Rachel Gilson > Quotes

“The first blessing of sexuality is the way it shows us the priority God gives to diversity, which is both highlighted in and sustained by sex difference. The second blessing of sexuality is the gift of children, a fruit of both sex difference and sexual union. And the third blessing of sexuality is that it creates the possibility of marriage as a picture of God’s relationship with his people— and that picture specifically requires sex difference.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“The vision of human marriage as the reward for faithfulness to Christ is a deadly lie. Nowhere in Scripture is earthly marriage promised to any of us. Not only is not promised but it's not even presented as the preferred state of being. Instead, under the new covenant we see that the unmarried and the married have equal dignity and opportunity to image and serve the Lord. They are both beautiful, and both circumstances require the death to self which is at the heart of following Jesus.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“Marriage is not promised or preferred. It can’t make you straight nor prove that you’re committed. It’s not the prize for faithfulness, nor the source. Jesus Christ is the prize. The Holy Spirit is the source. God is our Father, our husband, our friend.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“We are never promised relief from the presence of dangerous desires, but we are promised power to fight victoriously (1 Corinthians 10:13).”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“If we know God and are known by him, we have access to gaining control of our bodies in holiness and honor. But it will never occur apart from him. ...apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. We are not able to stand against our flesh. But he is. We are like barnacles clinging to a whale - we get nowhere, and no sustenance, without him. Unless we cling to the mighty host, we die.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“...the Western cultural chorus is shouting ever louder that authenticity is only found in following your flesh. To specifically deny what your body wants is a scandal in our culture. When pursuing your desire for same-gender sex and romance would publicly mark you as a hero - denying it makes you a villain.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“...sin loves to grow in secrecy.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“As the Puritan theologian John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way: Coming out, coming to faith, and what comes next

“...same-sex attracted Christians have unique and powerful ministries - that is, we serve the church and the world through our example of obedience.

How so? Because we witness powerfully to the beauty of Jesus over romance. Because we embody the necessity of relying on him alone to choose holiness. And because we prophetically call the church to honor God and neighbor by neither taking away from nor adding to God's word on sexuality.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“But the gospel is not just for Day 1 of our life with Jesus. It is for every day that follows. We won't survive if we replace our connection with Jesus with duty or morals.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“When we believed Christ, we received the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), and God promises that part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:23). We don’t produce self-control through our own willpower or good intentions. We don’t create self-control from our sincerity. It is fruit, coming forth from our relationship with God. Jesus promised, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way: Coming out, coming to faith, and what comes next

“To come to Christ is not merely an individual affair. It will fracture deep ties among people who have become so close that they are felt to be family.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“My life has told a different story than what society expects for me and what I expected for myself, because God himself has written his own twists and turns into the narrative, unexpected blessings that are more powerful, more lovely, than anything I could have imagined in my former life.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“When we sit as judges over God's rules, we make ourselves God. We say, 'I will be the one to determine if this is right. I am smart enough, trustworthy enough, to do so. I have what it takes to determine if this is a good rule or not.' ...we make it only about the law itself because we have no relationship with whoever installed it. But God's laws...are like the words of a good parent. To go against a good parent when you're a child in their house is not just about an action, but about breaking trust between people.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“To choose celibacy, Jesus must really be precious to you... You only give up something awesome for something even better.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“The designed purpose of marriage is to illustrate metaphorically God's relationship to his people... A marriage is complex, and fails if it lacks a crucial part. A marriage cannot rightly depict God's relationship with his people if it lacks faithfulness, or pleasure, or fruitfulness - or sex difference. The metaphor demands it.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“Our moral code prizes 'do no harm.' It emphasizes the utilitarian spirit - what maximizes happiness for the greatest number of people?”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“Natural doesn't automatically mean good... every one of us was born sinful.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“We have no shame which he was not willing to put on his own back and bear away. We have no sin that his blood doesn’t drown. Because of his work and his love, we do have a future and hope that outstrips our past and present.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way: Coming out, coming to faith, and what comes next

“What is the motivation to obey a law that seems nonsensical? It can only be deep trust in the one who asks.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“...it is symptomatic of human sin and rebellion that we confuse God's good things with ultimate things. We always resist worshipping and honoring him. We prefer comfort to submission. So we take God's stuff and try to ditch God.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way

“First, there can be the tendency to blame our desires or our situation on God. That way it’s his fault, not ours. In James 1:13 the hypothetical tempted person declares that God is the one tempting them. James dismisses this by declaring twofold truth: God is untemptable by evil, and he tempts no one. He never desires evil, so it cannot tempt him; and he does not desire for anyone to sin, so he does not tempt them to do so. James says that when we are tempted, it is because of our own desire—and since that is so, we must take responsibility. Yes, God allows us to live in this world filled with temptation. He allows our faith to be tested. But his desire and his command are that we stand firm.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way: Coming out, coming to faith, and what comes next

“Singleness for the Christian testifies to the sufficiency of Christ - to the world and to the church.”
― Rachel Gilson, Born Again This Way