Gender Identity

What is the culture’s modern thinking on gender identity?

Sex

Refers to the biological attributes associated with being male, female, or intersex.

Includes physical characteristics like chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy.

Often categorized as "assigned at birth" (e.g., "assigned female at birth" or "assigned male at birth") because it reflects the label given based on observable anatomy at birth.

Gender

Refers to a person's deeply held sense of self as male, female, a blend of both, neither, or another identity entirely.

Is a social and cultural construct, influenced by societal norms, expectations, and roles.

Can align with the sex assigned at birth (cisgender) or differ from it (transgender, nonbinary, etc.).

Why Distinguish Between the Two?

This distinction recognizes that:

A person's gender identity is not always determined by their biological sex.

Gender is influenced by cultural, psychological, and individual experiences.

For transgender individuals, their gender identity does not align with the sex assigned to them at birth.

What are some factors that led to our culture embracing the ideas of gender identity?

The Notion of the “Self” or the “Real Me”

Biblical Notions of the Self Ask:

How do I understand myself in regards to my obligations to and dependence on my Creator God?

How do I understand myself in regards to my obligations to and dependence on others?

How does education train me to honor God and serve my community?

Is “growing up” a process by which I learn to control my feelings, to act with restraint, and sacrifice my desires to the glory of God and the good of the community?

Modern Notions of the Self Ask:

Am I to understand myself as born free and able to create my own identity?

Does education enable me to express outwardly what I feel inwardly?

Is “growing up” a process not of learning restraint but of capitalizing on opportunities to perform?

The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to those feelings.

The modern self also expects that society at large will recognize and affirm this behavior.

This view of “self” is called expressive individualism.

Expressive Individualism

Expressive individualism holds that each person has a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized.

The culture of authenticity is one where each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity, and that it is important to find and live out one’s own, as against surrendering to conformity with a model imposed on us from outside, by society, or the previous generation, or religious or political authority.

What Is A Biblical Worldview Of Gender Identity?

Human identity does not begin with gender but with being made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26–27

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.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

The image refers to elements in the human makeup that enable the fulfillment of human destiny. The image is the powers of personality that make humans, like God, beings capable of interacting with other persons, of thinking and reflecting, and of willing freely.

God’s creation was for definite purposes. The human was intended to know, love, and obey God, and live in harmony with other humans.

The human was given the task of exercising dominion over the rest of creation.

Humans in the image of God contain intelligence, will, and emotions, enabling them to have a relationship to God and fellow humans.

Mark 12:16–17

16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.

Being made in the image of God means the core of our identity is belonging to God.

Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of the image of God apart from ever being married or living out his gender identity in a sexual context.

God created us male and female first for His good purposes, not for our desires.

Genesis 2:18–25

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 1:28

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.”

Though our ultimate identity is found in God and being made in His image, God did create us male and female for His good purposes in the world.

Humanity cannot fulfill the fullness of his purposes without the female.

The female cannot fulfill the fullness of her purposes without the male.

Even in the case of those who are called to be single, they are still given distinguished roles within the church family that we see in Timothy and Titus.

Be careful not to mix cultural expectations of male and female with biblical expectations.

Cultural Expectations of Men:

Success and Status: Men are often expected to pursue wealth, power, and status as measures of success.

Emotional Suppression: Men are often discouraged from expressing vulnerability or emotions like sadness and fear.

Independence: Men are encouraged to be self-reliant and avoid dependence on others.

Aggression: Society may expect men to demonstrate dominance and assertiveness.

Biblical Expectations of Men:

Servant Leadership: Men are called to lead with humility and serve others sacrificially.

Emotional Transparency: Biblical figures like David openly expressed emotions, including lament and joy. Jesus also wept.

Dependence on God: Men are called to rely on God for strength and guidance and to be in community with other believers.

Peacemaking: The Bible calls men to be peacemakers and to turn away from violence.

Cultural Expectations of Women:

Physical Appearance: Women are often judged primarily on beauty standards, and value is placed on external appearance.

Emotional Over Intellectual: Women are often perceived as being more emotional and less intellectual.

Do It All - Superwoman: Women are now expected to excel in both their careers and family lives simultaneously.

Politeness Above Truth Telling: Women are expected to be polite over and above telling the truth.

Biblical Expectations of Women:

Inner Beauty: Women are called to cultivate inner beauty by pursuing godliness with a gentle and quiet spirit.

Wholistic Personhood: Women, as well as men, are called to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Interdependent Service: Women are called to be helpers, teachers, lovers of their husbands and children, and servants of God’s church.

Speaking the Truth in Love: Women are called to speak the truth rejecting flattery and gossip.

We All Have Desires That We Are Called To Reject, Not Gratify

Matthew 22:36–40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Scriptures are clear that we were created to have all of our needs met and desires satisfied in a love relationship with God which would lead us to love our neighbor.

Yet, when humanity fell into sin, our desires were corrupted and redirected away from God and toward self.

Genesis 3:4–7

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

It was the temptation of choosing right and wrong for themselves, and the desire for something God forbid that led to humanity’s fall into sin.

They knew they were naked, because they were no longer clothed in the righteousness of God.

Genesis 3:16

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,

but he shall rule over you.”

We notice that one of our sinful and corrupted desires is to reject the order and roles of man and woman that God put in place.

Ephesians 2:1–3

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

1 Peter 2:11

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

It is not wise or godly advice to tell someone to follow their heart.

The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things.

We all have fleshly desires that are against God’s glory and do not lead to our good, but our destruction.

Our Hope Is In The Power Of The Gospel To Give Us New Desires

Ezekiel 36:26

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

When you are born again, you are given a new heart that desires God, His goodness, and His ways over all things.

You will still carry around your old flesh until you see Jesus face to face, so now, it is time to battle against the flesh by the power of the Spirit.

In the Christian life, you are not simply called to put off old desires, but to exchange them in order to put on godly desires.

Galatians 5:16–26

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.