February 25, 2012

• God’s Gender

  Originally posted December 08, 2009 @ 7:53 PM on my NaitoOfNarnia account. Reposted with minor edits.

  On Facebook, I wrote this comment: The only beauty greater than a woman’s is God’s. But if woman is also in the image of God, what a marvelous sight He is, for woman alone is powerful to behold.

  A friend asked me, “How do you know God isn’t a woman?”

  For quite some time, I’ve been working on a series that gets to the heart of the nature of sex according to God’s design. Our sexuality as humans and our male or female genders embody, I have come to find, a deep-rooted, and greatly forgotten link to knowing just who and what God is. While what I will share here certainly will not solve the mystery, it may help to clear up a huge deal of confusion about why Christians refer to God as “Father”, a decisively male title.

  The following is an excerpt from my series. Here, I attempt to lay a foundation built on the image of God in order to help us understand what “being made in His image” really means as it pertains to our sexual nature (mind you, this isn’t a post about sex).

  I would be willing to bet that very few people have ever truly heard the notion that sex between a husband and wife is a living, breathing representation…

  …OF GOD.

  PART 1: ONE FLESH
  “If, at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” ~ Albert Einstein
  —————–
  The idea that sex, of all things, could somehow be a reflection of the very nature and character of God must sound extremely ludicrous to some people and outright insane to many others. When addressing all things that seem…off…it’s best to go back to the very beginning from which the idea is from or otherwise based on. I think Genesis sounds like a good place to start, don’t you?

  “Then God said, ‘Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us…’ So God created human begins in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26a-27, NLT). One curious thing to note is the often-referenced but seemingly also often-forgotten fact that no one ever existed before or during God. Just like any creative artist, too, wouldn’t it make sense that He would reference Himself as the “live model” when working on His masterpiece? Consider it another gift that you, the masterpiece in question, are modeled after the artist and are given the additional blessing of enjoying that gift. (The “Mona Lisa” surely has Leo’s heart in every brush stroke, but that painting is as dead as Ms Lisa, herself. There’s no joy it gets from the fact that Leo painted it.)

  Notice how Moses explained the verse above. It’s not just Adam who was made in God’s image, but “male and female”. Adam and Eve, both, are created in God’s likeness. Yet, it doesn’t take much to notice that there are quite a few differences between men and women…our physical appearances not withstanding. The way we think about things and the way we express our feelings. Our priorities, although often containing the same points of interest, are not often in the same order. So, if God created both of us – men and women – in His image, yet we each have varying characteristics, just what is God’s image really like? I think the best conclusion to investigate is that God instilled in men certain characteristics of Himself and His other characteristics in women.

  Genesis 2:21-25 says:
  “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
  ‘At last!’ the man exclaimed. ‘This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called “woman,” because she was taken from “man”.’
  This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
  Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” (NLT)

  You see, even though Eve was her own sperate person, God created her from the same holy-breath-filled dirt that He created Adam from. Not just more dirt that sat lifeless on the ground, but from the very dirt that was now the person of Adam. The very essence of Eve is from Adam. That’s like taking a lump of clay and taking out a huge piece and making similar pieces of art. They are individually unique and yet they are the same in that they came from the same source. Adam and Eve are, in fact, two sperate entities, and also (of) one flesh.

  Likewise, because Adam was crafted by God’s own hands and was given His very breath of life, and because Eve came from Adam, they both are made in God’s image.

  Now, to begin with, this doesn’t implicitly explain how it is that God is not male and instead female. What we can reasonably postulate is that if Adam and Eve are both made in God’s image, yet they are each either male or female, then either God is somehow both or neither. The answer is that God is actually both male and female and not male or female.

  I can hear it, the mass unison response of “HUH?!“

  If we are talking about physical attributes, then no, God is not a man or woman. God is spirit and has no actual form the way He created us to have (see John 4:24). We, ourselves, do have a spirit (soul…actually, if there’s a difference between spirit and soul, I’ve not yet learned it…). If we are talking about certain characteristics or natures that are best represented by the genders, then you would be absolutely correct, God is both male and female. Don’t be confused – I’m not talking about the physical attributes, but rather about the nature often found in these attributes of the genders.

  As I mentioned in my excerpt above, God created men and women to have certain attributes of His own character. In order to be the very example of His own creation, He took on the male persona in order to display the sort of hierarchy He intended. (This is not to be confused with male dominance. Remember, in Ephesians 5, Paul explicitly says that husbands and wives are to submit to one another. Meaning that we are to both give to each other lovingly and for the benefit of the other. If both are giving, listening, humble, loving, patient, etc, then neither one will feel disrespected, unloved, or lacking. This goes specifically along with what Paul says just a verse or two beforehand where he tells wives to obey and submit to their husbands AND for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Jesus never oppressed the Church but served them even while He was [and still is] the authority in the relationship.)

  When God created Adam and Eve, Adam was first, then Eve. This isn’t an order of importance or worth, but, I think, an order of leadership. Adam (and Eve) “reports” to God, and Eve “reports” to Adam. Don’t let my wording mislead you here. While this is similar to the order found in military ranks, there is a great difference between the two. Namely in that Adam, who is over Eve in leadership, is still required to submit and serve her. I don’t see many admirals going out of their way to do something the petty officer wants.

  There is much more to this, to be sure. And I’ll have to do some digging to find more specific references, but suffice to say, God’s persona of being masculine is for us to better understand Him and our role in relation to Him. Since we cannot begin to truly understand what it’s like to be God, He took on a persona that we can understand – the masculine and feminine, specifically masculine. Notice, that as you read the Bible, qualities that are often attributed to male or female are found in God regardless of His male persona.

  While this is not a complete explanation (and yet still lengthy lol), I hope that better answers anyone’s question on this matter.

  • 2:33 am
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