The Nashville Statement

Pre­am­ble

“Know that the LORD Him­self is God; It is He who has made us, and not we our­selves…” –Psalm 100:3

Arti­cle 1

WE AFFIRM that God has designed mar­riage to be a covenan­tal, sex­u­al, pro­cre­ative, life­long union of one man and one woman, as hus­band and wife, and is meant to sig­ni­fy the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church.
WE DENY that God has designed mar­riage to be a homo­sex­u­al, polyg­a­mous, or polyamorous rela­tion­ship. We also deny that mar­riage is a mere human con­tract rather than a covenant made before God.

Arti­cle 2

WE AFFIRM that God’s revealed will for all peo­ple is chasti­ty out­side of mar­riage and fideli­ty with­in mar­riage.
WE DENY that any affec­tions, desires, or com­mit­ments ever jus­ti­fy sex­u­al inter­course before or out­side mar­riage; nor do they jus­ti­fy any form of sex­u­al immorality.

Arti­cle 3

WE AFFIRM that God cre­at­ed Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as per­sons, and dis­tinct as male and female.
WE DENY that the divine­ly ordained dif­fer­ences between male and female ren­der them unequal in dig­ni­ty or worth.

Arti­cle 4

WE AFFIRM that divine­ly ordained dif­fer­ences between male and female reflect God’s orig­i­nal cre­ation design and are meant for human good and human flour­ish­ing.
WE DENY that such dif­fer­ences are a result of the Fall or are a tragedy to be overcome.

Arti­cle 5

WE AFFIRM that the dif­fer­ences between male and female repro­duc­tive struc­tures are inte­gral to God’s design for self-con­cep­tion as male or female.
WE DENY that phys­i­cal anom­alies or psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tions nul­li­fy the God-appoint­ed link between bio­log­i­cal sex and self-con­cep­tion as male or female.

Arti­cle 6

WE AFFIRM that those born with a phys­i­cal dis­or­der of sex devel­op­ment are cre­at­ed in the
image of God and have dig­ni­ty and worth equal to all oth­er image-bear­ers. They are
acknowl­edged by our Lord Jesus in his words about “eunuchs who were born that way from their moth­er’s womb.” With all oth­ers they are wel­come as faith­ful fol­low­ers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their bio­log­i­cal sex inso­far as it may be known.
WE DENY that ambi­gu­i­ties relat­ed to a person’s bio­log­i­cal sex ren­der one inca­pable of liv­ing a fruit­ful life in joy­ful obe­di­ence to Christ.

Arti­cle 7

WE AFFIRM that self-con­cep­tion as male or female should be defined by God’s holy pur­pos­es in cre­ation and redemp­tion as revealed in Scrip­ture.
WE DENY that adopt­ing a homo­sex­u­al or trans­gen­der self-con­cep­tion is con­sis­tent with God’s holy pur­pos­es in cre­ation and redemption.

Arti­cle 8

WE AFFIRM that peo­ple who expe­ri­ence sex­u­al attrac­tion for the same sex may live a rich and fruit­ful life pleas­ing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Chris­tians, walk in puri­ty of life.
WE DENY that sex­u­al attrac­tion for the same sex is part of the nat­ur­al good­ness of God’s
orig­i­nal cre­ation, or that it puts a per­son out­side the hope of the gospel.

Arti­cle 9

WE AFFIRM that sin dis­torts sex­u­al desires by direct­ing them away from the mar­riage covenant and toward sex­u­al immoral­i­ty— a dis­tor­tion that includes both het­ero­sex­u­al and homo­sex­u­al immoral­i­ty.
WE DENY that an endur­ing pat­tern of desire for sex­u­al immoral­i­ty jus­ti­fies sex­u­al­ly immoral behavior.

Arti­cle 10

WE AFFIRM that it is sin­ful to approve of homo­sex­u­al immoral­i­ty or trans­gen­derism and that such approval con­sti­tutes an essen­tial depar­ture from Chris­t­ian faith­ful­ness and wit­ness.
WE DENY that the approval of homo­sex­u­al immoral­i­ty or trans­gen­derism is a mat­ter of moral indif­fer­ence about which oth­er­wise faith­ful Chris­tians should agree to disagree.

Arti­cle 11

WE AFFIRM our duty to speak the truth in love at all times, includ­ing when we speak to or
about one anoth­er as male or female.
WE DENY any oblig­a­tion to speak in such ways that dis­hon­or God’s design of his image-
bear­ers as male and female.

Arti­cle 12

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ gives both mer­ci­ful par­don and trans­form­ing pow­er, and that this par­don and pow­er enable a fol­low­er of Jesus to put to death sin­ful desires and to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the Lord.
WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ is insuf­fi­cient to for­give all sex­u­al sins and to give pow­er for holi­ness to every believ­er who feels drawn into sex­u­al sin.

Arti­cle 13

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables sin­ners to for­sake trans­gen­der self-
con­cep­tions and by divine for­bear­ance to accept the God-ordained link between one’s bio­log­i­cal sex and one’s self-con­cep­tion as male or female.
WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanc­tions self-con­cep­tions that are at odds with God’s revealed will.

Arti­cle 14

WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sin­ners and that through Christ’s death and res­ur­rec­tion for­give­ness of sins and eter­nal life are avail­able to every per­son who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Sav­ior, Lord, and supreme trea­sure.
WE DENY that the Lord’s arm is too short to save or that any sin­ner is beyond his reach.