Same Sex Attraction & Sinless Temptation? What the Bible Says

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Dr. Renton Rathbun

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 5/11/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:

Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. And it’s also our monthly focus on apologetics, biblical worldview and education with the recurring guest, Dr. Renton Rathbun. Now, if you don’t know about him, he’s a regular speaker for biblical worldview instruction for BJU Press. He’s also been a college professor for over 20 years on both Christian and secular institutions and he teaches and preaches across America regularly, focusing on biblical worldview and apologetics. And he’s also now pastoring a church in upstate South Carolina. He hosts his own podcast entitled The Renton Rathbun Show, which is designed from an educational perspective to help parents walk through the challenges that their children are feeling in regard to biblical worldview. And that website for those things available from his perspective there are rentonwrathbun.com. Now on Monday programs, I try to pick up leading headline news of importance to those who fear God, have eyes to see and ears to hear the truth.

Many international and geopolitical events are vying for top attention coming out of this Mother’s Day weekend, such as for instance, an attack on a Chinese flag to tanker in the Persian Gulf and that’s right on the eve of President Trump’s meeting with President Z of China. Another one is the increasing media releases about the haunt of virus. You’re hearing more about that. I think you’re going to hear more about it. Over the weekend, estimates are over a thousand events globally. Occurrences in the press occurred about that virus, just in the last three days alone, sparking a replay of the early COVID days of 2019. So it bears watching. There was an historic plasma burst from the sun yesterday and something coming in the next couple of days they say there was an earthquake swarm centered on the San Andreas fault in Southern California, historic and many more occurring across the world.

So anyway, all of these are things that have happened, but I’ve chosen to pursue not them today, but one that is not within these headlines, but it’s worthy of commentary and it deals with our theme biblical worldview and apologetics. And that stems from a major issue highlighted within religious circles just four days ago on May 7th where an individual, Sam Allberry, a well-known pastor and self-proclaimed Christian apologist, author and speaker just resigned from his church, Emmanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, citing an inappropriate relationship with an adult man. Now printed in the premier Christianity publication, that’s the name of premier Christianity, it’s a publication identified as the United Kingdom’s UK’s leading Christian magazine. The writer there, Reverend Peter Crumpler, wrote this about Sam Allberry’s resignation and I think puts the issue into perspective for today that Dr. Rathbun and I will bring forward. He said this, “When news broke earlier this week, the Gospel Coalition, a group of pastors and churches that put the gospel of Jesus Christ at the center of all activities,” that’s what he said, immediately announced that it would be removing all of Allberry’s content from its website and channels.

In contrast, living out the organization co-founded by Allbery to encourage Christians to “live out their sexuality and identity in ways that enable all to flourish and Christ like faithfulness” took a different position. And then he concluded by this, “Two Christian organizations, two very different reactions, which is the more Christian attitude.” Well, the title I’ve chosen to frame our discussion issue today is this, same sex attraction and sinless temptation. That’s a word we’ll talk about. What’s the Bible say? And with that, welcome Renton. Glad to have you back with us on the program. It’s a current issue and it’s one that needs some clarification, isn’t it?

Renton Rathbun:

Oh, it definitely is. Thank you for having me on the show. I’m excited about getting some clarity on that.

Sam Rohrer:

Rent, let’s get into this. While in the quote I gave about this Reverend Krumpler from the UK that did what he did, I have to be clear, he was referring specifically to the decision to remove former writings of Sam Allberry, not specifically his view of same sex attraction versus same sex behavior, but the balance of that article and much more that’s written all around does directly move around this view of scripture on this matter. What’s it say and hence the statement, two different Christian organizations, two different Christian reactions, what is the more Christian attitude? So that part is very much true, but I wanted to put that out there. So get started here this morning. Do you have anything more to say about this? And since with his publicized resignation, this seems but an increasing example of pastors and others within the broader evangelical movement who align with the views of Sam Allberry.

Talk to me a little bit more about what’s going on there.

Renton Rathbun:

Yeah. Sam Allberry I think is a symptom of a deeper problem. Having people remove his content I think has more to do with them protecting themselves than it has to do with anything else. The evangelical Christian world has not just been embracing Sam Allberry, they’ve been embracing what I believe is a very dangerous message that came with him. The message is of course attractive to believers, but it is false. Many conservative groups have even embraced this message. Churches all over America who can afford him anyway, had him speak at their church. You had Cedarville University, had him speak several times. The Gospel Coalition not just had him write but celebrated his message. Even Paul Tripp that a lot of people really rely on for his insights celebrated both Sam Allberry as well as the message he was portraying and within 24 hours he’s disappeared. You can’t find him anywhere.

He was everywhere, now he’s nowhere. And what’s maddening about all this is that these groups that once embraced him and his message are now erasing him and maybe even I hope repenting of the message that they embraced, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I don’t know if they even know what they did, but I hope today’s show will show what that message is and show the clarity of what needs

Sam Rohrer:

To be done. All right, that’s great setup. Now let me ask you this. In a larger sense, to what degree does this view, Sam Alberryand others, is it linked to, for instance, the broader LGBTQ movement, which I’m just going to put here, pew research just a few days ago. 9% of the general US population identify with LGBTQ, but 49% of US Protestants and 65% of US Catholics claim that involvement LGBTQ or whatever is morally acceptable. Is there a connection?

Renton Rathbun:

Well, what Sam Allberry was appealing to, the reason why conservatives liked him was because he was adamant about rejecting this idea that we find our identity in same-sex attraction or homosexuality. He was against the activity. He was even against the lust of it. What he’s not against is that the desire itself is really a sin and that’s what we have to address.

Sam Rohrer:

All right. Well, excellent. Dr. Renton Rathbun, ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because we’ll be back. The theme here is same sex attraction and sinless temptation. What’s the Bible say? Because that’s factored into this. When we come back, we’re going to identify in more detail what the world says about this, why they support it. Well, if you’re just joining us, welcome aboard. This theme today is one that it’s a headline item news, but it’s not so much on mainstream, but it was and it came up last week and here’s the theme. Here’s the subject, same sex attraction and sinless temptation. And then what does the Bible say? My special guest is Dr. Renton Rathbun with me monthly and we deal with matters of biblical worldview, apologetics, often an educational slant to it because that’s what Dr. Rathbun has been involved in for a long time, education.

And as a speaker for BJU press and biblical worldview, he’s in that world daily. So that’s why we’re dealing with it. But let me go further into this because according to secular sources, when I was doing research this morning, this is widely available and I’m going to share here, but according to secular sources and arising from the very public resignation of Sam Alberry, what’s out there generally I pulled this together and this was basically a collection of what it would be. I’m just going to give it as a quote. They say the debate occurring within conservative quote unquote Christianity often hinges on this point. The point being this. They go on to say proponents of what is referred to as “Side B,” B as in boy, Side B theology like the revoice conference or spiritual friendship in that surrounding Sam Allberry. They go on to say it to argue that attraction, same sex attraction is a “sinless temptation” and they compare it to a straight person feeling attraction to someone who isn’t their spouse where they say the feeling itself isn’t the sin, but only the decision to lust or act is.

All right, rent in the next segment to third segment, we’re going to specifically look at what the Bible says about this matter, but let’s look at what the world’s apologetic and worldview is saying here. And here’s my question. When and from where did this reference to Side B theology to support the views of a revoice conference or Sam Allberry position, where did that come from and what does it mean and how does it connect to the “sinless temptation” comparison?

Renton Rathbun:

So Side Biology is basically a response of side A. Side A is this idea that you can be a Christian and still be a fully practicing, fully immersed homosexual, living in a homosexual life. Side B says that the idea that is this idea that you can’t control your desires, what they call same sex attraction, you can’t control that, but you can control your decision to lust and you can control your decision to act. So it’s not a sin if you are not lusting and you’re not acting, but the idea that you have this same sex attraction itself, that desire in you is not a sin. Now first, to know where this came from, we have to remember that Sam Allberry is an Anglican. He was trained by Anglicans and was in the Anglican world all the way up until he joined Emanuel and Nashville, which is fairly non-denominational, I guess, but they took him on as a pastor.

Now you also have to know that at that church, Russell Moore is a minister in residence and that’s important to know if you know anything about Russell Moore, you would know that is not a good thing. But I say this to remind us that in the Anglican world, you have a very close relationship to Catholic theology and although he was way closer to where we are in his Anglican world, he still has that closeness of Catholic theology. So Side theology I believe really comes from this Catholic idea that a sin is only a sin when it is consciously willed by the person. Now this is a great irony that people from the reformed world would be jumping on board with this, but the Catholic view as well as the Jewish view, by the way, that rejects Christ’s teaching on this, they both believe that sin is only a sin when I will it.

If I have thought about it and will it forward, then it’s a sin. If I’m not willing it, if I don’t desire it and it’s there, it’s not a sin. And I’ll tell you this, the reformation began with Luther understanding the concept of the sin nature, what later a Puritan John Owen would later call indwelling sin, that it is a sin that is in our minds and in our hearts, whether we desire it to be there or not, or whether we willed it to be there or not, if there is something in our mind and in our heart that is anti-God and violates his law, then we need to mortify it. What John Owen says, we need to be killing sin or it will be killing us. So John Owen makes us very clear about this indwelling sin that is within us, voluntary or not, that is against God’s word.

And you can read more about this in his book called Mortification of Sin. So this is what I’m saying is Sam Allberry’s dangerous message. It is this, we are not responsible for sinful desires in our minds and hearts if we did not ask for them to be there or will them to be there. That is a very dangerous message because God’s word says something very different about sinful desires being in our minds and hearts.

Sam Rohrer:

All right, we’re going to build that out, ladies and gentle. If you’re just catching this, we’re going to in the next segment detail exactly what the word of God says, but right now we’re looking at what the world says and those who are holding to this side be theology concept comes from. All right, Renton, there’s another term, not just sinless temptation, which you’ve talked about there, but there’s another term that Side B theology holds to and that is what’s called “lifelong celibacy.” And again, according to those who embrace this view, Side B theology, they seem to argue. They seem to argue that this position allows them to acknowledge the reality of their same sex feelings while remaining committed to traditional, they say traditional biblical ethics and they can do this through what is known as “life long celibacy.” So here’s my question. Is this lifelong celibacy, is this nuanced position a legitimately supportable position even from an honest, apologetic perspective?

Where did that come from and how do they think that that makes all things right?

Renton Rathbun:

Well, let me answer you directly. No, it is not a permissible position according to God’s word, but let me explain what I mean that. Obviously there is nothing wrong with remaining single and therefore celibate, but scripture speaks of celibacy as a gift from one Corinthians seven: seven. However, it says very clearly just after that, that if you burn, you ought to get married. One Corinthians seven: eight: nine. The argument then is I can’t legitimately be married because I’m not attracted to the opposite sex. Here is where the nuance becomes bright and clear. I don’t see a command in scripture that says, “You must absolutely burn with passion for the opposite sex.” It doesn’t say that’s a command, but there is definitely a clear condemnation that being attracted to the same sex as an absolute sin. We find this in Romans 1:26 where the passion itself is a dishonored passion.

Now that’s important to know in the Greek it’s basically that it’s passions of dishonor. Now that’s important because just before that it said the greatest thing we have done against the Lord was we didn’t give him thanks and we didn’t give him honor. So saying passions without honor is actually the worst condemnation you can hear just of the passion itself. And we find this in one Corinthians six: nine where it’s not just the homosexual that’s condemned to hell, it is the effeminate and this is where it gets even more clear as we get into Colossians three: five where it talks about desires that are evil. So it talks about passions and you might argue, well, I’m not passionate over it, but even desires that are evil and what’s an evil desire, it’s that which is against the Lord and what the Lord’s word said.

So what matters why you are being celibate. If you are being celibate because you have a gift to be such that is permissible. If you are being celibate despite the fact that you are burning and that on top of that you are burning in a dishonorable way, in an effeminate way, in an evil way, then that is not permissible. Now at that point you are commanded as John Owen would say to kill or mortify the flesh. Those desires are not welcome in the heart of the believer. What I am saying is that the desire itself is anti-God. Whether you asked for it or not or whether you feel like you have control over it or not is not the question. The question is, is it present in the temple and you are God’s temple. So is it present in the temple? If it is, then that’s sin and Colossians three is very clear what that sin is and that we must kill it.

All

Sam Rohrer:

Right, ladies and gentlemen, in the next segment, stay with us here now. We’ll take a couple minute break. We’ll come back. We’re going to move from what we just went over, which is really what the proponents of this Side B theology, the fact that you can have a passion in your heart for same sex attraction, but as long as you don’t act upon it, you’re okay. We’re going to move now to what scripture says and build out further on what Dr. Renton Rathbun was beginning to lay out Colossians three and other passages. We’ll talk about that in the next segment, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make a number of what we think. What does God say? That’s the important thing. All right. We looked at what the world and the proponents of those who hold to, as we’ve identified here today, side be theology or this concept of sinless temptation where you can have a same sex attraction, but as long as you don’t act upon it.

All right, if you’re just joining us, I encourage you to go back and listen to this program again to get everything from the beginning and get a transcript as well when you do it online or Stand in the Gap app. But what the world thinks is one thing. The world has always had thoughts contrary to God’s word. Sometimes it may align, sometimes it may not, but at the end of the day, it’s what does God’s word say? So when it comes to this matter of same sex, I’m going to say infatuation or actions of any view of sexual attraction, other than total faithfulness of one man to one woman in matrimony, the scripture I think is very clear. And here’s just a couple of Scriptures I just in preparation for that, I put these together. If I go to the very first place I think of in scripture and say God’s standard, Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, not wives, his wife, and then they shall be one flesh.” Okay, there we have God’s standard, I think Genesis at the beginning.

Then with the coming of the law in Exodus 20: seven, God stated in the seventh of the 10 commandments, thou shalt not commit adultery. Then in Matthew 5:27 in Jesus sermon on the mount, Jesus expanded his command to read and goes further, he said, “You have heard that it was said by them of old time that thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her half committed adultery with her already in his heart.” All right, Brandon, first, would you expand on, you did some of the last segment, but expand upon God’s design for human sexuality as in the verses I just read as it relates to male and female and then broaden it to address the Allberry side B theological position of same sex, I’m going to say infatuation or however you would call it.

Renton Rathbun:

Denny Burke and Heath Lambert put out a book called Transforming Homosexuality and in it they have I think really put their finger at the core of this whole conversation. If you look at the 10th commandment, you shall not covet. This is what they say. They say that 10th commandment prohibits not merely intentional desire for adultery, but all desires for adultery without respect to the voluntary or involuntary nature of the desire. In other words, whether I choose it or not, you had mentioned before that they compare this to, if a straight guy’s walking around and he sees a woman that’s not his wife and finds himself attracted to her, well, that’s not a sin. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. And I don’t know where they get the idea that it’s not. What’s interesting is how many people despise what Christ is saying here, that this desire in our minds, because I think what a lot of people are getting at is it’s not a sin until I create a fantasy or I create a scenario in my mind.

And once the scenario is created, once I have that story of what I would like to do that is sinful and here’s where that willing … I have this will to do it, I thought it out and now it’s sin. And what we don’t want to admit is the idea that we have this flesh and that’s how scripture refers to it. It refers to our flesh that is still here. Even though we’re Christians, we still have this flesh and this flesh is going to choose or not, whether we are choosing this or not, is always going to be trying to push against and bring to us these desires and the desire itself is anti-God. And once that desire enters into our mind, once that desire is in our heart, whether we have created a scenario or not, whether we wanted that to be there or not, does not matter.

Another thing that Denny Burke brings out in his book, he says this, “The sinfulness of a desire is determined solely by the conformity or lack of conformity to the law of God.” What he’s saying is whether or not it’s chosen or not is not the matter. The matter is the actual desire itself is against the Lord and that is in us and we must exit it maintaining it, but not creating scenarios we think is being sinless. So Sam Allberry has bought into this idea that temptation is this experienced passivity, if I can put it that way. In other words, he believes he is experiencing same sex attraction outside his own control and therefore outside his own responsibility. Allberry puts it this way, temptation is not the same as sin. Jesus was tempted in every way yet without sin. Now here is the problem. Many people reckon that this story in God’s word about Christ being tempted by Satan is about Christ’s experience of temptation will be our experience of temptation and that is not what that is about.

For Christ in the wilderness, temptations were from the outside of himself. Sin then is being offered to him externally. Internally, he is sinless. Problem is a theological one. Same sex attraction advocates seem to indicate that the temptation of Christ was to demonstrate that he is experiencing the same thing we’re experiencing during temptation and that is simply not the case. James is very clear about this in James chapter one where when we are tempted, we are the ones in ourselves that lead us away. We are pulling ourselves to be tantalized. Christ had nothing within him that would pull himself to be tantalized. We have that. Christ is being tempted as one without a sin nature. Christ is being tempted as a demonstration of Christ’s sinless nature and how his sinless nature responds to temptation. Yes, he was tempted in every way we are, but he experienced temptation as one without a sin nature.

The point is not this experiential similarity. The point was to demonstrate that the second Adam is better than the first Adam, that the second Adam will not fail us and the second Adam is doing what we cannot. The minute Sam and his followers mixed that up and thought that this was some kind of experiential idea that Christ was being tantalized by himself That’s insane and I don’t think they would even admit to that. They’re just totally missing the point of that story. I

Sam Rohrer:

Think what you just explained there is probably news to many, many, many people listening in very important distinction because if you take the Allbery position we’re talking about that actually makes the person, it makes it subjective. To what degree am I thinking this or to what degree, which is my own mind and that is what you’re saying, that is not what scripture talks about. So you referenced Colossians chapter three. Build that out now and apply and further expand upon that and its application here, what the Bible says.

Renton Rathbun:

So Colossians three is all about setting our eyes on the things above and not on the things of this earth and understanding that the flesh that is still a part of us is going to constantly be warring against us. We need to kill the sin that is in us and this killing of this sin talked about in Colossians three is spoken of this way. Therefore, consider the members, this is verse five, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to what? To immorality. And we know what that is, that’s the activity of sin. In this case, it might be the activity of homosexuality and then it even includes passions and Sam would be on board with that like, yes, we can’t turn these desires into a scenario where I start lusting and start having a passion over it. That would be bad, but it says impurity.

So it even says even something that contaminates what is pure. And so would we include something that contaminates what is pure, a desire that ought not be there, a desire that is anti-God, a desire that says, this is what you should want. You should want other men as a man and that would we call that impurity? Would we call that, it even continues, an evil desires, evil desires. So a desire that is evil, would we say that a desire for a man to be with a man or a desire for a woman to be with a woman in attraction and even that sexual spark there, would we say that’s an evil desire? I hope so because if Sam Allberry doesn’t believe that, then we have a bigger problem. That desire is evil and it’s saying that you are to mortify, you are to kill dead these things in your earthly body, this immorality, this impurity, the passion and evil desires.

And it goes on with greed. And then it says, and I’ll tell you this, there’s a lot more things in greed than just money, but I don’t have time for that, but it says, which amounts to idolatry? And this is the thing that really bothers me about this whole position is are we actually holding onto an idol by trying to justify just one evil desire that I can keep in my heart and mind?

Sam Rohrer:

Boy, that is one that I think maybe Renton, we built on another program, just exactly what is idolatry. I agree with you. I think it’s what it means. And we, ladies and gentlemen, we are all idolatrous. We have to watch so carefully. But when we come back, we have to deal with this question in light of all these things. How does a God-fearing person live biblically in such a disordered world? We have to process all of this. What do we do? All right as we go into our final segment now, just a couple of things here upfront. Dr. Rent Rathbun, who’s with me today. His website, which I gave at the beginning, rentonwrathbund.com. He has a lot of information there, but some of the podcasts that he does primarily directed to parents, but helping them to understand the challenges to biblical worldview are there, very helpful.

And this whole area we’re talking about right now is one of those challenges to biblical worldview. It confronts our children, our grandchildren and ourselves every day. This whole concept of human sexuality and what the world describes to be acceptable in their eyes. And Renton, I want to get into that in just a section, but I mentioned something in the last segment. When you talked about idolatry being at the heart of this covetousness and you mentioned that and I said, “We’ll have to deal with that sometime.” Actually, ladies and gentlemen, to show how these programs connect, if you go on our website and you put in their rent and wrath bun or however, you will find a series of programs. But actually last November, I looked it up during the break, November 17th of last year. Renton, we actually did a program where we talked about idolatry, but it was the focus on gratitude.

The theme then was gratitude, the antidote to idolatry. And so we described it then, but the focus was on gratitude and what the scripture tells us, primarily in the Old Testament that when we are grateful to God for what he has done and for who he is, that’s our greatest antidote to not embracing idolatry. But ladies and gentlemen, the world is all about disregarding God and certainly his word. And when that goes out, what places it? Idolatry of all types. So anyways, I just wanted to say that. So ladies and gentlemen, you can find a lot of information again on our website, standonthegapradio.com or on our Stand in the Gap app. You can just search for it. It’s easy and then you can find these programs. All right, Renton. Now this world, it seems consumed. It’s consumed with sexual disorder and I’m going to say disorders of all type.

In fact, I just queried the latest research. As of today, roughly 70 to 80% of young Americans, Gen Z and millennials, 70 to 80%, ladies and gentlemen, think about that. They no longer consider marriage a necessary requirement for sexual activity. And that number has doubled, doubled in the last 20 years. Why do I say 20 years? Well, I used to think generations were 40 years and they are, and scripture often has 40 years, but George Barna, we have in the program regularly says that when it comes to tracking cultural changes and trends, he’s found over his over 40 years of survey work that in 20 years an entire culture can change. So he’s viewing generations as 20. So in 20 years, the last 20 years, it’s changed by 50%. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the program, 50% of American Protestants disappeared research just done here in May, 50% of American Protestants and 65% of American Catholics, they now no longer believe that involvement in LGBTQ efforts are morally wrong.

Now it doesn’t mean that they are identified in that category, but it means that in their mind, you cannot qualify any activity in that broader area as being morally wrong. All right. Renton, here’s my question. We wrap up today here. How should true believers not only consider this issue we’re talking about regarding justifying increasingly unbiblical attitudes towards sexual sins, but if you can, would you extend this to biblical principles to be aware and prepared of as it relates to other warnings as well? Because there’s a lot of things about which we should be aware as believers.

Renton Rathbun:

We as believers, and this has happened in America specifically, we have watered down Christianity to the point where when we hear something that’s not watered down, we become offended by it. When we hear God’s word in its raw form right from the context, it is absolutely piercing to the ears of many people in America that call themselves Christian because they are so used to watering things down so they can’t mean exactly what they actually mean. It can’t say exactly what it says. My show today that’s out today for the Renton Rappin Show is about an apologist that’s on a Bible faculty that doesn’t even believe in the first 11 chapters of the Bible are actually history. He thinks they’re myth. And why does he do that? Because it’s completely foreign to people to believe that what the Bible says really is what it means. So if you’re a true believer, you need to always be on guard because the flesh in you will constantly pushing you to justify the idols that you want to have.

Satan does not care if you are mostly pure. He doesn’t want you to be pure, but he doesn’t care if you’re just mostly pure. He wishes you to be … He wants you to be just contaminated a little bit. That’s all he wants because we think being contaminated just a little bit, just having a little sin, just maybe calling something else other than what the Bible calls it, just so we can have this one thing that we just really need to have, that’s all Satan wants. He wants us to be just mostly holy. He wants us to be just mostly filled with the spirit. He wants us mostly ruled by Christ as long as we’re not filled with the spirit as long as we’re not completely ruled by Christ and as long and especially that we’re not fully holy. I mean, one John two: one and two is a great test for this.

It says this, “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” And we read that and we just think, “Well, surely he can’t mean that. ” He wants us to stop sinning. I mean, he can’t mean that. So we keep reading and it says, “And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” And so what we do as Americans is we read right by that first sentence. We want to read it this way. My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that if you sin, you have an advocate. What we don’t want to breed is what it actually says, which is, “My little children stop sinning.” Now there is hope. If you do sin, we have Christ, but my commandment is not that. My commandment is this, stop sinning. And we find that abhorrent.

We think, “Oh, well, we know we can’t do that so let’s not worry about it. ” And just in case we were going to have that attitude, John goes on and says, “And he himself is the propitiation for those sins that you’re confessing.” And what’s propitiation is that he took on the absolute wrath of the Father because you wanted that sin. And so just in case you thought it’s not important to stop sinning, he says this, “Your sin brought this, that the Son would take on the punishment of the Father for your sake.” And so it really does come down to this and you mentioned this before, this in gratitude we have. Let me just close with this. Colossians 3:15, right after all the stuff I was talking about before says this, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.” Boy, if we could remember that, that would change the world.

Sam Rohrer:

Dr. Renton Rathbun, thank you so very, very much for being with me today. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you’ve benefited by something that’s been said within this program. Go back and listen to it again and share it with others. So very, very important. The word of God, it is either authoritative in all things and means what it says or it doesn’t. That draws a very clear line and that’s how we ought to approach things we’re talking about even today. So Renton Rathbun, thanks so much. His website again is rentonrathbun.com.