From Deuteronomy to Desert Roads: Affirming Our Trans Siblings
We are tackling a comprehensive topic in our Pride series, digging deeply into the Book of Galatians and looking at the whole of Scripture to understand exactly what the Bible says regarding the LGBTQ+ community.
To be clear from the very beginning: Embrace! Church is an affirming and inclusive church. That is exactly why we chose the name Embrace! We wanted to convey from day one that this is a community where everybody is beyond accepted, more than welcomed… embraced!
The Trap of Religious Gatekeeping
In Galatians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul is writing to a church that had started beautifully but was quickly losing its way. He issues a stark warning: “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel.”
Paul was dealing with a group of people proclaiming a false gospel, pushed heavily by “Judaizers.” These were the religious insiders who were approaching new Gentile converts and telling them, “It’s great that you love Jesus, but if you really want to be a part of God’s family… then you have to conform to our ancient laws and you have to conform to our culture and our customs.”
Paul absolutely rejects this gatekeeping. He asks a defining question: “For do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ.” Our focus must always be on pleasing God, not people. Galatians can rightly be called the Christian’s Declaration of Independence—a book declaring the ultimate freedom and liberty we have in Jesus.
The Beautiful Arc of Scriptural Inclusion
When we take a step back and look at the entirety of Scripture, we see a breathtaking, undeniable progression of God’s heart toward those who do not fit the binary of what society expects—individuals who, in ancient times, were referred to as “eunuchs.” This isn’t a new conversation; it goes back thousands of years.
- The Ancient Boundary: In Deuteronomy 23:1, the ancient law drew a hard line, stating that those who were emasculated or mutilated could not enter the assembly of the Lord. However, this was not an eternal moral statement on the worth of people; it was a contextual boundary line designated to separate ancient Israel from the pagan rituals of the time.
- The Prophetic Promise: God’s story never ends with exclusion. The prophet Isaiah declared that a better day was coming. In Isaiah 56:3, God explicitly shifts the dynamic and the requirement from physical anatomy to the condition of the human heart, promising a place and a name better than sons and daughters to the eunuchs who choose what pleases Him.
- The Expansion of Jesus: This inclusion is further expanded by Jesus Himself in Matthew 19. Jesus pauses to validate those who exist completely outside of societal norms, breaking them up into distinct groups and acknowledging those born as eunuchs, made eunuchs, or choosing to be eunuchs for the kingdom. Jesus Himself expanded our obligation to receive everybody.
- The Spirit’s Leading: Fast forward to Acts chapter 8. Philip is in the middle of a wildly successful church revival in Samaria. Yet, the Spirit of the Lord directs him to a desert road where he meets an Ethiopian eunuch—a person of great authority who had traveled to Jerusalem to worship. Philip doesn’t preach the old rules of Deuteronomy; he preaches Jesus.
When the eunuch asks, “What hinders me from being baptized?” Philip replies that if he believes with all his heart, he may.
The Spirit explicitly bypassed the old rules of Deuteronomy and pointed to the promises of Isaiah. If God’s Holy Spirit did not allow a gender-expansive reality to hinder the Gospel, then we have no right to allow it to hinder us today.
The Economy of Grace
In Galatians 3:28, Paul is absolutely talking about salvation. But salvation in the New Testament is not just some abstract, invisible ticket to heaven. Salvation changes how we live on this earth.
Paul declares that in Christ Jesus, your outward appearance means nothing. What matters is being a new creation. The physical, biological markers of the flesh carry zero currency in the economy of grace.
Called to Liberty, Commanded to Love
Paul reminds us of our true calling: “For you brethren have been called to liberty.” We have incredible freedom in Christ. But Paul is quick to add how we should use that freedom: “But through love serve one another.”
The greatest command that we have is to love. To love God, and to love people. All of the theology, all of the deep dives into Scripture, funnels down into this ultimate truth.
We will never change anybody’s mind because of the arguments that we present. We will change people’s mind by the demonstration of a love that makes no sense!
A Pastoral Word to Our Trans Community
Many of you have navigated an incredibly painful crossroads trying to reconcile the faith you hold in your heart with the reality of who you are. I want to speak directly to you today.
To the trans Christian who is maybe struggling to accept themselves, hear me today. You are not a mistake to be corrected. You are an intentional masterpiece of God.
If you ever find yourself looking at the church doors, wondering if your identity keeps you from the family of faith, look to the water just like the Ethiopian eunuch did on that desert road, and ask the question: “What hinders me?”
The answer, by the absolute grace of God, is Nothing.
By Pastor Cuestas, Joseph