How repentance relates to salvation and what that says about Biblical sexuality.

I wanted my next article to be Christmas-themed, but today I read an article and was spurred to write a response to the claims and ideology behind it. The article in question is entitled “Why sex outside marriage is not a salvation issue” by Jayne Ozanne and published by Premier Christianity on their website. Before you continue reading, it would be good for you to go read her article for full context. Furthermore, before I can serve you the meat of the argument, it would be proper to give you an appetizer so you know who the subjects of this article are.

Premier Christianity is a Christian publication stationed in the UK. Their own “about us” page says

“If you want to know what’s going on in the UK Church, read Premier Christianity magazine. We don’t believe that anyone ‘tribe’ has the answer, and that it’s good to keep talking to each other. To that end, you will find articles on theology, biblical interpretation, interviews, debates, and trends within the Church scene from a whole range of people.”

PC

They also state:

“We have to do everything we can to connect to the world around us. The magazine tackles issues that affect the whole of society, including politics, international and current affairs.”

PC

I bring these statements up so we have a good idea of what PC‘s own mission and purpose is. From a cursory glance at their website I would probably like and agree with many things published on the site. So to be clear, this article is not a hit piece or slander against Premier Christianity.

As for the author of the Opinion piece published, Jayne Ozanne, this is what her bio on the site says about her:

“Jayne Ozanne is a gay evangelical who works to ensure full inclusion of all LGBTI people of faith. Until recently, she was a longstanding member of the Church of England’s General Synod and is chair of the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition. She is director of the Ozanne Foundation and the Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ lives.”

PC

As of the writing of this article, this is only her second time being published by PC and she was last published in 2017 in another opinion piece talking about the House of Bishops’ stance on teachings about homosexuality.

The Issue in Question.

What is the issue in question? Well, the article is entitled, “Why sex outside marriage is not a salvation issue”. So is it? Well in short, not exactly. Romans 3:28 and 4:5-8, along with many other verses, tell us that:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 3:28 ESV

⁴ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. ⁵ And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, ⁶ just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Romans 4:5-8 ESV

Scripture clearly teaches that it is faith, not any work or work of repentance, that saves us so that no one can boast. This is simply right theology, no proper protestant theologian would say that repentance is necessary for salvation. Therefore, stopping sex outside of Biblical marriage is not a prerequisite for salvation in Christ. We do not clean ourselves up to come to Christ, and we are not conditionally accepted into the family of God contingent on repentance. So where is the issue here? If this was the simple point Ozanne was making but with an eye-catching title that doesn’t quite convey the true meaning of her article to farm clicks, it would be harmless and clever. But I would not be writing this article if that was the end of the story now, would I?

The Issue at Hand

In fact, the title is misleading… and eye-catching. “Why sex outside marriage is not a salvation issue” is something that many of us could agree with, upon the right pretenses. But as we read into her opinion piece the innocuous issues that make her teaching not just dangerous but also outright unbiblical present themselves. There are many issues that could be critiqued in her opinion, but to keep this article as short as I can I will narrow it down to these two: 1) Ozanne does not have a Biblical understanding of repentance, and 2) Ozanne believes sin to be defined by us, making sex outside of marriage a secondary issue and something that should be allowed in the church. Let’s review the first issue.

1. Ozanne has no Biblical understanding of repentance.

What is repentance and what is its role or place in salvation? In her article, Ozanne focuses on Christ’s “radical love”, therefore negating the need for repentance in the Christian life. It is relegated to an optional add-on we do when we feel like it and only if the Holy Spirit tells us to. But this is not the case made by Jesus. While he has loved us with a radical love, Jesus and the whole of Scripture calls us to repentance.

John the Baptist says in Matt 3:2 & 8

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 3:2

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Matthew 3:8

Jesus affirms and echoes John the Baptist in Matt 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17

Other examples: Matt 11:20, Mark 1:14-15 and 6:11-12, Luke 5:32 and 13:1-3.

I could go on, but these scriptures are clear, Christ Himself calls us to repentance. As stated above, repentance is not what saves us, we do nothing and contribute nothing in our salvation, but the Gospels make it clear, that those who are saved, followers of Christ, will repent of their sins.

2. Ozanne believes sin to be defined by us, making sex outside marriage a secondary issue and something that should be allowed in the church.

In the article she states,

“A prime example of this relates to the question of sex between two loving adults of the same-sex who are in a committed relationship… We are never likely to agree on this, but if it is not a salvation issue, we should be able to agree to disagree and move forward.”

-Ozanne

It is by this point in the article the true issue comes to light. It is not the subject of repentance Ozanne is arguing here, rather she is actually arguing against the Christian doctrines of marriage and sexuality. Ozanne clearly opposes the Biblical and orthodox understanding of marriage and sexual relationships. Not only does she oppose them, but she also calls for us to accept that sex outside marriage and homosexuality are plausible Christian viewpoints. Here is the main issue, her position requires us to accept the notion that we define the use of sex and its confines, not God and His Word.

She argues that we should be able to just “agree to disagree” on the issue. I wish we could agree to disagree, but at the end of the day we have to ask what it is we are disagreeing on? She is asking us to disagree with explicit Biblical truths and allow those who condone and practice sinful lifestyles into our churches and/or denominations. “Agree to disagree” in this case means that those of us who oppose sinful sexual relationships in the church should allow them because they are simply a small doctrinal disagreement. This way of thinking asks us to concede opposition to Biblical sexuality as a simple doctrinal difference and not a sin against the Word of God.

Sin, therefore, is not defined by the Bible, which commands us to repent of sin, but is defined by us or the culture, and repentance is only necessary when the individual feels that they are in the wrong, not when they stand in opposition to the Word of God.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, repentance is not what brings salvation as a caveat or merit, rather it is faith in Christ that gives us salvation from God’s great love. Salvation through faith is what brings repentance to the individual. Over time if there is no repentance, there may be no faith. While there will always be debates on what repentance actually looks like in a given situation and when a new convert should be bearing the fruit of repentance from specific sins, we should all agree on what repentance is as defined by the Bible and that the salvation Christ has lovingly given us calls us all to repentance.

In her last article, published in 2017, Ozanne stated about the lack of acceptance of homosexuality in the Anglican Church at the time:

“I am ashamed to be part of such an institution that is incapable of recognizing and responding to the diversity of views that were expressed during the Shared Conversations.”

To such a statement I would simply respond, “Then why are you still there?”. Why stay in a faith and institution that doctrinally opposes what you think is good in God’s sight?

One More Thing

I also question why a Christian publication would publish such an opinion. This opinion was published as a response to a biblical article and the article is linked on the webpage, so I am not arguing that PC is promoting or condoning this opinion. But what I am asking is why a news publication that claims to uphold a Christian point of view feels the need to publish opinions that stand in stark contrast to Scriptural teaching. Yes, we have our opponents, and we need to know what they say, but I do not believe we should propagate, uphold, and publish their viewpoints as valid arguments against ours when their arguments defy the very scriptures they claim to believe. Since this is only Ozanne’s second opinion published by PC I think there is much room for grace, but I hope and pray that these kinds of articles do not continue to be increasingly published in our Christian news publications. But what do you think? Should Christian publications not release articles and opinions that oppose the faith, or should they be allowed to expose readers to a differing and erroneous point of view for the sake of argument?