Gender and Identity

 

In the last two posts we saw how marriage and birth both reiterate and recapitulate the Gospel.  Every time a child is born and a couple is wed, the Gospel is preached.

The reason we feel such gladness around these events is because they are images of deep spiritual truths that God wants us to know and understand.  These events give us a glimpse of our eternal home.  We are wired to feel joy at a wedding and when a baby is delivered because we have been wired for eternity.

Our sexuality is an essential aspect of marriage and child bearing, and our sexuality is by definition rooted in our bodies as male and female.  This means that the wondrous story of everlasting life and redemption is told in part through our bodies, both as males and females, through our masculinity and our femininity.  The male body has its part to play in telling God's eternal story, and the female body has its part to play as well.  Both are essential.  Both are good and beautiful in their own unique ways.  The similarities and differences between the genders are purposeful and intentional.  Without them both operating as God designed the messages God wants to communicate cannot be seen and heard.

The Creation narrative in the first chapters of Genesis tells us that humans are made in the image of God.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made, fashioned as living icons of the wisest and most beautiful Being in all creation.  Every man and woman who has ever lived is an image of the living God.  We are replicas of the Sovereign Lord of the Universe, and His majesty and glory shines through our masculinity and femininity.  Just as sunlight passes through a prism to create a spectrum of color, God chose to reveal himself on earth in both the male body and the female body.

The genders are gifts from God and shine forth his goodness.  To be male and to be masculine is a beautiful thing and illustrates the goodness of God.  To be female and to be feminine is a beautiful thing and illustrates the goodness of God.

When God finished all of His creative work, He surveyed all that He had created and said it was good.  Then He turned and saw that Adam was alone and He said, "It is not good that a man should be alone."  God recognized that the male body, on its own, is incomplete.  The male body was meant to interact with the female body, and the female body, in turn, was meant to find completion in the male body.  And so, God formed Eve as His grand finale.  When He brought Eve to Adam, the male-female pair was complete and God said, "This is very good."

A hammer only makes sense in a world where there are nails.  Nails do not do us much good without a hammer.  Hammer and nail work together to complete a specified task, they complement each other.  This is their design and when they are used properly, it is a good thing.  Likewise, male and female bodies were designed to work together like a hammer and nail to bring glory to God through the institution of marriage and through reproduction.  This is God's good design for human life and flourishing.

We may take a hammer and use it to smash a window, and we may take a nail and use it scratch the paint on a car.  These are not the good uses for which these tools are designed.  Just as a hammer and nail may be used outside of their intended purpose, human sexuality is all too often used outside of its intended purpose.  A hammer and nail exist in order to construct things, to build things, and human sexuality exists to glorify God through husbands and wives enjoying the conjugal union, and, if God should so bless, bringing children into the world.

The essential nature of what makes us male and female is found not only in our minds and souls, but in our bodies.  The physical, biological differences between men and women are integral parts of the narrative that God is trying to communicate in the world.  A biological male cannot have a relationship with another biological male and communicate the truth God is trying to communicate, even if one or the other believes he is a spiritual female.  The same is true for biological females, a female-female union disrupts God's eternal designs for the sexual union, even if one believes that she has a male soul.  God's design is for biological males to join in union with biological females in the covenant of marriage.  This is the natural and good use of our bodies and sexuality.  (I do find it strange that I have to emphasize "biological," but these are strange days.)

Our culture, in its sexual confusion and rebellion against God, has taken the goodness of masculinity, femininity and sexuality and is using it contrary to God's good design.  This has been made manifest in the sexual revolution and the ongoing LGBTQ+ movement.  These are contrary to the goodness, beauty and flourishing God intends for our sexuality, it is a misuse and an abuse of our bodies.

I write this with nothing but love and compassion in my heart for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community.  Jesus asks me to love everyone and while I am seldom successful, I do my best.  But love demands that I write.  A loving parent will not tell her child that drinking bleach is a good thing.  Even if that child enjoys it more than anything else and demands to be allowed to drink bleach whenever he pleases, a good parent says, "No, bleach is not good for you.  It is deadly to drink.  I will not allow you to drink it."  The child may feel deprived and even disrespected, but the parent is still operating out of love.

Drinking bleach is unhealthy and unnatural and is in defiance of the good use of our bodies.  The same can be said for any sexual activity outside of the bounds of marriage.  God is our Creator and the Sovereign Lord of the universe and He has given us clear guidance to find joy and flourishing in a sexual relationship.  This joy and flourishing is only to be found in the consummation of the marriage relationship between a man and woman.  Any sexual activity outside of that covenant is not healthy, it is not good.  It is a poison, it is sin and death.  This is not my idea, these are timeless truths handed down to us from our Creator God.  He decides what is good and evil.  Not me, not you and not society. 

God's desire is for all of us to know joy unspeakable and full of glory, but this cannot happen if we are using our bodies contrary to his purposes.  God calls our masculinity and femininity good things for us to celebrate and enjoy within His will.  If we are calling "bad" what God called good, and calling "good" what God called bad, we are breaking His laws and will face the consequences.  Our sexuality can be a pathway to delight and fulfillment but only when we pursue it according to God's plan.