Transgender Part 3 – What does the Bible say?
October 5, 2016
The Bible is God’s word, and God speaks very clearly on this issue. There are only two sexes (Binary); Male and Female. The following Bible passages spells it out clearly.
“26 The God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them. ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
“’Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,” and said, ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?”
“’But at the beginning of creation God “made them male and female”.”
So the relationship between sex and gender is clear. Male (Gender) = Man (sex) and Female (Gender) = Woman (Sex).
“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
‘This is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called “woman”,
for she was taken out of man.’
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were naked and they felt no shame.’
“’Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,” and said, ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”? 5 and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?”
“’But at the beginning of creation God “made them male and female”. 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
Again it is spelt out. Male= Man = Son/Husband/Father. Female = Woman = Daughter/Wife/Mother.
When God made Adam, he deliberately made him missing something. Up to then, everything he made he declared to be ‘good’. But after he made Adam, he said it is ‘not good’ for him to be alone. God made us to be like him; and God is never alone. There is always relationship and love in God – between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. So we’re made to be always in relationship, and love – and sex is the most fundamental part of our nature that makes relationships happen. Sex draws us to each other, binds us in marriage, in love and joy, brings children into the world and so builds families, and affects how we relate to everyone. Sex and marriage tell us something about what it’s like to be God; they tell us we’re never complete, satisfied or understood when we’re alone. We’re build for togetherness, and who and what we are is not just about us, but about the role and relationships we have with other people.
When Adam is introduced to all the animals in Genesis 2, he is increasingly disappointed as one by one it’s obvious that none of them is a fit for him; none of them will make him feel whole, none of them can stop his aloneness. They’re too different to him – they’re not human! But then God makes Eve out of the very stuff Adam is made of, so they’re equal, and alike, but different. Like God the Father and Jesus are equal, and alike, but different.
God made sex and sexuality beautiful, simple and uncomplicated. Two different sexes, two different genders; men are male, and that influences what God expects them to do and be in the world, and women are female, and that influences what God calls them to do and be. And they love and unite with each other. Adam and Eve fit together perfectly, not just emotionally, but their very bodies. No confusion, no spectrum of genders, no doubt about who or what anyone was. And it was “very good” (Genesis 1.31)