What Does Romans Say About Homosexuality?

Read Romans 1:21–28 in Its Context

Romans 1:21 continues the argument that began in the verses just before it. In The Gospel Written in Stars?!, we followed Paul through Romans 1:18–20 and his claim that God had made Himself known to mankind, yet people suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.

Paul does not suddenly change subjects in verse 21. He continues describing mankind in rebellion: “although they knew God,” they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. Their thinking became futile and their hearts were darkened.

I understand Paul’s “they” here as mankind in general, not as a narrow description of one isolated people. God dealt with human beings before Israel existed. Adam and Eve knew Him. Cain and Abel brought offerings. Enoch and Noah walked with God. Abraham trusted Him before the Law of Moses was given. The storyline is bigger than one nation.

Paul’s point is not that every person throughout history possessed the same amount of revelation. His point is that mankind did not respond to God by honoring Him and giving thanks. Truth was suppressed. Creation was worshiped in place of the Creator. The problem runs deeper than one particular outward sin.

What Does Paul Say About Homosexuality?

That brings us to the part of Romans 1 most people are looking for when they search for a Romans verse on homosexuality. Paul writes that women exchanged natural relations for those contrary to nature, and that men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another (Romans 1:26–27).

Whatever else someone may want to argue about this passage, Paul does not describe these relations as honorable. He calls the passions “dishonorable” and describes the relations as “contrary to nature.” In the flow of the passage, homosexuality is not presented as something pleasing to God.

That needs to be said plainly. Grace does not require us to change Paul’s words so that sin becomes something other than sin. If we care about people, we should also care about telling the truth about what harms us and pulls us away from the Lord’s guidance.

At the same time, Romans 1 does not give us permission to treat homosexuality as though it were the one sin that explains everything wrong with mankind. Paul is describing a much larger rebellion. The rejection of God appears before the specific behavior he names.

What Is “the Due Penalty for Their Error”?

Romans 1:27 says that men were “receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” The question is: What error has Paul been describing?

Some readers have understood the “due penalty” as a direct reference to physical consequences connected with homosexual behavior. That is not how I read the controlling flow of the passage. Paul has already told us what happened first: mankind exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, and did not see fit to acknowledge God.

Then comes the repeated phrase: God “gave them up.” He gave them up to the lusts of their hearts in verse 24, to dishonorable passions in verse 26, and to a debased mind in verse 28.

In this reading, the error is the rejection of God and His truth. The judgment is God giving rebellious mankind over to the course it has chosen. Homosexuality is one of the sinful expressions Paul describes within that condition, but it is not the act that first caused mankind to reject God.

The order matters: rejection of God leads into the giving over. The giving over is not God creating the sin in people. Mankind sins quite well without God causing the sin. Paul’s language is about God allowing rebellious people to pursue what they have chosen rather than forcing evil into them.

Romans 1 Is Not About God Abandoning Christians

This distinction becomes especially important when we turn from Romans 1 to a Christian who is struggling with sexual sin. Romans 1 is not describing a believer falling into sin and the Father responding, “I’m done with you.”

The New Covenant gives us a different starting point. Christ’s blood has cleansed the believer, and His resurrection life has brought us into a settled relationship with God. That does not make sin good, but it does mean our Father is not moving toward us and away from us according to our latest behavior.

Paul’s words to the Corinthians are helpful here. In 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 he lists sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. Then he tells the believers, “such were some of you,” but they were washed, sanctified, and justified.

That identity statement does not mean the Corinthians never struggled with sexual sin again. First Corinthians 5 makes that impossible to argue. A serious case of sexual immorality was happening inside the church, and Paul dealt with it strongly. If you want to follow that warning-language thread further, Who Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God? continues the discussion.

The point is that Paul can take sin seriously without teaching that a Christian becomes spiritually unwashed every time he fails. Grace does not require us to redefine sin, and sin does not place the Christian beyond the help of God.

Fellowship Is Not a Revolving Door

One of the most damaging ideas we can give a struggling Christian is that God has turned away and will not come near again until that person fixes the sin. That removes the very One the believer needs most.

If fellowship with God depends on reaching the right level of behavior, how would we ever know we were “in fellowship” at a given moment? God is perfectly holy, and none of us sees every failure in our own life. The answer cannot be a spiritual revolving door controlled by our performance.

For a fuller treatment of that question, Can You Lose Fellowship with God? looks directly at the idea that Christians move in and out of fellowship according to sin.

Grace Does Not Make Sin Harmless

None of this means Christian behavior is unimportant. Paul did not tell the Corinthians to celebrate serious sexual immorality. He told them to deal with it because sin hurts people, harms the church, and can consume a life.

There is also an important difference between struggling with sin and taking pride in it. A believer may be caught in something destructive, grieved by it, and desperate for help. That is very different from a church deciding that what Scripture calls sin should now be celebrated as good.

The gospel gives us enough grace to tell the truth on both sides. We do not have to water down sin in order to protect grace, and we do not have to water down grace in order to confront sin.

This is also why completed forgiveness matters. First John 1:9 is often used to teach that Christians must repeatedly confess sins in order to regain forgiveness or fellowship. Our study Is Confession of Sins Required for Forgiveness? examines that passage in its audience and covenant setting.

A believer who is struggling does not need to be told that Christ has moved away. That believer needs truth, help, correction when necessary, and the confidence to turn toward the Father who is already there.

Walk by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh

So what should grace produce in us? Paul’s answer is not indifference. It is a life that learns to walk by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 says, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” A few verses later Paul says that if we live by the Spirit, we should also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). That distinction is important. The Spirit lives in the Christian, but following His guidance is something we learn and grow in.

We may be free in grace, but we should not be free from the Lord’s guidance. When we turn away from His wisdom and become consumed with sinful desire, the relationship is hindered from our side because our attention has moved away from Him. The Father has not burned the bridge. We are the ones ignoring His voice and walking down a road that brings suffering.

That is why learning what pleases the Lord matters. We do not study His ways so that we can earn His acceptance. We learn His ways because we already belong to Him and want to live in what is good, honorable, loving, and beneficial.

Paul could preach a grace so complete that people accused him of giving permission to sin, while still speaking plainly about the destructiveness of sin. We should be able to do the same.

Do not be ashamed of grace, and do not be ashamed of the truth about sin. Christ gives us a better way than either condemnation or denial. He gives us a secure place with the Father and the Spirit’s guidance as we learn to walk with Him.