God’s Good Design

Mila Birthday - 7

Catechism

Q: Where is Christ now?

A: Christ rose bodily from the grave on the third day after his death and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Colossians 3:17–21 (ESV)

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

—-

[Context]

Last week we begun dealing with the blueprint for a godly home by running away, not to avoid the issue, but so we could then turn around so that we might gain a broader perspective and clarity on this teaching about a space that is common in some way for all of us.

So last week, we begun by going back to Genesis chapter 1 and getting a foundation for what - according to God - a human is!

This morning we are going to take one step closer to the Biblical houshold in Colossians by looking closer at Genesis 2.

—

[Intro - God’s good design]

The book of beginnings.

In the beginning God who always was, created everything from nothing for his own glory.

And the pinaccle, the apex of his creation is humanity.

Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

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

The species that we call humanity, is unique among God’s creation, becuase it, we, alone among all of God’s creatures, are made like God with the purpose of representing him!

Now, I want you to see something that … is foundational… basic…

But there is only 1 distinguishing factor that given to divide, or distinguish between the members of the human catagory. Only 1 distinguishing mark.

It’s not, race, or height, or hair colour, or Enneagram type, it’s not whether they are a scruncher or a folder, it’s not - loves coriander or are the right side of the argument… no… there is only one.

Male and female God created them.

When God created living creatures - and explicitly humans he created us either male or female.

According to God - we are created as Boys or girls - the gender reveal party is only blue or pink.

Now… as I said last week, this is one of those Biblical truths which is immensely basic. Foundational. But once again, it is a point, a topic, that the culture we find ourselves in is largely confussed about.

Christine Jorgensen, was one of the first people in the public eye to undergo sex reassignment surgery back in the 1950’s. Who said this: “my true self was placed in a man’s body” “Nature made a mistake, which I have corrected.”

For this person, and many others, they can come to such a conclusion becuase - they beleive themselves to be the outcome of billions of years of mindless, heartless, natural evolution - through which the human species reigns as victors, as the fittest, and due to our high mental capacity and consiousness we are equipped to be autonomous, self-determining beings.

And so, if you feel you are something, then that feeling is the highest authority, irrespective of objective truths.

You are what you feel.

All becuase the foundation is wrong.

As we looked at last week, human beings aren’t the cosmic accident of colliding atoms but the considered creations of God who reigns over the entire cosmos.

And in his world, being a male, or a female, is according to God’s good design, and is for his glory.

Now, since we live in a culture that in many spaces is confused about this topic, I think it is also apparent that Christians whom though we may affirm binary gender or sexuality, male and female, we can still be confused about the beauty and the purpose of God’s good design for each.

To let you in on the plan, I want you to see how according to God male and female are equal, but different, and not interchangeable, and both necessary for the mission and glory of Jesus!

Genesis 2:5–9

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:15–25 (ESV)

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 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.

When it comes to discussing who we are according to God, we should start where he does, with how we are equal.

[1. Men and women are Equal]

Male and Female were both created as as image bearers. We are all created equal before God in his likeness to represent him. - As we just read, when we zoom in on the 6th day, we see that there was no creatures of all the animals that God made, who was a fit companion for Adam. - So God takes a rib from his side. and creates the woman - one who corresponds to him. like him.

Before God as sinners. In Adam. Psalm 14:2–3 (ESV) 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

by faith we are equally recipients of grace, made new in Christ to live as truly human. Galatians 3:28

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

You know, in the Christian space that wants to promote God’s good design and wants to fight the culture than aims to flatten the differences between men and women, there can be a real tendency to start with, how male and female are different.

Or even why they are different, and only talk about the different roles and responsbilities that God has assigned.

And even if they are well and good and faithful, we have to start where God starts.

Male and female are equally valuable, becuase we are equally made in the image of God.

We may be fooled into thinking that we are far removed, either geographically in the west or historically in the 21st century from the idea one sex is more valuable than the other.

And sure, the value of an heir may be historic, but well firstly, in most states in Australia sex selection is valid reason for abortion.

And… If you follow ourcultures thinking to it’s logical end, a daughter would be more valuable than a son - becuase boys grow up to be men and men are toxically dangerous to society.

We have to start with the equal value and dignity and worth that God has designed male and female with. Becuase as we come to how we are distinct, we must not lose our grasp on this fact, our differences both in design and order and responsbility, do not negate our equality before God!

[2. Different]

We see this most explicitly in the roles and responsibilities that God reveals for the man and for the woman.

He gives the Man the responsbility of being the Head, and woman the Helper

We have to remember, this is a theological history, not a scientific textbook - so it uses theological catagories.

Man is the head, woman is the helper.

(Let me also note that we will get into the details of what these things mean over the next couple of weeks , but for now, i just want to throw them out to highlight the differences in God’s good design).

Notice here, in Genesis 2 that the Man is:

created first - there is an order in God’s creation. Now you might go… thats just incedental, it doesn’t mean anything. Well according to the NT it does. When Paul is teaching in 1 Timothy about conduct within the Church for men and women and specifcally address prohibiting women from teaching and exersicing authority over a man he says in 2:13: ‘becuase Adam was formed first, then Eve.’

It is Adam, who is given the Authority of naming. Finally, for now, did you notice that God brings all the animals to Adam to name, and then God brings the crowning jewel of creation - naked mind you… and he goes woman! Adam is given the responsbility, the authority to name.

Given the preistly role of working and keeping the graden (notice the prohibition)

Genesis 2:15 (ESV)

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

The language is the exact same langauge that is used of the responsbilities given to the preists in the temple.

Eden is the Holy Space, where God dwells, and as the head, Adam is given the responsbility of working and keeping (protecting).

This is certainly linked with the prohibition. Did you notice how the very next verse:

Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV)

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God gives this provision and the prohibition to Adam, before Eve is even created. As the head, he had the responsibility of keeping the garden holy.

This is why, though it is Eve who is deceived by the serpent to disobey God, it is Adam who stood by passively and is held responsible.

It was the man’s job to lead his wife, to protect his wife, to keep the garden.

Gen 3 - is a shock - ADAM should have been the snake crusher!

and so, he is held responsible:

held responsible for not leading his wife

Romans 5:12 ‘Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin…!

The woman is

made as a helper fit for him. We must note, this isn’t a derogatory term - for God is described as the helper of his people. Psalm 13, 54, 121, Isaiah 41.

Whilst the man is outward focussed, on working & keeping the Garden - the woman is orientated towards others, firstly to her head, the husband in this case and then ultimately God, but also to others -

She is the Life Giver - Genesis 3:20 - 20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

The helper makes beautiful that which is rugged, nurtures and cherishes life, is highly tender and gentle and creates the space for the people to flourish.

Now I mentioned how these differences are communicated in theological terms, but they nevertheless correlate to physical or biological ones:

Bodies

I did some extra research for this sermon this week - I asked my 6 year old and 3 year old son’s what is different between boys and girls. The first thing they said was that boys and girls have different bodies. - they answered it as you would expect boys to - but that’s what they meant.

That is becuase the 6 and 3 yr old made the profoundly wise observation that identity and (sex)gender are at one with our bodies.

When Christine Jorgensen said - “my true self was placed in a man’s body” - he was seperating gender, from the body.

And you know, culturally we are doing this on steriods at the moment! For example, under our new freedom of speech laws, if I was to say something like:

a woman has ovaries.

Hypothetically. And if someone was offended by that, beucase of how they feel, I could be legally liable.

Crazy.

But according to God, our bodies are integral to our identity as creatures made in God’s image as male or female.

Certainly, The fall has corrupted everything, and now we experience the gradual decay of sin, and there may be times when you feel uncomfortable in your body, or it doesn’t work how you thought it should - but God created out bodies as good, as part of his design.

‘Differences between men and women are not merely socially constructed: they are rooted in God’s revelation and evident in physical realities.

Likewise, we are different in demeanor…

Demeanor

1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 (ESV)

7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

1 Thessalonians 2:11–12 (ESV)

11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

This isn’t to say that a man can’t be gentle or a woman exhortational… Paul is speaking about himself in both cases, although when he describes femininity expressed in motherhood or masculinity expressed in fatherhood it is described in these terms.

It’s good to be a Girl.

It’ good to be a boy!

These differences which are by God’s good design Should not only give us greater clarity on who we are, but also cause us to recognise the beauty of God’s diverse creation of male and female.

Furthermore, we must recognise, that becuase God has designed us as different, we are:

[3. Not interchangeable and essential for the Mission of God]

Mission (Society, Home, Church)

The only thing in creation that God see’s is not good, is man who is alone!

In the First commission, God commanded humanity to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ - and in Genesis 2 he gives the union of Marriage to a man and a woman to fulfill that.

1 Corinthians 11:11–12

11 in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.

Essential for the Glory of Christ!

I want to end with the most important point, though logically it may not fit best.

To do so, would we ask: ‘Why did God create humanity as male and female?’

He didnt have to. He could have just made humans genderless with some means of reproduction other than the one he did. but he designed us to be male and female - why?

In Ephesians chapter 5, when Paul is outlining the beauty and responsibilities within marriage - he quotes Genesis 2:24

Ephesians 5:31–32

31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

When he says this mystery is profound, he is referring to the institution of marriage at creation, in Genesis two.

And this mystery, at the creation of everything, the unnion between a man and a woman - refers to Christ and the Church. It was a A means of glorifying the love that Christ has for his Bride, the church.

Therefore, the all-seeing, all knowing God, created humanity as male and female, so that he would be glorified as redeemer. The one who came, rescued his bride from the teeth of the dragon and will live with her happily ever after.

What God’s word is saying in Ephesians 5, is that, it isnt as if God unthinkingly made humanity male and female and then after the fact, stumbled upon the idea that maybe the union of the two was like a good metaphor that looks back on what Jesus has accomplished.

No… Ephesians is saying, that God intentionally designed humanity as male and female, united as one flesh in marriage, to point forward to Jesus the messiah adn the union that he has won with his church.

This means that true manhood, and true womanhood are each ‘indispensable in God’s purpose to display the fullness of the glory of the Son.’ (Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-ultimate-meaning-of-true-womanhood).

That’s why earlier in Ephesians 5 it says:

Ephesians 5:24–25 (ESV)

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

If you are a woman, God designed your femininity in direct relationship to the central event of history, the death of the Son of God. //

You are not interchangeable, and equally essential in proclaiming and living for the glory of Jesus according to God’s good design.