Gender

We as human beings need to organize the events and the makeup of our lives into a story that gives us hope. Without such a story, we are, in the words of anthropologist Clifford Geirst, “A kind of formless monster with neither sense of direction or power of self-control in the chaos of vague emotions.” If we do not have a grand story or great end into which we see our lives, we are left with simply the gratification of desires, and the endless pursuit of immediate satisfaction, which offers no hope at all for our world.

I believe that when it comes to gender, we as a society do not have an overarching story to make sense of our lives and our gender, and so we have no avenue for hope with regards to the many issues of gender, and all we have is the pursuit immediate happiness in the chaos of vague emotions.

What we need is a story to make sense of it all.

The good news is that there is such a grand narrative that makes sense of our lives and our world, and when we view gender through the lens of this grand story, the blurry lines come into focus, and we can begin to understand its meaning and purpose.

Look with me at the first page of this story, in .

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”

I remember seeing Star Wars for the first time when I was a kid, and that big yellow text comes on the screen, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” The movie is silent until the big theme song blares. This is how epic stories begin, and this is how the biblical story begins, “In the beginning...”

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the deep.” Now as modern readers, you probably have an image of the planet earth, one of those iconic images that we’ve seen. If that is the image in your head, this verse doesn’t really make any sense. But remember, humanity has had that image of planet earth for only about 50 years or so. So Genesis, written about 3500 years ago, does not have that picture in view here, so neither should we.

Now, formless and void is one way of translating these Hebrew words. The phrase is actually quite memorable, because it rhymes “tohu va vohu.” It can be translated formless and void or empty, but I think a better way to think of it is “wild and waste.” The earth was wild and waste. Tohu va vohu are used elsewhere in the Bible to describe a wilderness or desert. So the story begins with the earth in a state of tohu va vohu, wild and waste, and is all about taking this chaotic and barren land and turning it into something wonderful. We see there is darkness over the face of the deep, but along with the darkness is something else, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Now, what happens when the presence and goodness and glory of God comes into contact with darkness? Good things happen. And indeed, throughout the story of , God turns the earth that is wild and waste into something wonderfully good. The word for good in Hebrew is tov. So God turns tohu va vohu into tov. Do you hear the wordplay?

What’s fascinating about this story is that everything that God does in is for the good of humanity. Humans will be the pinnacle of God’s creation, and everything he does and makes and orders is for their benefit. Look at verse 3.

But this is very important. Good for who?

“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”

Do you see that God is bringing order to the tohu va vohu? He separates the light and the darkness, and calls them Day and Night. Now is Day a thing that you make? No! It is a period of time that is meaningful to whom, specifically? To humans! God is creating time. He’s creating structure and order and meaning in the midst of chaos for the benefit of one creature in particular.

This is what is all about. In verse 11 we see that God creates vegetation. Specifically we are told that up springs fruit trees. Well what about all the other trees like pine and oak and aspen? Well of course, yes he created those too, but the story is telling us something in particular. Who benefits from fruit trees? Humans! Everything God is doing in bringing order and structure to the wild waste of the earth is for the benefit of humans. In chapter 2 we read this in verse 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.

Who benefits from things that are simply pleasant to the sight? Who benefits from things that are not useful in the sense that we can eat or use, but things that are simply beautiful? Who benefits from beautiful sunsets or the brilliance of an azalea? Humans! is all about God bringing order to the earth, and specifically ordering it for beauty and benefit.

And so at the pinnacle of creation, he makes humans. Now if everything that God has made and ordered up to this point has been for beauty and benefit for humans, than it is not a stretch to say that God also makes humans themselves in such a way as to bring them beauty and benefit. Let’s look at 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.

So immediately we see an important distinction being made. All the other creatures that God made were created “according to its kind.” Again and again this phrase is repeated as God creates the animals, the fish, the birds, even the plants. But here we see that humans are created not according to its kind but in God’s own image.

Now the word for man in this verse is the Hebrew word adam, which is where we get the name Adam. But adam is the generic Hebrew word for mankind or humanity. It’s taken from adamah which is the word for ground, the substance from which God forms the man in . Adam comes from adamah - kind of like how earthlings come from the earth. So in the Bible’s first poem in verse 27, we see that God creates adam, or mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created adam, or mankind, and then remarkably, the poem goes on to describe adam as male and female - male and female he created them.

So humanity is created in the image of God, and right from the beginning we see that humanity is ordered as male and female, man and woman. Humanity as a whole reflects the image of God, and humanity consists of men and women, two genders that are different one another.

What am I getting at? God is not wholly reflected in one gender or the other, but rather it is their oneness in difference that reflects God. It is their unity in diversity that reflects the image of God. Men and women are united, yet diverse. They are the one, and yet different. And in this, they reflect the image of God.

I know this is a little trippy, but I think it will begin to make sense as we continue. The only time in Genesis that God refers to himself as “us” is when he creates humans. “Let us make man in our image.” This is the only time he refers to himself in this way in the entire book. Why? Because this is a hint that the relationship between male and female is a reflection of the triune nature of God. Where else in theological studies have we heard phrases like oneness in difference or unity in diversity? We hear it when we talk about the trinitarian nature of God, that God is one in three persons. God is a unity, one God but in the Trinity we see a diversity of personality and roles, which each person constantly pursuing the beauty and benefit of the other.

So it is with men and women. If we look at , we see in verse 18 that God says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” If everything God orders and creates is for beauty and benefit, and everything was good for that purpose, here we see that humanity without the diversity of male and female is not good! And so God says, “I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now, we don’t have time to truly explain how powerful the title of Helper is, except to say that it in no way designates an inferior person, but the title of Helper is most often applied to God in his rescuing acts. What I want you to see though is that God makes for the man a partner that is “fit for him.” The image is that of two puzzle pieces that fit together to form a complete picture. When you look at a puzzle, the pieces are not the same, but they also aren’t randomly different. They are differentiated such that they can create a complete whole. That is how God created gender to work: that men and women together, different as they are in a whole host of ways, reflect the image of God. It is beautiful and it is beneficial. And it is good.

[Now, how is it beneficial to humanity that God created us as male and female? Well the most obvious answer is that as men and women, we can fulfill the task that God gives us in verse 28:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it...”

According to the Bible, gender is linked to our biological sex, and we can see that one primary way in which it is beneficial and beautiful that we are gendered as man and woman is procreation - multiplying. Now, we are not the only creature made male and female, but our gender differences are unique because the way we relate to God’s world, as image bearers, is different than animals. When animals multiply, they make more animals. When a girl rabbit and a boy rabbit really love each other…they simply make more rabbits; but when humans multiply, we make families, neighborhoods, cities, farms, and art, and music, and culture. Animals, male and female, simply make more of themselves, but humans, male and female, remake the earth. And how could it be otherwise? After all we are imaged after the Great Creator!]

And so we see that there is incredible beauty and benefit in being made man and woman. God calls it very good.

But sadly this wonderful state of affairs only lasts until the third page of the the story, because when we get to chapter three, things take a downward turn. Many of us know what happens, and even if we don’t know the story, we know that something has happened, because this wonderful state of affairs is not how the world is today.

The serpent, this evil deceiver, persuades the humans to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In chapter 3 verse 4 we see the deception:

“But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The tragic part of this is that they already were like God! But up to this point, who was the provider of good in the story? Who had created everything for beauty and benefit? God had. But humanity seized autonomy from God and the opportunity to define good for themselves, and sin enters the world and begins to undo all that God had made and worked for, turning creation back into tohu va vohu.

And how does this affect the relationship between the two genders? Verse 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.

Before they were naked and unashamed. There was an innocent trust and acceptance of one another, but now as they each can decide on their own good, the trust and acceptance is broken, and they hide from one another. When confronted by God, they blame one another and cast judgment. And at the end of the chapter we see that their desires for one another are corrupted and twisted.

Fundamentally, their gender differences that were a source of completion (providing beauty and benefit) is now, because of sin, a source of oppression, exploitation, and division.

And this is the world that we know and live in, where gender is used to exclude and devalue others.

Every culture on earth creates categories for appropriate gender behavior, virtues, and characteristics. Men are assertive, women are passive. Men are initiators, women are connectors. Men wear hats, women wear makeup. It’s important that we recognize that these are indeed cultural categories, not biblical. In fact, the Bible is rather silent when it comes to prescribing gender expressions aside from the clear testimony that God created humanity as male and female. Even in the passages that speak directly to gender roles, such as the texts about husbands and wives in the New Testament, while they explain overarching ideas like the husband as the head and mutual submission, the actual nuts and bolts of how that is fleshed out in the marriage is not described or prescribed. So it’s important we recognize that gender stereotypes do not have biblical support; but rather that it is culture that prescribes gender categories.

Now, when an individual doesn’t measure up or fall neatly into these categories, there arises in them a sense of distance between the individual and their gender identity. At times this distance is self-imposed, and other times it is forced on them by society. In our culture, when a woman is ambitious, driven, and type A, they are seen as overbearing, not in keeping with their gender’s pattern of appropriate behavior. When a man is artistic, soft-spoken, and not athletic, they are unmanly, not in keeping with their gender’s pattern of appropriate behavior. Do you see how this is directly related to and the distortion of what it means to be a man and woman, when differences were a source of completion and not a reason for exclusion?

What happens in an environment like this is that legitimate God given gifts are invalidated simply because they don’t fit the cultural pattern for their gender. People who don’t fit neatly into these categories see nothing of themselves in the world of their gender, which plants seeds of doubt that can have massively destructive effects.

People are deeply affected by these consequences of humanity choosing to define what is good. We desperately look for some relief and help from the exclusion and “othering” of people. We endlessly create new labels and gender categories within which we can find belonging. We change our bodies to match our inner feelings. But none of these are true solutions, because they don’t get at the true nature of the problem which started all the way back at page three of the story!

But remember what we said at the beginning: what we need is a grand story that can give us hope, and that’s just what we get with the gospel - the good news that Jesus brings. Look at chapter 3 verse 14. God confronts the serpent that deceived humans so thoroughly that our differences are now sources of exclusion.

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. [This is one of those very, very important verses in the Bible.] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Notice what God says here. He is speaking to the source of the problem, patient zero. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her’s. That doesn’t mean that humans won’t get along with snakes. God is drawing a line in the sand and saying there will be two paths for humanity to follow, those who give in to the temptation and lure of the serpent and those who align and cling to and hope in God’s promises. Because look what is promised: “he will crush your head.” So there will come from the line of the woman, an offspring who will crush not the head of baby snakes, but he will crush the head of the source of the evil and brokenness itself.

And how will this one crush the source of evil and division itself? He steps on him, crushing his head, but in doing so this hero will be wounded as the means of his crushing. Somehow this hero will come and will take into himself the venom of this serpent - what is this venom? It’s this evil, and oppression, and exclusion, and division. And this hero takes it all into himself, absorbing it as the very means by which he crushes it - kills it dead as we’d say in the South.

This is of course exactly what happens at the cross of Jesus, when Jesus takes into himself the sin of the world, the oppression, the evil, the exclusion, and he takes it into himself, nailing it to the cross in his body, and defeating the source of gender brokenness.

What then are the implications then if the source of gender brokenness has been defeated? The implication is that gender is redeemed. Gender can once again be for the beauty and benefit of humanity because of Jesus. This is what the Apostle Paul means when he declares that in Christ there is no longer male and female - he isn’t doing away with gender, he’s redeeming it! Gender is no longer a way of oppressing and exploiting and excluding. You see, while we exclude and devalue the “other,” and have turned difference into division, the God of the Bible embraced those who didn’t measure up. He didn’t consign us to judgment, but embraced us. And now, knowing this kind of grace and love gives us the basis for an identity that doesn’t need exclusion to form itself. Gender differences can once again provide what is lacking in us, completing us rather than threaten us. Jesus allows us to find oneness in difference once more.

This is the great story which gives hope to the many gender issues we face today. It is the grand narrative that helps make sense of what it means and for what purpose we are male and female. And the task that we are given is to continue to walk in the way of Jesus so that gender differences can once again be a source of blessing and beauty as we together reflect the image of our God as puzzle pieces made for something greater than ourselves. Our task is to tell this story, the story of creation, sin, and especially the redemption that is offered by Jesus.

If you have friends or family members that struggle with gender issues, be patient with them. There are many, many reasons for struggling with gender in our world today, and the majority of those reasons include deep and painful wounds. Your task in their life is to be a signpost to Jesus, who was wounded for their sake, to make them whole, to make them beautiful, and to give them a place where they truly belong among his people and in his kingdom.