Friday
Friday
Human Sexuality
So God created man in his own image …; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
It is a beautiful truth, clearly affirmed from the first chapter of the Bible onward, that heterosexuality is God’s purpose in creation and that men and women are equal in dignity and worth before God their Creator. Both were created in his image (v. 27), and both were blessed and told to be fruitful, to subdue the earth, and to care for its creatures (v. 28). Thus men and women are equal bearers of the divine image and equal sharers in the earthly stewardship. And nothing that may be said later (e.g., in Genesis 2) must be allowed to undermine, let alone contradict, this fundamental equality of the sexes. What creation has established no culture is able to destroy. True, equality does not mean identity. Although the sexes are equal, they are different; equality is fully compatible with complementarity.
And something more needs to be said. Although our human disobedience and fall upset our human sexual relationships, God’s intention is to restore and even deepen them through the gospel. Thus Paul could write to the Galatian Christians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). This does not mean that ethnic, social, and sexual differences are eradicated by Christ. No, men are still men, and women are still women. But in Christ, when we are personally related to him, our sexual distinctives constitute no barrier to fellowship with God or with each other. For we are still equal before him, equally justified by faith, and equally indwelt by his Spirit.
Men and women in the Christian community should honor and value one another more than they do in non-Christian society. For we recognize our status. We are equal by creation, and even more equal (if there can be degrees in equality!) by redemption.
For further reading: Genesis 2:18–25