God’s Purpose and Plan for Gender

Today on Summit life with Judy Greer.

I do assure you, God is our goal for the ability to help us when we say God's help, we mean that there are things that God has that we lack we are insufficient God makes up a job if anything: woman, the helper implies a superiority in her not him like with Pastor author and theologian JD Greer. As always, I'm your host Molly bit of edge to continuing our study of Ephesians chapter 5 called first lab. If you missed any of the previous messages you can find them@jdgreer.com right now we're jumping into a delicate and controversial subject. The biblical roles of husbands and wives.

I'm sure you've heard talking points from all sides of this discussion. So whether you're single, married, divorced or widowed. You want to keep listening.

Pastor Ginny titled this message. God's purpose and plan for gender. We are stretching our series 5 on relationships.

What I give you today is really crucial in helping you make them think through major decisions in your marriage, or even whether not you should get married if you're single what I hope you'll see today is what you really ought to be looking for in a spouse. If you do get married you can't know what qualities to look for if you don't know what God's design is for the home and his purpose is for marriage is the ancient view of marriage was that marriage was primarily functional, that it give you economic stability. It it was a way that you would have children so that they would take care of you in your old age and perpetuate your name after your golf your menu the proper course woman in his family was wealthy and woman who had good birthing hips that would make sense of that was your purpose. The modern view of marriage is that marriage is about romantic fulfillment. So what you look for is the person who complete you the person who just makes your heart flutter makes all your dreams come true and you decide you want to wake up every day with this person because it's just endless infatuated.

Bless what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that neither of those things is the primary purpose God has for marriage. The primary purpose God had for marriage is preparing us for having that leads me to perhaps the biggest point for our nonmarried community in this series. Whether you were married or not, God's goal for what he's doing in your life is the same. That goal is Christ likeness uses different means to get us there. But his goal is the same for us. That told you that marriage and biological family are not ultimate Christ and the church are ultimate earthly marriage is just a shadow of of our most ultimate union which is our union with Christ that are biological family. As important as it is points us to our ultimate eternal family, which is the church. Paul says in Ephesians 5. This is the mystery of marriage and the family. So whether or not you are in a nuclear family right now in a marriage what God is doing in our lives is the same is preparing us for our eternal marriage to Christ in our eternal family, the church is just using different means to get us there. Ephesians 521 hope you found by now. Ephesians 521 we been in this passage every week. I hope it's good to start up in your Bible. Let me read the first few verses. Again, wives verse 22, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church's body and is himself its Savior.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit him everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for now. I put it out you in the very first week that when somebody wants to diss the Bible this is always one of their go to verses I see on TV all the time I got you can possibly believe the Bible actually says and I quote some version of this verse. The first, I want you to understand God's word is given to us for our good and for his glory and inevitably you're going to find things in the word of God. But you're not going to agree with. And when you do, you're going to have to make a decision and that is are you going to revise what you believe based on what God's word says or you going to revise God's word based on your preconceived notions of what you think is right and wrong. Don't be ignorant and and think you were the first people in the world ever be offended by the Bible on the Bible since our culture, and some very unique ways, but the Bible is an equal opportunity offender offended all generations in all cultures it in different places and different ways and you gotta make a fundamental decision. I'm not claiming that my interpretation is 100% correct all the time.

Amy but I am saying is gotta be a general approach to the word of God says this is your word. It is for our good. It is for your glory and where it says one thing I think another you're right now all the other thing I told you is you have to really pay attention to the context of this verse and most people don't. The context of this verse is this verse 22 comes after verse 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. The word submit that is used in verse 22 when he tells the wife to submit is the same one that's used in verse 21. In fact, in Greek, the sentence in verse 22 reaches back to verse 21 to borrow the verb through a very complex Greek structure that I do not have time to explain to you this weekend, but the point is that the command that is given to the woman to submit is a specific application of a principle that is given to all believers in verse 21.

Submit is a military term which means to submit your agenda to the greater whole hay it in the military you don't ever respond to an order by saying it would work for me. That's not good for my agenda and the purposes that I have no submit your agenda to the to the purpose of the Army and you follow that agenda, even if it means it cost you your life. So Paul tells the husband a laid on his life for his wife. He's taking this concept of submission and say it's not about you it's about the purposes of all. So Paul is making a specific application to the wives of a principal given to both husband and wife both husband and wife are submitting to each other, just in different ways. Which brings me to a second point is equally wrong to deny. However, in this passage that men and women are not given specific differing commands to follow here the woman is told in this passage to submit twice the man is told to submit once the wife is told to submit to her husband. Verse 21.

By submitting herself. Verse 22, two, and her agenda to the man and following his lead. The man is told to submit to his wife.

Verse 21 by functioning as her head.

Verse 25 by Christ as of the church and laying down his life for his wife. Wife Christ laid down his life for the church. Now let's unpack those as more Ephesians 523 man is called the head scholars point out that the Lord head Tim imply one of two things Lord A. In Greek could either mean source or it could imply authority. In actuality, head A means both because one implies the other. The source of something is typically its authority. For example, if I were an English teacher and we were in English class when looking at a pole and we were talking about the poem and what a particular phrase manual eye-popping. It means that some I want to image this every year you and I are going through why we think that if the author of that poem walks in that our interpretation ceases because the author is there. They are the authority on what they wrote about author and authority share the same root word because the author of something is the authority, if you read the account of man's creation, you see that when God created the woman he made her from the man. I didn't just make her independently made her from the man then gave him the responsibility to name her, both of which give him a clear leadership responsibility in the relationship God put man in charge of naming the entire creation. You wonder why God did that why God put man in charge of naming a creation is because God was tired and out of creativity is an author, building a subatomic particle I'm just out of ideas and so you need to name some things because I think your fright.

No of course not.

God gave man the responsibility to name the creation because naming Hilda shaping Bauer the naming is an authority naming implies a headship so Adam named all the animals and when God made the woman in verse 18, verse 23 says he brings her to the man so that he can name her.

That's important. Let me give you five leadership roles. The man was given to lead in right out of Genesis 255 things you'll see in there. That man was supposed to leave your number one provision. The man already had a job but the woman was brought into man in verse 16 is already keeping the garden.

Verse 18 is when she's created, God brought the woman into a place for the man was already providing number two spiritual leadership in the woman was brought into the world. The man already had a relationship with God that is in verse 16.

Chapter 2 is a God given the command not to eat of the forbidden tree to the man before he created a woman in verse 18, which means that after the woman was created man had to relay the command to her. The first man was given the privilege and the responsibility of leading his wife into our relationship with God and explaining God's ways to her.

Number three was to lead in romance. Verse 24. After the woman is created. God says to Adam.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. The man is the one taking the initiative. The man is the one leaving and cleaving. He is the one inviting her into a stable home where she will be safe and protected.

In fact, the first recorded words of mankind in the Bible is verse 24. Love: that the man compose of the woman is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flight.

By the way, there is no possible way that's all he said were talking to a perfectly made woman Bill by the hand of God first time intimately, not as a nurse he could really make it and you tell me that's what he said there's a lot more in that I got just about you to record for us because the Bible is written for everybody okay but he compose a low point. He's taking the initiative in romance get right back first me tell you about our latest resource created exclusively for our Senate like listeners to 15 day devotional for all of us who live distracted my and it covers the topics of relationships, faith, rest, and even parenting, daily devotions offer a chance to dig deeper into Scripture and can help you get in the habit of regular Bible reading this resource as a group study something you can share with those closest to you. In fact, the conversation cards that come with it are a perfect addition for any group study setting whenever it looks like for you. We like to encourage you to reserve your copy today by calling 866-335-5224 visit us online@jdgreer.com. Thanks for being with us today.

Now let's get back to the final moment of today's number four. He was the lead in production when God says he should cleave to his wife. He's becoming one body with her ball picks up on that in Ephesians 5, and says he should love his wife like she's part of his own body like you take care of your own body that's protection that you invite Paul to go on Ephesians 5 to say that he should lay down his life for her to protect her. Which leads me to number five is the lead and self-sacrifice model for all this Paul says is Christ who laid down his life for his bride and leveraged all his power to serve and to protect and to exalt and to bless her man if you want a job description you want a way to evaluate how well you are doing.

You should map these five things out and just see how well you're doing and leaving in them was a little annoyed that one of our church leaders are the daily leader who was explaining to me that his life and he were having trouble getting pregnant that they believe in God one and have children but but it's just not happening. He said he said here for doing our prayed about this and then he says is your week determined that if God doesn't give it to us.

This way, he said, you have heard about that the sex slave trade and how many girls from a particular region of the world. How many of them end up in the slave trade.

He said were to adopt from that region of the world because is is is is I realize that's maybe what God is doing this is he's given us an opportunity. What better way to leverage our family dental rescue people from the slave trade by adopting them as I'm listening to them.

I thought that's a man because he is doing exactly what God put him here on earth to do. He is we call a servant leader. Servant leader is someone who takes initiative for the benefit of others and what you see is that this is were mankind men males have failed mostly over the years is that we do not taken initiative.

Or we taken initiative for the benefit of ourselves we were to be servant leaders, which means that we were. They are given leadership to take responsibility and initiative for the benefit of others woman in Genesis 2 is called the helper, the helper. Now the word helper in Hebrew is a very difficult word to translate. It is not a good translation in English as a helper because helper English has a very diminutive term as a people read that word helper and they think well that note, that's gotta mean that men do the real work in the world and women make the coffee.

But that is not at all. The implication of the Hebrew word gets there which we translate as helper but here, so I know that it's there is a word that occurs frequently in the Bible and almost every other time it refers not to the woman but to God. Like a lot of the verses that you and I love from the Psalms, God is our helper MRI help in our strength and our deliverance help and deliverance are at their I can assure you God is not a gofer who don't have the ability to help us when we say God is our help. We mean that there are things that God has that we lack we are insufficient God makes up the gap.

If anything, calling woman the XA or the helper implies a superiority in not him because it means that he is incomplete and he is insufficient without her back in Genesis 126 it says in the image of God he created him male and female he created them.

God took the two genders and he divided up his attributes into the two genders so that the two of them together would be a better reflection of the image of God then would one gender be by itself. God put part of himself that the man needs that is incomplete without into the woman to the two are necessary and they are interdependent.

The two of you are not exactly to say.

If you are exactly the same. The one of you would be unnecessary if I can Genesis 2 is a very interesting disruption of the flow of the narrative. After God creates the man after God creates everything in Genesis 1 and two gives the phrase and it was good. It was good good good good but also equipped to manage that old not good. So the guy doesn't put translate makes a woman and then he brings her to the man if he had made another exactly like the man that would've been, although not good, not good, not good, but he made the woman differently so that when the two were together, the two of them together would be good. God made the two genders to be a more complete presentation of the image of God and one of them alone, they did so by making them complementary.

For a while it became very popular that gender was merely a sociological construct that male and female are exactly the same, just with a different plumbing system, but almost nobody believes that anymore biologists have demonstrated that every cell in our body is stamped either XX or X, Y does not take one generic body screw into different plumbing set of pipes to them and called at two different genders as if we could just change the piping pub in a few hormones and change our gender. Genesis 126 says that from the beginning God made them male and female read an article recently about how boys and girls from their infancy. Approach problems differently.

For example, one of the examples they used to put an obstacle in the path of an infant boy. The board will knock it down for the same obstacle in the path of an infant girl and she will go around girls like complexity. Infant boys do not. When jazz music is played, the heartbeat of a six month old girl speeds up there is virtually no effect on the heart of the boy is six months old. From these differences come some of the greatest blessings and so the greatest challenges in marriage. You know that one of the greatest pieces of advice I got when I got married was one of my mentor set down my future wife and I Veronica nine, CA said you got understand that in this marriage. He's like a dog and you're like a cat, and I was like what you what is that mean he said well he looked at my wife. He said how do you make a dog happy. She said ACC you three things you feed it you praise it, and you play with it.

There's three things. This is gonna be a happy man to me is that you make a cat happy. Nobody really knows whatever works. One time, probably not work a second time since he just have to go with Intuit without that understanding. Now listen, I know that's the stereotype, and I know plenty marriage as well and apply the stereotype come from somewhere because God made us differently. Feminist Carol Gilligan, who is not an evangelical by any means, said in the book in a different voice. She solicitous men see themselves as maturing as a separate women see themselves as maturing as they attach men feel they achieve maturity when they become independent women feel like they are becoming mature when they become interdependent. Now here's a question, which one of those is better is it better to fill matures are becoming interdependent was invented a few matures are becoming independent, which was better. Neither because both of them are good. The two genders are more complete view of the image of God then would one gender be by itself. If the two of you are exactly the same one of you would have been unnecessary. Ancient Jewish rabbis used to point out the God did not take woman from man's head to rule over him like a feminist say, but he also didn't take woman for man's foot so that he could rule over her legs open essay eating create woman from man's flight selenium from his back to follow him. He took woman from the man's side to complete him. Not only will men and women created differently, we find they were cursed differently. Tim Keller points out that in Genesis 3 when God cursed the man for his rebellion was the curse given the man his headship over the world was first God said would not rebel against his rule, the ground would frustrate him.

God's curse of the woman was different. God said to the woman. Genesis 3 that desire, you have to complete your husband that's gonna become a desire for your husband, and he will rule over you with the fall.

Listen to this are gifts became idols. Masculine independence became autonomy and then tyranny.

Feminine interdependence became absolute dependence or codependence or even masochism and outrages all the way from a girl who just want to gotta take care of verse what a father figure who just cannot take care of her to see them watching take care of herself to a girl who puts up with abuse because she is so desperate for the attention of the presence of a man both conservatives and feminist forget something important about the Genesis 2 and three-story, the feminist forget that our differences can be helpful, but the traditionalists forget that these tendencies have been cursed, saying that the biblical view of the family as this macho ruling guy and this quiet little coffee getting wife is probably more in line with the curse than it is with the biblical ideal is a very important observation that you not hear me very often about Genesis 2 or Ephesians 5 very few details are given in Ephesians 5 or Genesis 2, for that matter about what headship and submission actually look like Paul says God created man is the head of the marriage woman submits to him, but Paul does not go into any detail about what that actually means. Genesis 2.neither that's intentional because it looks different in different relationships based on the personality of the two people involved Similac conservatives start to apply this passage. You hear the start going out of the text will start to say things like, well, what this means is of a woman. Gotta stay home and not work I what about a Proverbs 31 with a woman is very proficient at her job and make thousands of dollars. What this passage means is that women should raise the kids while the man just focuses on making money.

I wanted to redo the next chapter. Ephesians 6 were talks about the discipline of children and look at the first word that use when it comes to discipline of children. Fathers of the one who were to lead in the discipline of their children. What this means. Listen headship and submission of different in every marriage and I can't tell you exactly what is her look like in your marriage for what you figure that out tonight, but I can tell you if you think submission does not mean one that it does division does not mean the inferiority of a woman does not mean the inferiority woman because everything in Genesis 2 screens equality Jesus was fully God that he voluntarily submitted himself to the father who was also God did in fact he submitted to God implied inferiority in his part. No, because God cannot be inferior to God because that would make him not God anymore. God cannot cease to be God's will be gone to the fact that he voluntarily submitted himself to the father was not an assault on his dignity that the woman is holding these inspired to submit to the man is not an assault on her dignity either. On the contrary, it makes you more like Jesus. When you doing encouraging. These principles wrestle with working out what this looks like in your marriage you're listening to Pastor Judy Greer on Senate life. When you get to Senate life. You're not getting to ask actually getting to people across the country and even around the world help us continue reaching your fellow listeners by joining the team of gospel partners who make this ministry possible. As a token of our thanks will send you monthly resources, including the current resource exclusive new Senate life devotional at the 15 day study for all of us who live distracted lights and it covers the topics of relationship they rest and even parenting also comes with a set of 20 conversation hearts to help them attain topics that matter to ask but more importantly that matter to God call us right away at 866-335-5320 forget and request were sent online. Be clear.com while you're on the website. You can also sign up for our email list ministry outdate information about the resources and castigating latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up when you go to Jeannie.com hi Molly, that events join us this week on the program teaching series on relationships here on Senate life on third night