BRANCHES November 2014

SOUTHWOOD
reflect
Same
Difference
God's Complementary Design
for Men and Women by Will Spink
Gender issues are
consistently topics of
conversation in a variety of spheres of
life: personal, political, social, and many others.
But what about in the church? What does
the Bible have to say about men and women,
their similarities and differences, their place and
function in the kingdom of God? There are many good
treatments of these topics, but here I will draw largely and quote
regularly from a lecture outline by Dr. Bryan Chapell, former president
of Covenant Theological Seminary and current moderator of the PCA.
The Beauty of Our Commonalities
In Creation
Before any discussion of differences or distinctions in roles, it is vital
to begin by laying the foundation the Bible lays for the equivalent
value of men and women as people created in the image of God.
Both male and female, Genesis 1:27 says, were created by God in his
image and thus share unique value among all of creation. Both Adam
and Eve were a part of God’s good creation, and both were called to
reflect his image in his world, to exercise dominion over the rest of the
creation, to fill the earth and subdue it as God’s vice-regents.
The value of a creature being in the image of the Creator of the
universe is so significant that many other factors would pale in
comparison. The worth and identity endued in that statement
outweigh many differences that would seek to make one more
valuable than the other.
In the Family
In wedding ceremonies what may often stick out to us are any
differences in the language used to describe the husband and wife
or promised in their wedding vows to each other. The reason those
differences stick out, however, is the substantial amount of overlap
between the two. Often the minister will speak of the couple living
together as heirs of God’s grace, of the two becoming one flesh, thus
emphasizing the unity of rather than the distinction between the man
and the woman.
Within the marriage relationship, I Corinthians 7 tells us that the
physical relationship is to be a mutual one—that the husband should
give conjugal rights to his wife and the wife to her husband since
neither has authority over his own body but willingly gives that up to
the other. Similarly, when children become part of the family, the Bible
often addresses “parents,” who share a similar role in relationship to
children, whether the parent be a father or a mother.
In the Church
Furthermore, when Jesus comes to redeem and begin his re-creation,
the fact that a person is united to the Savior by faith becomes the
fundamental identity marker. As with being created in the image
of God, being re-created into the image of Jesus gives value on a
different plane from other factors. As Paul reminds the Galatians,
“there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians
3:28). Being united to Christ brings a unity or commonality in identity
and worth that far outweighs ethnic, social, and gender before God.
When believers are united to Christ, they also become part of his
body, the Church. As I Corinthians 12 teaches, this means that besides
the Head (Jesus Christ), no part is more significant than the other.
Further, each part has its own gifts for the building up of the body;
men and women both have gifts of service, gifts of teaching, gifts of
faith to be employed for the sake of the whole.
So, Dr. Chapell writes, “Male and female possess spiritual equality
before God that neither annuls nor devalues the different roles of
each in family and church.”
8 NOVEMBER 2014 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG