Thinking about this today after someone on a Facebook group I’m a part of posted about a relative going through transition from female to male. This person was very upset about it, asking for prayer and advice. This was my response:
“My first question would be, "Has this person professed to follow Jesus Christ?"
“If the answer is no, then trying to get them to live by Christian religious rule can cause more problems than it solves. For us, we are encouraged by Paul to remain in the state we are in, and our practice is the disengagement from ourselves and our natural psychology in favor of Christ with whom we have been joined. But someone who has not been joined to Him has no ability here. It is my observation that continuing to get them to change their behavior based on Christian principles will likely have the opposite effect, and push them further.
“It sounds like this person is miserable because they feel like they're supposed to be male, and this internal understanding is being railed at by those around them and they are being told they're crazy, ungodly, and generally rejected because of it. This is enough to cause depression and mental illness in anyone. Ultimately, this is their decision, just as it is their decision to follow Christ or not. No one else can make it for them, nor should they.
“My general counsel in this case is that the person should pick a gender they can live with and stick with it, understanding the consequences of their choice. This does not damn them any more than any other choice we make, and there are only two sins which are explicitly unforgivable. Gender reassignment is not one of them.”
Another member of the group took issue with my response, making the accusation that if someone were to ask me if I thought what they were doing was “sin” I would respond “no.” He then proceeded to say that it was our job as Christians to point out sin when we see it.
The problem is that this person missed the point entirely.
Every human being operating in their own natural psychology is "living in sin." We have a neurological malfunction as human beings that affects the way we respond in such a manner that we cannot respond from our own devices without it impacting our responses. We cannot think, act, or speak apart from it where our biology is concerned any more than someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder can do so without his or her disorder impacting that response. No matter how well intentioned or good we think we’re being, anything we produce is still “sinful.” And when all actions, words, or thoughts are sinful, it is pointless to direct attention to any one in particular as being worthy of more condemnation than another. They are symptoms to a cause, not the problem itself.
Jesus Christ and submission to Him is the only way we can bypass this, acting without that malfunction impacting our actions or responses.
Lying is sin. gossip is sin. wanting what someone else has is sin. thinking you're better than others is sin. Judging others is explicitly warned against by Christ as being a ticket to being judged yourself. It isn't our job to point out and condemn the choices and mistakes of others. It is our job to express Jesus Christ through us that others would experience Him. It is only Jesus Christ acting through us and speaking through us when we do not sin, because it is not us speaking or acting but the Father through Christ and Christ through us.
I can’t judge this girl. I have no right to judge this girl because I suffer from the same malfunction she does. No other human being save one has that right, and He expressly died for the sins of the whole world to save the world, not condemn it.
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