The Beauty of Male and Female

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Promontory Community Church exists to make disciples of Jesus who know, live, and share the gospel for the glory of God. Amen.

Well, good morning everyone. It is good to be here with you all. For those of you who might not know me, my name is Jonathan. I have the privilege of being one of the pastors here, and if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open to the very beginning, right at the first page is where we're gonna be this morning. We are continuing on this series called Ancient Beauty in a Modern World, and this morning we are dealing with the question of gender.

In one sense this might be one of the most challenging topics that we have dealt with in this series, simply because of how very different the modern world views the topic of gender from the Bible. Today you see everything from the one end of the spectrum being the sort of macho alpha male that says masculinity is supposed to dominate others, to the other end of the spectrum that says all masculinity is toxic and should be done away with. By and large, our cultural conception of what gender looks like now is becoming more and more fluid, a socially constructed expression of an internal feeling. Gender is a persistent feeling that you have that is then expressed through different means. The common wisdom of the day is, well if you want to be happy, if you want to feel fulfillment, what you need to do is live out those feelings and respect other people's choices. After all, why should what they do affect you?

The challenge is the historic Christian position looks very different than this. So we have a question before us: how do we handle a topic where we might disagree, or the Bible might actually disagree with our culture around us? Here I have to start and say that so often, from my observation, the conversation — particularly from the Christian side — has been unhelpful. Oftentimes what has happened is it has devolved into some form of an argument and throwing rocks at the other side. Let me suggest that's not helpful, nor is that what the Bible calls us to do. We are to hold out the truth with grace. So this morning I want us to tackle this topic in a bit of a different way. The entire point of this sermon has been to show the beautiful reality that God has given to us, his beautiful designs for our lives — not to attack the other, but to show the beauty of what God has created.

So this morning here is my goal: whether you agree with what I'm about to say or not, whether you're struggling with gender identity or not, my goal is that at least you would be able to walk away and say, "OK, I can at least understand what the Bible is trying to say and why someone might hold it." That's really my goal, because I do genuinely believe that the Bible's answer to the question of gender is not only true — I think it is exquisitely beautiful — and I want us to see that this morning.

We're gonna open our Bibles and start right from the very beginning. Genesis chapter 1. It's our tradition to stand as we read God's word; if you're able to, would you stand with me? Starting in verse 26:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him; male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

As for the reading of God's word, you may be seated.

For those of you who've been with us for the past number of weeks, you might recognize that passage, because we actually looked at this exact passage a few weeks ago. When we were talking about AI and what does it mean to be human, we looked at these verses, and if you remember, one of the things I said was these verses have so much more in them. Well today we're gonna talk about so much more. Today we're gonna continue on and ask, what else does God actually have for us here? Because the book of Genesis, especially these first couple of chapters, sets the foundation for so much that follows. Really everything after it is set here, and so this is our bedrock, our foundation for how we are to understand what happens in the rest of the Bible. In these verses we get not only how God created, but we're really being given the answer to why. Why did God create? What is our purpose and even our place here on earth?

When we looked at this before, we talked about what does it mean to be made in the image of God. We talked about how we are created to reflect God's character, His goodness, his morality, his holiness — all these things we can actually reflect. This morning we want to look at that and ask, how does that relate to our identity as men and women?

Now hear me, this is not gonna be a sermon that's gonna be able to answer every single question — it's just too big. My first draft of this sermon was way too long, so we're gonna cut it down. Really what we're going to do is ask, how do we start this conversation? Where is our foundation for understanding what else comes on?

Here let me suggest that perhaps we've been asking the wrong question. So often the discussion starts something like, "Well, how many genders do you believe there are?" Let me suggest that's the wrong question, or at least the wrong question to start with. Because actually we're called to ask a question before that, and the question is: who defines our identity? Are we primarily self-defined? Are we primarily biologically defined, or are we God-defined? The book of Genesis is showing us that primarily we are defined by God, and actually that is a good thing.

So we're gonna start with this foundation of the triune God, that shows us the shared value of humanity and then the distinction we see between men and women. What I want us to understand in all of this is that our identities as men and women come from God as we equally and uniquely bear his image and represent his glory on the earth. In short, we're made for God's glory.

Let's start with this foundation of the triune God. I'm gonna argue that everything we understand about who we are is going to start with the question of how we understand God. Look back at our passage, verse 26:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

We looked at this before — what does it mean to be made in the image of God? We reflect his character, we reflect his holiness, we can show love, creativity, beauty, all of these things reflecting God's creation of us. What we find is that this is not just a description of us, this is a job description. We are made to reflect God, we are made to be his example of what he is like physically in our world. God made humanity to reflect his glory and character.

Perhaps what we're still wondering about in this verse is that it says, "Let us." Let us make man in our image — and we're meant to ask the question, who is "us"? Who is "us" in this, because it's very clear that God and God alone is creating, and yet we have this plurality. Now if you know your Bibles, you'll know this is meant to be foreshadowing, a little hint at what gets developed later, especially into the New Testament as we see this triune God — that God has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In John chapter one we're told:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

John will go on in his gospel to very clearly show us Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the eternal Son of God who was with God in the beginning as he created. So what we are meant to see is the "let us" right there is talking about at the very least Father and Son. And as you continue to read the Bible, you're gonna realize the Holy Spirit as well is involved in that act of creation. God has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So from the very beginning of the Bible, we are given the foundation of the triune God — albeit it's not fully explained in Genesis. God has always existed as one God in three persons. Now is that hard to understand? Yeah, it is. We still scratch our heads over that because God is greater than we are. But we are shown a very clear picture of both unity and yet distinction within the godhead. John chapter 10, Jesus speaking, puts it very clearly:

I and the Father are one.

Jesus makes that very clear for us. He and the Father are one, he is fully and equally God. In fact, the people he was talking to recognized what he said because they wanted to kill him after that. And yet we also see a distinction in the roles that each member of the Trinity plays. First Peter chapter one puts it this way:

...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

Peter here is drawing out the distinctions we see between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the different roles that they play. When it comes to our salvation, the Father is planning and ordaining, the Holy Spirit is drawing us to obedience to Jesus Christ, as Jesus is the one who died for our sins — each member fully and equally God, yet distinct in the roles that they are playing.

This is the foundation we need in order to understand what verse 27 is saying. Look back with me:

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God He created him; male and female, he created them.

We see in this both the equality of men and women created in the image of God and also the distinction. Just as God has eternally existed in unity and uniqueness, so he has created humanity to reflect him in that united and yet unique way. Ultimately, what we are meant to see here is that we are created by God.

We asked the question at the beginning, who defines our identity? I'm gonna argue the Bible's answer to this is so incredibly beautiful. See, if we are simply the product of biological natural forces — random chances that happened to come together, suited for reproduction — our identity as men and women is nothing more than a facet of survival. It's empty. It doesn't bear the weight of holding our identity. You are more than a biological necessity. If we are essentially self-defined, our identity can really have no purpose beyond self-gratification. It doesn't extend past that. But if we are created by God for a purpose — to display his character, his goodness, his love and grace — it means our identity before God has eternal value. We are created to showcase the infinite majesty of an eternal God so that the watching world around us can see his goodness. Our identity has meaning far beyond ourselves. We are made to know God and to show his goodness to all around us, to actually be a conduit of God's blessing to others.

This is why verse 28 says, "And God blessed them." More than just a stamp of approval, our purpose on earth is to bear God's blessings to one another. What we're intended to see here is that our lives are defined by our relationship to, and even submission under, the will of God. The God who stood before all time has created us with a purpose so grand that any replacement is trite in comparison. You've been commissioned by the King of kings, the Lord of lords — who stands before all time, enthroned in eternal glory — to go and be his representatives on this earth. All other replacements are so incomparable to bearing the image of God. It would be like, as C.S. Lewis puts it, trading a vacation at the beach for making mud pies in the slums. We've been so enamored with our mud that we cannot imagine a greater glory awaits for us.

Instead of seeking our own self-definition, let us seek to reveal the definition of who God has crafted us to be. We're made in His image, and that was not by accident. He did not create us as men and women by happenstance or as mere biological necessity, but as a glorious reflection of who God is. Your life and identity have purpose in the image of God. This is why our foundation is found in our triune God. When that is our root, now we can understand how God has created us all the better.

And we can actually see the shared value of humanity. Both men and women are made in God's image — this is very clear. So the question is, between men and women, what is shared? What is shared between all of humanity? The very first thing we're shown is that God has created all of us to share his purpose for this earth. Look back at verse 28:

And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

God gives to both Adam and Eve this command to be fruitful and multiply. I know most of the time we read that and the first thing we think of is children — you need both men and women for children. Yes, that's true, and that is part of God's good design for this earth, but that's not the end of it. In fact, God has so much more in mind, because his command is to fill the earth with the image and the glory of God. That includes everything that we do — all that we create and work. That includes things like our creativity, our building, our engineering, science, technology, and the building and development of culture and civilization. All of that is included in this mandate to fill the earth with the glory of God. It includes things like even our discipleship, our sanctification, our evangelism, so that others may know the glory of God. God created Adam and Eve to rule over this earth as king and queen, to have a royal kingdom that displayed the glory of God. Men and women both equally share in that work.

I know often the criticism of the biblical position is, "Well, the Bible just wants women to stay at home, barefoot and pregnant — that's it." My answer is always, where did you get that? There's no verse in the Bible that says that. In fact, if you read the Bible, Proverbs 31 has this beautiful description of what the ideal wife looks like:

She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable; her lamp does not go out at night.

Apparently, in God's design, both men and women share this mandate to fill the earth with the glory of God. This is not restricted to just one or the other, but we are both called to work for the glory of God.

The second thing we share, men and women, is our relationship to God — that both of us are called into relationship with God. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians:

Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman.

There are no special privileges. It's not as if men get special access. All of us are called to come before God, and that even includes how we come through Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 3:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ.

Paul's not getting rid of any sort of distinction between men and women, any more than he's getting rid of ethnic differences and distinctions. Rather he's saying that everyone has access to God through Jesus Christ — by faith in him, we are saved.

All of us are made in his image, share in his mandate, share in our approach to salvation through Jesus. And finally, we share a physical and spiritual nature. God made both men and women with both a physical and a spiritual nature. We call this a psychosomatic union — I love that word, it's fun to say — but it means we are both body and soul, connected inseparably. It's not that we are souls who happen to have a body; no, God very intentionally made us both physical and spiritual. And we need to remember that the physical part is not a bad thing. In fact, listen to 1 Corinthians 6:

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Let me suggest this might be the most important verse in this whole discussion. First, we recognize that it is our physical bodies that are made as a place where the Holy Spirit himself is to dwell. We are physically made for spiritual worship — the two are inseparable. It is the purpose of God. Secondly, we need to recognize that our physical body is a gift from God. Notice he says your body is from God. God made you and your body exactly the way that it is. That was not an accident — it was on purpose. Your body is on purpose. Your male or female body is given to you on purpose. Why? To display God's glory, to join in filling the earth with the glory of God, and for worshiping him. God gave you your body for a purpose; it was not an accident. So glorify God in your body.

Now hear me — I know on this side of eternity, we look at our bodies and they are filled with pain. Our bodies are facing decay; we know where the story goes. After God creates, sin comes in and distorts and breaks what God had created. Our bodies grow old, they die, they feel out of sync with who we actually are. But the good news is that Jesus came to redeem a broken world, to deal with the curse of sin that hangs over us, so that for all who trust in Jesus, we have a hope of redemption — that what was broken will one day be made right. Jesus came and he died on the cross to pay for our sins, and he rose again — not just spiritually, not just figuratively, but physically rose with a physical body — to show us that in heaven, our physical bodies shall be redeemed. Our bodies were made good in the beginning, and one day our bodies will be redeemed out of this brokenness to sin.

You are not your own, but we are to glorify God in our bodies. This means recognizing that God has made you with the body you have for a purpose. Men and women, we share the value of being made in God's image to make God known in a relationship with him, and we are to use our physical bodies to glorify God.

Alright, but that leads to the question: what is the distinction between male and female? If all men and women are created with such equality, why is there any difference at all? Is it just that biological reproduction needed to happen? Again, we need a God-sized vision. God created us in order to reflect him, both in our unity and in our uniqueness. Where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always shared a perfect unity and a uniqueness of role, so men and women are created to reflect that. Like a grand symphony — if it only had a melody it would sound empty and lifeless; it needs the harmony and melody played together to complete its beauty — so humanity requires the uniqueness of men and women to be played out so the fuller glory of God is able to be seen.

Men, you can't do it alone. Women, you can't do it alone. It's only when we realize that we are to work together that we see the greater beauty of God. These distinctions are not accidental, they're not meaningless, they're not purposeless. The distinctions between men and women are the intentional work of God the creator, to craft you in his image for your good. I'm gonna argue that these distinctions primarily take place in two areas we can call roles and expressions.

As we continue the story of Genesis, we begin to see God's plan for these roles. If you know Genesis 1 and 2, you know they both cover the creation story, but from very different perspectives. Genesis 1 gives us this cosmic look at everything that God has created. Genesis 2 gives us the on-the-ground look, looking through Adam and asking, how is God creating things? In Genesis 2, God creates Adam first and then gives him a task:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Adam was created to rule over creation, but it wasn't too long until there was a problem. Genesis 2 continues:

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him"

— another good translation says "a helper who corresponds to him." The first time we're ever told in creation that something was not good was Adam alone. So God comes and he fashions Eve. He creates Eve, takes a rib out of Adam's side — not his foot, not his head, but out of his side — and fashions Eve and brings her to Adam. In fact, it's the first time we get poetry in the Bible. Adam is looking at Eve overjoyed because now finally he has someone who actually corresponds to him. In all of creation, there was nothing else that fit, nothing else that could help like Eve. Now finally he had his corresponding part.

In the creation account we see both this unity and distinction of how God creates men and women to function. God creates Adam first, gives him this mandate, and then Eve is created to be this helper. Adam was to lead his wife. Eve was to follow his lead. Why? Because women are inferior? No — we've been saying the opposite this whole time. Why? Because we are created in unity and uniqueness to put on display God's glory. Just as the Son follows the lead of the Father, so Adam was to lead and Eve was to follow.

Men and women are created to fulfill different roles. The easiest example is that found in marriage — that's exactly what Genesis 2 is leading us to understand. Men are called to be husbands who lead; women are called to be wives who follow their husbands' leadership. The Bible even uses the word "submit." Ephesians 5 says:

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

I know terms like leadership and submission always sound bad, but it's because we're not reading our context right. Men, how are you to lead? You are to lead in love like Christ, sacrificing even yourself for the good of your wife. Men, if you are leading in such a way that your wife is not built up and blessed, you're not leading like Christ. Wives, it doesn't say you are to be a doormat, silent and unthinking. The image of submission is once again Christ submitting to the Father. It's the picture of the way that the Trinity is functioning. It's a picture of how the church submits to Christ. Biblical submission is intelligent, willing, and purposeful action to support and further the leadership of the one you're following. Wives, your husbands should be blessed by you following his lead.

Hear me — if that's the way our marriages worked, it would look very different, wouldn't it? If every action of a loving husband was for the betterment of his wife, and the wife was committed to following his leadership, and the two worked together properly as a team, it would show us something of the glory of the way God is. That is God's design. That was the intent of marriage — to show us something of who God is, to show us his majesty. God creates men and women to fulfill these various roles in order that we might see more of his goodness. Roles like father and mother, both called to raise children, and yet the way that we do that is unique.

Now let me be very clear — it does not say all women submit to all men. That's not what the Bible says. It's talking specifically to the role of a husband and a wife in order to put on display God's glory. And we should recognize there are areas in life where those roles are going to apply more and less.

But the distinction between men and women doesn't actually stop there. Rather, it comes out uniquely in how we express God's glory. Let me argue that this is probably the biggest challenge for our discussion, because the expression of our gender — as created by God — will look different for different people. There is no one expression of femininity that all women are going to hold to. It's not as if all women must like pink and all boys must like blue. No, that's not from the Bible. That's not what God calls us to do. In fact, God creates us very uniquely. And yet we are called to display his glory specifically through our masculinity and our femininity. Our gender is not defined by liking the right items in a line-up, but rather the expression of who God has made us to be.

Nancy Pearcey wrote a book called Love Thy Body, and in it she says:

We should respect our bodies as the handiwork of the creator and live in harmony with our bodies, live in congruence with who God has made us to be.

Our goal is not to ignore your gender but actually to express who God creates us to be. We are called to express God's character uniquely as he's created us. Let me take for example Galatians 5:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

None of that list is uniquely for men or uniquely for women — we share all of those; they are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And yet the way that we will express them will look different. Let me take gentleness for example. Men, the way that you are called to express gentleness will be unique to you. For you to be gentle means you will actually have to use your physical strength in a controlled way in order to bless others. I remember growing up I had two older sisters, 6 and 9 years older, and we would get into fights. When you're 7 or 8 and you're fighting with a sister 6 years older than you, you lose — pretty much every single time. Me and my sister Sarah would fight often. Eventually, as we grew up, she left home for a while, she traveled, she came back. During that time, I hit puberty. And we got into a fight once again after she got back. I'll be honest — I genuinely hurt my sister. I remember it was the very first time that it ever happened. I didn't realize I could. I suddenly realized, OK, now for me to exercise gentleness takes on a new reality, because suddenly I was stronger than I used to be.

Now hear me — I'm not saying that women don't have to exercise that form of gentleness. Certainly there is overlap. What I am saying is there is also distinction. Women, your expression of gentleness may look very different. Your expression of gentleness may have far more to do with the words that you choose to use, how you speak to one another, your tone, even how you build up or tear down one another. Gentleness may have far more to do with words. Now again, does that mean men don't have to worry about that? Of course they do. But as we recognize the overlap, let us also celebrate the distinctions of how God has called us to put on display his glory.

Women, your femininity is a gift — it is a good thing; use it. Display God's glory through your life. Men, your masculinity is good, a gift of God; use it to display his glory through your life. Together we will find a greater picture of the glory of God than any of us can find on our own. The distinctions between men and women are given by God so that together we may reflect him.

Now as we close, let me just say — we've been looking at the ideal case in all of this. That was the goal, to talk about the beauty of what God has designed, but we need to recognize that's not always the world we live in. We don't always find that our bodies are perfectly in sync with how we are feeling. We wrestle with issues of gender and how we actually express that. We've seen the roles that God has created abused for grabbing power or exercising domination over others. We live in a broken world, and the brokenness of sin has affected every part. If we're honest, we can recognize that same rebellion against God's design in our own hearts. We've used our own gifts and distinctions not for unity, but for breaking others down.

The good news is this is why Jesus came. Jesus came not only to deal with the brokenness out there, but to deal with the brokenness of our own hearts. Jesus came to this earth, lived as a man, embodied the way that we are through the brokenness of a sinful world, and yet he never sinned once. He did that so that he could die in our place, so that he could deal with our sin before God. He rose again to show us we have a hope of eternal life with him.

Hear me — this message is not "do better," but it is about knowing the one who did. It's about not living a perfect life, but trusting Jesus who did so in our place. It's not about the struggles you have gone through, but what Jesus has done in our place. Our call, as we see the brokenness of our world around us, is to trust in Jesus Christ. He is making all things new.

God has made us to reflect his goodness and his character. Who we are is founded on God himself. He determines our identity. He is the one who made us — both men and women — on purpose, in his image, so that together we might display his glory. We are to live out who God has created us to be in the salvation of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that you have loved us, that you have cared for us, that even as we have gone our own way, even as we have ignored who you have created us to be, you have sent Jesus Christ. Lord, you have sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins so that we could be redeemed, so that we have the hope of eternal life with you. Heavenly Father, help us to live out — through Jesus Christ, in the strength of the Holy Spirit — who you have designed us to be. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.