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BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD - PART 3 - GENESIS 2:18-25
In the last 2 weeks we covered the different roles God created man and woman for. They both had equal dignity, both created in the image of God, but both had different roles. Man was made for leadership and headship, and woman was created for the man as helper.
And we would expect that after the fall that these roles would be distorted, right? You would think that male headship and female submission were bad things, products of the fall of man. But then wouldn’t we expect, in Christ and in our salvation, for that reality to be addressed and switched around? That now, after the fall, everything is equal, we are in Christ, the effects of the fall and sin are gone, so now we both have the same role!?
No! Instead, when we get to the N.T. we see this picture of headship and submission, woman as helper, reinforced in a much more beautiful ways like Ephesians Chapter 5: 21-33.
Husband is head of the wife like Christ is head of the Church. And husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church. Wives submit to your husbands IN CHRIST! And also read 1 Peter 3:1-7.
So, the picture is pretty clear. Man was created to be head in a way woman was not. Woman was created to be the helper in a way man was not. Yet we think “Isn’t this demeaning to woman? Isn’t this offensive to women?” It’s not!!! And ya might think that’s easy for me to say because I’m a guy!!
Again, we are Christ followers and need to take everything to God’s word, NOT to what we have learned from the world.
So, let’s look at what God says about His creation. We saw 3 weeks ago that God created man and woman with equal dignity. He created man and woman with different roles. And today we are going to see that God created man and woman as a reflection of the Trinity! This is where we will see the beauty of both our equality and our differences.
So, God exists in 3 persons, right? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are not 3 separate God’s, but one God in 3 persons. All are equally Divine. All are equally God. None are higher than the other. All are equally worthy of praise, honor, glory and adoration. Yet, At the same time the 3 persons of the Trinity are positionally different. They have different roles and even different authority. The Father has authority over the Son. The Father sends the Son into the world. The Son is obedient to the commands of the Father. The Son is subject to the Father. The Son sits at the father’s right hand. (Rom. 8:34, Heb. 1:3, 13, 1 Peter 3:22).
That’s why in 1 Cor. 11:3 it says the head of the wife is the husband - and don’t miss the correlation - and the head of Christ is God! Equal dignity, equal worth, yet one is head over the other. The Father is head over the Son the way that man is head over the wife. This whole picture of leadership and submission is IN God! So, is that bad?? Is that chauvinistic of the Father? Is that offensive to the Son? NO, IT’S GOOD!!
We are so programmed in our culture to think authority is bad and domineering; that submission is negative and makes you inferior. It’s not true. Look at GOD! See Him! Together in one
another, loving and being loved, leading and being led. This is loving authority and glad submission in the context of beautiful relationship! It’s ALWAYS been this way in the nature of God and it has ALWAYS been good! But it’s been distorted. Our idea of authority and submission has been distorted in so many ways because of the effects of sin, but we can’t just throw out God’s design because of distortion.
We must realize that to balk against authority and submission is to balk at the very character of God Himself. To believe feminism on this one is to say this submission and authority picture is bad. To believe feminism in our culture on this one is to believe feminism and not God!
One writer put it this way: “We can say that in a relationship of authority and submission between equals with mutual giving of honor is the most fundamental and most glorious interpersonal relationship in the universe. Such a relationship allows interpersonal differences without better or worse, without more important or less important. When we begin to dislike the very idea of authority and submission, not distortions and abuses, but the idea of authority and submission, we are tampering with something very deep, we are beginning to dislike God Himself.”
Authority and submission are Good! A part of God’s GOOD design of creation. A part of the very nature of God Himself. This is unity in diversity. We are attracted to one another by our differences.
Remember the book: “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?” And it’s good we are different, it’s certainly challenging at times, but it’s good! And what makes it good is that we are not the same! Man, how boring would my own life be if my wife was like me!! Thank God she’s not!!
Next week we will finish out the Biblical Manhood and Womanhood section with part 4. May the Lord bless you.
https://youtu.be/c1ewBAiYh8Q (404)
Last Update: Nov 26, 2018 7:40 am CST
