“Male and Female, He Created Them”

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

BIBLE READING : Genesis 1

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1.27)

We live in a world where children are being raised “gender neutral.” The coffee shop I go to has name tags stating their “preferred pronouns.” The concept of “transitioning” has been pirated to mean something we never would have dreamed. As our modern culture has lost its boundaries and celebrates a glut of so-called gender options, Christians should understand and critique today’s concepts in light of Genesis 1.26-27. There are two genders—male and female—which collectively can relate to God. But this reality is more than just talking points against the absurd claims of a modern society. It grounds us in important truths about our world and how we relate to it.

First, it asserts that we can trust objective realities. Simply put, either you have or do not have certain body parts. God wasn’t playing any pranks when he made us. Mankind has recognized the distinction between men and women for most of history because there are objective differences to observe. You simply cannot argue with biology because it is not left to our opinions. Post-modern thought is consumed with subjectivity and all it has produced is chaos and confusion.

Second, it means our identity is more than just our thoughts. God’s definition of male and female was not intangible. Our God-given bodies reflect definite anatomical characteristics, and with them we are given purpose relating to God’s image. Gender roles are not arbitrary, but purposeful. We learn more about this from passages like Ephesians 5. Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5.25) and wives to submit to their husbands “as the church submits to Christ” (Ephesians 5.24). Behaving according to these roles teaches greater spiritual truths. Furthermore, this has significant implications for how we use our bodies. They are the temple of the living God which we bring into submission to the Spirit of God. We cannot see our bodies merely as containers we’ll have for a while and then throw away.

Finally, it teaches that our Maker is diverse yet harmonious. The existence of two genders reflects the plurality of God’s nature we see in Genesis 1.26: “Let US make man in OUR image…” It may be difficult to comprehend God’s triune nature, but this much is certain: it involves multiple parts that operate in complete harmony. So, when God made mankind, he did so with diversity and creativity. We’re not just robots cranked out of machine that look and act exactly the same. Men and women have lots of differences, but we can relate to one another in meaningful ways. When gender roles are understood and fulfilled, there is greater awareness of God’s nature.

We must not let the world denigrate such powerful truths. Starting a conversation about gender with the image of God is not a roundabout way to approach a sensitive topic. It’s a starting point that gets to the heart of the issue: we are created on purpose for a purpose. Regardless of our gender, our Creator has designed us to be like him.

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