While seated at my desk, computer opened before me, I suddenly “felt it!” For the first time since my fall on November 7, I felt the urge and the desire to begin a new blog posting. Trying to follow my mantra of knowing what God wants me to do by what coincides with what I want to do, I am now starting to write.
I have been thinking of ideas and topics for weeks but this is the first time I have wanted to write them down, and today I want to start an exploration of the theme in the title that has been on my mind over these weeks—God’s view of male and female.
The church has been affected by the postmodernism of today’s culture. That influence, with its denial of absolute truth, has, in effect, led many churches to unconsciously no longer hold to Jesus and His words, as recorded by the apostles and prophets. God has given us His Word as our only true plumb-line for faith and conduct. This, of course, includes what Jesus, as a man, viewed as absolute truth as well. Granted, we may not agree on what His words mean, but we must agree that, whatever they may mean, they are absolute truth to believe and live by in all we think, say, and do.
Living immersed in today’s culture means that this standard is under daily attack by Satan and his emissaries all around us, and the church has not always proven to be able to stand firmly on this biblical foundation. It’s easy to talk about but not so easy to actually keep in place in daily life.
That is particularly true in matters of gender. Attacking God’s creation mandate is Satan’s basic area of rebellion: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 1:27, 28).
So, the distinction between two sexes is basic to the very definition of man, and one of man’s defined, stated purposes is to reproduce. This commission is dependent on two separate, defined sexes, each with a uniquely different, God-given role in that process.
Acceptance of homosexuality, sexual transgenderism, and other sexual aberrations from the biblical pattern are classic examples of the church’s difficulty to continue functioning with God’s word as our standard of absolute truth. Because of the world’s pressure, we often fail to stand firm on the Bible’s unquestioned stance on these sins.
It is impossible to read these verses in the Bible (Romans 1:20-27; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), along with many others, and believe that the Bible allows an “alternative lifestyle” with respect to gender. No, the church’s job is to proclaim homosexuality, transgenderism and other attempts to defy God’s sexual order as wicked and heinous, while still loving the sinner and extending church fellowship to all repentant ones, including homosexuals. Our attitude must be, “Jump in! The water’s fine—right here in the church with all us other sinners. Homosexuality is a sin, so you’ll fit right in perfectly with all us sinners who are walking in repentance!”
It is relatively easy to keep gender distinctions biblically straight in sexual relationships for a believer who wants to use the Bible as his authority, but gender roles in the kingdom of God are more subtle. It so happens that the male-female distinction (“male and female He created them”) is crucial in the proper functioning of the family, the church, and the civil government.
So, in the coming weeks I want to explore what this distinction means in these three institutions as well. I am excited and raring to go! I’m back!
