“Clobber” Verses Against Sin Show People Their Need for the Gospel
It’s quite popular among homosexuals and their sympathizers to undermine the Bible verses that condemn homosexual activity. For several decades, they have done so by calling into question the true meaning of passages that the Church has, for two thousand years, understood as prohibiting homosexuality. For instance, they assert that the sin of Sodom was not homosexuality, but rather inhospitality. They assert that Paul was not condemning all homosexual activity in Romans 1, but only homosexual prostitution.
Of course, these revisionist interpretations are ridiculous in light of an honest reading of the original languages. Since it is becoming more difficult to undermine these passages from a scholarly standpoint, homosexual activists have adopted a more psychological approach, that is, appealing to the hurt emotions of those condemned by the texts. They now decry passages like Genesis 19:1-5, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:21-31, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10, and Jude 1:6-7 as “clobber verses,” intended to belittle and dehumanize homosexuals. If Christians could move on beyond these “clobber verses,” they say, homosexuals could feel welcome and whole in churches.
But, as theologian Dr. Albert Mohler points out in a recent article, Scripture points out the sin of all people, and it’s not supposed to feel good:
Is it “clobbering” people to point out that Scripture identifies their behavior or attitudes as sinful?
Certainly not — at least not when the biblical truth is asserted honestly. In other words, not when we honestly confess that our sins, too, are condemned within the same Bible.
Without a knowledge of our sinfulness, we do not know of our need for a Savior. In this sense, we all need to be “clobbered” by the Bible so that we will know of our need for Christ.
In other words, all of Scripture is meant to give us a painful realization of our own wretchedness and sinfulness. We supposed to read Scripture and understand that we can never fulfill the requirements of God’s law. We are supposed to feel “clobbered” by the truth of our own hopelessness.
And that’s what makes the Gospel so beautiful.
Those who rail against the use of the so-called “clobber verses” have undermined more than just the truth of universal sin; they have destroyed the Gospel itself. Why should anyone desire a Savior if they do not know why they must be saved? Why should anyone want to trust Christ for salvation from God’s wrath if they do not know that He is wrathful against sin?
The very verses that “clobber” us with the truth of our sinful condition are often followed by the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For instance, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church with a large list of sins that will keep people from the kingdom of God:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
Such a list not only condemns those guilty of sexual sin, but even condemns other sins our modern sensibilities often deem to be no big deal. Every person in the world could look at this list and find at least one sin they are guilty of practicing. Because breaking even one point of God’s law means we have broken it at every point (James 2:10), Scripture teaches that we are all condemned suffer under God’s righteous wrath for an eternity in Hell.
We all exist in this hopeless reality. But in the very next sentence the Apostle Paul wrote, he offered hope to all in Jesus Christ.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (I Corinthians 6:11).
With these words, Paul spoke volumes about the life-changing power of the Gospel. No doubt, there were former homosexuals sitting in the room when Paul’s letter was first read to the church in Corinth. Though they had once pursued a life of sin, they now sat with their Christian brothers and sisters, listening to Paul’s words as they recalled the hopelessness of their former lives compared with the hopefulness of their new lives in Jesus Christ.
If you were to ask whether they felt “clobbered” by Paul’s words against homosexuality, they would probably tell you that without feeling “clobbered,” they would never have sought the healing of Christ. They would confess that although they once deserved to be crushed by God, He crushed His only Son in their place (Isaiah 53:10). They would explain, perhaps with tears, that it was because of God’s love that Christ was “clobbered” on their behalf.
No matter the sin we practice, there are verses in Scripture that “clobber” us with the truth of God’s wrath against sin. This is an integral part of the Gospel. To remove the need for an escape from God’s wrath is to destroy the truth of man’s sin. To destroy the truth of man’s sin is to remove the need for Christ’s atonement. To remove the need for Christ’s atonement is to destroy the Gospel.
We all need to be clobbered.
RELATED INFORMATION
Hope for Homosexuals
The truth is that all people are sinners in God’s eyes. The Word of God says that there is none righteous, not even one person (Romans 3:10). It goes on to say that ALL humans have sinned and that ALL humans fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). But Scripture also promises that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature, old things pass away and all things become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The only hope for sinners (homosexual and heterosexual alike) is faith in Jesus Christ: “All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). God’s love is not reserved for people who have always had everything “straight.” Instead, God desires to have a relationship with those who have gone astray. And while there is a great price to be paid for our sin; God has already paid it in full. Hope can be yours today if you will open your heart.
Genesis 2:21-24
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.