Vaughan Roberts, Full of Grace and Truth: The Gospel and Sexuality in the Global Church. 2015, 10 Publishing, 48 pages.
Vaughan Roberts’ Full of Grace and Truth is a pocket size booklet about a very big topic. Human sexuality figures prominently in contemporary secular conversations about ethics and identity. Christians have a significant and gospel focused contribution to make to those conversations.
The core of this booklet is the text of a fifteen-minute address which Roberts gave at the fourth international Lausanne Conference in Seoul in 2024. The Lausanne Movement began as an initiative of Billy Graham and John Stott which aimed to bring together evangelical leaders from around the world to promote unity in the work of the gospel. In recent years evangelical Christians have not been entirely united in their responses to contemporary questions about gender and sexuality, hence the discussion of this topic at a conference pursuing evangelical unity.
In the opening chapter Roberts sets out his aims and concerns as he prepared his address for the Lausanne Conference. He aimed to speak as a pastor with a concern for people who struggle with sexual sin (including same-sex attraction). He also aimed to be faithful to biblical truth in a debate where the integrity of the gospel was at stake. Roberts speaks from within the Church of England and grieves that many in his denomination have abandoned biblical truth in this area.
The core of the booklet is the address which Roberts gave in Seoul. It has four main points: God is for sex; sex is for marriage; marriage is for life; and life is for Christ. As we might expect, Roberts approaches the topic from the perspective of a robust biblical theology. He grounds his arguments in the unfolding theological message of the Bible – creation, fall, redemption.
Thus, his main points are built on what the Bible teaches about God’s creation of humanity, humanity’s fall into sin, and Christ’s redemptive revolution. He shows that Christ alone can give reliable guidance to those who are confused, as well as healing to those who are broken. He illustrated his message by acknowledging his own struggles with same-sex attraction, which he acknowledges as a temptation to be resisted.
A final chapter describes the critical responses which followed his address in Seoul. Some came from theological revisionists, who argued that same-sex attraction should be affirmed and even celebrated rather than condemned. Others came from theological conservatives, who objected to his openness about his personal struggles with unwanted same-sex attraction. Roberts describes how, after many years of private struggle, he decided to speak openly about this struggle to resist temptation and live a life of gospel empowered obedience to the teaching of scripture.
To both sets of critics, and to any who are struggling with the contemporary confusion on matters of gender and sexuality, he presents biblical teaching on gender and sexuality as a message of both grace and truth.