naming our sins but not being named by them”. It adds that we should “avoid legitimising sin by using descriptions that either downplay or even celebrate temptation”. Thus, we should refrain from using words such as “gay” and “pride” to describe and glamourise the homosexual lifestyle.

5) Living in eager expectation of God’s new creation

Believers should live in hope, counsels the Statement, and long for and pray for the day “when we shall be fully conformed to Christ and the created order will be gloriously transformed, healed of all disorder and corruption”. In the presence of the Triune God, “God’s people will be given the fullness of their new identity in Christ (1 Cor 13:12; 1 John 3:2; Rev 22:4-5)”.

6) Committing ourselves to serving Christ, his church and his world in the area of sex, marriage and gender

The Statement says the Church should expose “false views about marriage, sex and gender”, but do so in a way that is “gracious, compassionate and engaging, and which offers life lived for Christ as a genuine alternative”. It adds that “God opposes abuse and violence in marriage and in the family”.

It concludes with two important edicts that deserve to be widely understood throughout the Presbyterian Church of Australia:

a) “The Church will not ordain any person who is involved in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. No church officer nor anyone in a position of leadership or responsibility within the Church should be involved in such a relationship.”

b) “All schools, training colleges, aged care facilities, charitable organisations, and other ministries and institutions operated by, in connection with, or under the authority or control of the Church are to operate in a manner, and for purposes, consistent with the understanding of sex, gender and marriage set out in this statement.”

The Sex, Gender and Marriage Statement is strongly recommended for all Presbyterian congregations.

For Christ and his gospel.

– Christopher Duke