[0:00] If you have your own copy of the scriptures with you this morning, if you have a Bible, then I want to encourage you to open up to the book of Genesis.
[0:17] To the very first page in your Bible, to Genesis chapter 1. If you are using one of the Bibles that we've left, the few Bibles that we've left scattered around in the chairs, then you will notice that the cards are already tucked in.
[0:30] The connect cards are tucked in to Genesis chapter 1 so that you can find your place there quickly. We'll spend most of our time in Genesis this morning, but just to give you a heads up, we'll also move to the New Testament and look in Matthew, in Galatians, in Ephesians, and in the book of Revelation.
[0:46] So we'll move around a little bit, but most of our time will be in Genesis chapters 1 and even chapters 2 and 3 a little bit. Last week we finished up Matthew chapter 9, and I thought this would be an appropriate place to take a break for a few weeks from our extended study of the Gospel of Matthew so that we can ask and try to answer some very difficult questions.
[1:11] So that we can address some issues about which we are hearing a lot of different answers, both from outside the church and oftentimes even from within the church.
[1:22] Answers that, as we will see, they do not always fit with what we actually read in the Bible. And our goal is to structure our lives and order our lives according to what God tells us in the Bible.
[1:39] And that's true in all areas of life, but it's also true in how we understand who we are as men and women made in the image of God. And so for the next few weeks, we're going to try to answer some key questions about what it means to be not just human beings, but to be human beings as we read in Scripture who are male and female.
[2:03] What does that mean? And I'm not interested in either supporting or countering any ideas that you hear across the political spectrum.
[2:15] I am not interested in denying or defending views that come from the left or from the right. I don't care about those things.
[2:26] I care about what God's Word has to say. No matter where it places us upon that spectrum or if it takes us to somewhere else that doesn't even fit on the spectrum that the political world would offer to us, I'm interested in what God has to say about how He made us and how He wants us to live.
[2:47] And so we're going to consider for the next four weeks, we're going to consider some important questions about what it means to be made male and female. And this morning, our goal is just to answer the why question.
[2:59] Why did God make us like this? Why did He design us in this particular way? And then next Sunday, we'll turn our attention to asking the what questions.
[3:10] We'll start next week with the question, What is biblical manhood? And then we'll turn the next week to ask the question, What is biblical womanhood? In light of the Bible, what does it mean to be men and women?
[3:25] We'll spend two weeks trying to answer those very important questions. And then in the last week, we'll turn our attention to some matters of application in terms of the church, in our marriages, and in our homes, and then more broadly, in society in general.
[3:42] How do we live as biblical men and biblical women, not just in our homes, not just in the church, but more broadly in the world? We'll try to tackle that kind of a question in a few weeks.
[3:54] But this morning, I want us to ask the why question. Why did God make us the way that He made us? And we need to start with the Bible's account of God actually creating us.
[4:10] And so that's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to look in Genesis chapter 1, and we're going to begin reading in verse 26, and read on down through verse 31. So if you found your place in Genesis 1, I want to invite you to stand to your feet as we read together.
[4:25] Moses tells us, Then God said, So God created man in His own image.
[4:50] In the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
[5:09] And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.
[5:27] And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
[5:42] God, I thank you that you've not left it up to us to figure out how and why you made us, but you've told us in your word. So help us to first understand what you're telling us here, and then secondly, give us hearts that long to live in ways that reflect these beautiful realities.
[6:05] We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. You guys can take a seat. Christianity is more than just another religion.
[6:19] Religions aim to have traditions and ceremonies so that they can reenact and pass on the things that they believe. Christianity is not less than a religion.
[6:32] We have our traditions. We have our ceremonies. We have our religious rites. But Christianity is far more than a religion. Christianity is more than a philosophical system that seeks to understand ultimate reality and define things like right and wrong.
[6:51] No doubt, Christianity does tell us about ultimate reality. And the Bible does help us to understand the difference between right and wrong and give us the ability to discern between the two.
[7:03] Christianity is far more than either a religion or a philosophical system. Christianity at its core is a story. Now, not a story in the sense of a made-up story or a mythological story that's only meant to provide us with some explanation of our existence.
[7:22] No, Christianity is the true story of the entire universe. It is the true story of everything that exists. And when we see ourselves as a part of that story, when we understand how we fit within the biblical story, then we can know how to live our lives.
[7:42] Then we can understand what is the ultimate purpose of life, what is ultimate reality. Then we can understand what is right and what is wrong.
[7:52] Then we can know and understand why, for what purpose we have these traditions and ceremonies that are a part of the Christian faith. Only when we see ourselves as a part of the story that Scripture tells, the story that is biblical Christianity, can we really understand all of those other things.
[8:15] Christianity is not just metaphysics, that is philosophy. Christianity is a meta-narrative. That is an overarching story that helps us to understand our place in the world, in God's creation and in His plans.
[8:35] And a crucial part of that story, more than just a passing bit of information or something that happens to be true but it need not be true, more than that is the reality that God has made us in His image and as male and female.
[8:59] In fact, take a look at what we just read a moment ago. Take a look at the account of creation that we read about here in Genesis chapter 1. When we jumped into Genesis chapter 1 at verse 26, God was in the middle of the sixth day of creating.
[9:15] And all the days leading up to the sixth day, including the first part of the sixth day, were all in preparation for His creation of mankind. All of it.
[9:27] If you read the story carefully, then you'll realize that everything that God does up until the creation of man is so that the world might be a fitting place for man to live upon.
[9:40] So He creates light on day 1. He creates oceans on day 2. He creates the land and plants that can be eaten on day 3.
[9:52] The sun and moon and stars to mark times and seasons on day 4. The birds and the fish on day 5. And then finally the animals on day 6.
[10:03] He makes the world in such a way that is a suitable place for man to live upon and man to carry out the mandate that God gives to us as human beings.
[10:14] If God does not create the birds and fish and the land animals, then we can't rule over them the way that we are commanded to do. If God doesn't create the land, the earth itself, there's no earth for us to subdue.
[10:29] We can't carry out the purpose for which God creates us if God doesn't first prepare the world for humanity. So though Genesis chapter 1 is centered upon God, in the beginning God, it's all about God and God's creative plans and God's creative purposes, it is still nevertheless, in a real way, centered upon man as well.
[10:54] Because God is forming and shaping and fashioning the world for us to live upon, which means that we are more than the birds and the fish.
[11:06] We are more than the creeping things and the cattle. We are more than that. We are made, he says, in his image. Verse 26, Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
[11:26] To be made in the image of God means that we have been uniquely designed to represent God and to reflect his glory to the rest of creation.
[11:39] Now that requires that we have some very unique capabilities so that we as human beings are capable of thought processes that we don't find in the rest of the animal world.
[11:51] We find things that approximate human reasoning and thinking but nothing that measures up to it. We have a capacity for thinking, for examining, for coming to conclusions that we don't see in the rest of the created world.
[12:05] We have a capacity for relating to one another in loving relationships that yes, is approximated in the animal world but nothing really quite measures up to our ability, our capacity to relate to one another.
[12:24] There are unique abilities, capacities that we need to have in order to carry out what it means to be made in God's image. Because fundamentally at its core to be made in God's image is to be made as one who images forth or we might just think in terms of reflecting God's greatness and glory to the rest of creation.
[12:50] And we do that, we are told here, by ruling over that creation. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[13:06] We represent God, we reflect God's glory to the rest of creation by ruling over the earth in the ways that God desires for us to rule over the earth.
[13:17] But we also represent God and reflect His glory in the relationships that we have with one another. So that when God says, let us make man in our image, many times we scratch our heads and we wonder, who's the us?
[13:34] Like, who is God in conversation with? So far, in Genesis chapter 1, it's been God and God alone. There's been no indication that He has any partners in this project of creation.
[13:47] It's just God speaking and things pop into existence or things are formed and shaped according to God's word. To whom is God speaking when He says, let us make man in our image?
[14:05] Well, you have to read the rest of the biblical story to get a full and accurate account of who the us is. But in short, the us is the three persons of the Trinity.
[14:15] The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We already see the Spirit in Genesis chapter 1. In verse 2, the Spirit of God hovers over the surface of the waters. But there are hints throughout the rest of the Old Testament that there's something far more complicated going on with God's personhood.
[14:32] That you have things like the angel of Yahweh who comes representing Yahweh but then also is addressed as Yahweh, worshipped as Yahweh.
[14:44] What's going on there? You have the commander of Yahweh's armies who again is worshipped as if he is Yahweh, who speaks as if he is Yahweh.
[14:56] Over and over we have these kinds of pictures that hint to us in the Old Testament. There's something more complicated going on. God is not just some sort of mono personality.
[15:08] He is in some sense a plurality. And when we get to the New Testament we see that in more detail. The Father and the Son and the Spirit. One God in three persons which is a mystery.
[15:21] Okay? Don't try to solve it this morning by the time I'm done with my sermon. You won't. It is a mystery but what it tells us and what's relevant for what we're saying here and seeing about being created in God's image is that God has existed for all of eternity in relationship with himself.
[15:38] God is a relational being by nature not by choice. God did not at some point in time say I think I'd like to have a son let me make one. The son has always existed as the son.
[15:51] He is eternal. There never was a time when he was not. Jesus in his prayer in John chapter 17 prays and speaks of both the love and the glory that he shared with the Father from before the foundation of the world.
[16:08] God has always existed as a relational being in three persons so it should not surprise us that when we come to the account of God creating something in his image that he would use language that reflects his interpersonality there and also that he would make us not just as this monolithic kind of creature but he makes us as we are told here he creates us in his image look in verse 27 God created man in his image in the image of God he created him note male and female he created them God has made us male and female on purpose so that we might live in relationship with one another and then he commands us in this passage to be fruitful and multiply so that there might be more of us all living in these interconnected relationships with one another because both by ruling and by relating to one another we reflect the glory of God to the rest of his creation in ways that nothing else in all of creation can do that's unique about us but that also tells us that us being made male and female is not just an unimportant added detail to the story in fact as you look at the whole story of the Bible it is a story that falls into four basic parts creation that we're seeing here and then in Genesis chapter 3 you have the fall the entrance of sin into the world that brings death and destruction and pain and misery you have creation followed by the fall but immediately even in the midst of the fall even as the ramifications of the fall are first being recognized you have the hope of redemption spelled out the third stage in human history in God's plan for human history creation and fall and then redemption that God both promises to send a redeemer and when we arrive at the New Testament the redeemer arrives as well the redeemer
[18:41] Jesus Christ comes into the world God taking upon himself human flesh so that he could live a life of obedience the way Adam and Eve didn't so that he could lay down his life bearing the penalty for our sin and so that he could rise again defeating death giving us hope that there's something beyond death he says to his disciples that he's going to prepare a place for them so he ascends into heaven to accomplish that purpose and then the last stage of the story what we might call the consummation when the work of redemption is fully complete when sin and death sickness and misery are eliminated from the world and the creation itself is made so new in such a profound way that it can be described as a new creation that's the consummation that's the story as it's laid out over and over for us in the bible creation fall redemption consummation like I said it's a story it just happens to be the true story capital letters it's a story and God making us male and female at the beginning of that story is not an incidental detail it's crucial in order for us to understand what God is accomplishing in this story
[20:16] Kevin DeYoung in one of his books says this from start to finish the biblical storyline and design of creation itself depends upon the distinction between male and female as different from one another yet fitted each for the other and that's what I want to try to show you this morning in the next few minutes I want to try to show you that this biblical storyline is emphasized and carried out through God's creation of us as male and female and our existing as men and women as male and female moves through and is crucial to each part of the story indeed we are made male and female in order that we might reflect God's glory to the rest of creation by living in relationship with one another and the story as it's laid out for us depicts these relationships as a as a picture of the grander narrative so we need to understand what is happening we need to understand why God has made us the way that he made us he need not have made us this way after all he is infinitely creative he could have done it in some other way you know earthworms when you chop them in half you get two earthworms right that's the way that works you get two earthworms they both grow and become a full earthworm
[21:57] I'm sure there are other creatures but those are the only ones I played with as a little kid in the dirt and those are the only ones we experimented on to see just how many small worms you could make out of one but if you cut them in half you get two worms you let them grow you cut them more you get more worms you don't need male and female for those things which means that God has another way of reproducing creatures and I'm sure that he could come up with an infinite number of ways in which he could do that and yet he designed human beings so that we reproduce we multiply as we are commanded to do by being male and female it's a part of the design and he did it for a reason our goal this morning is to better understand his reasoning for doing that so as you read through the story when you read through Genesis chapter 1 you see at the conclusion of each day at the end of day one when he has created light and separated it from the darkness he's named them day and night
[22:58] God makes a declaration same thing he says the same thing at the end of every day he sees that it's good every time it's good it is good it is good every time at the end of every day God's word declares that the creation is good and we see that refrain over and over and it does not change until we get to verse 31 and then it changes after God has created human beings after he has made us in his image and made us male and female then he declares we are told by Moses God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good that's different everything is good there's nothing wrong with God's creation it's functioning just as he has designed it to function there's nothing sinful in God's creation everything is good throughout all of these days but it's not very good until
[24:04] God creates men and women to rule over the creation and to live in relationship with one another God designed it this way and in fact as you move into Genesis chapter 2 once you get past the first three verses which just tell us about day 7 once you move past that and you get into the story of Genesis chapter 2 if you know the story very well then what you know is happening in Genesis chapter 2 is you're zooming in on the verses that we've just read the a very broad overview of the creation of man and woman he doesn't tell us how he created human beings he doesn't tell us the process in Genesis chapter 1 but when we get to Genesis chapter 2 we zoom in on that story the story is told again but now with much more detail and so in the second telling of the story though there is something shocking that we come across remember at the end of each day
[25:12] God has declared his creation to be good and we already know that by the end of day six God will declare his creation to be very good so then something really strange happens in chapter 2 that God first forms the man verse 7 the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life he creates the male the man and breathes into him life in verse 15 he takes the man he puts him in the garden of Eden so that he can work it and keep it he's got a job to do but then verse 18 hits us like a slap in the face if we've been reading just from verse 1 in chapter 1 on then the Lord God said it is not good so in the midst of five it is goods in a row and what we know is coming it is very good between the fifth good and the very good there is a shocking it is not good not good that doesn't mean sinful it means that in
[26:34] God's design he has created the man Adam and put him in the garden and given him a job to do but he can't yet fulfill purpose not because sin has offset things but because God has not yet done man by himself is incapable and inadequate of doing the very thing that God made us to do it's incomplete God says it is not good that the man should be alone at that point in time Adam's aloneness could have been solved by God simply forming and shaping another man that would have been easy but two men cannot carry out the mandate that God has given for us to multiply and increase more than that
[27:35] God is not interested in creating a duplicate of Adam he's not interested in doing that he wants to make someone who is like Adam in most ways woman and man are alike in far more ways than we are different we are both according to Genesis 1 made in God's image which means that we are of equal worth and value in God's design there's no hierarchy of value when it comes to men and women male and female we are both according to Genesis 1 made in God's image but that doesn't mean that we are made identical to one to one another in fact the whole point here is that God wants to create another human being who is in important ways different from Adam what does he say in verse 18 I will make him a helper fit for him
[28:39] God designs the woman to be a helper fit for Adam now don't get hung up on the word helper and think that it implies some sort of inferiority in women it doesn't God is sometimes in the Old Testament called our helper and he's certainly not inferior to us so the word helper doesn't imply some sort of inferiority it implies something about the role of the woman but what is most important for our purposes this morning is she corresponds to him she differs from him in all of the right ways we are not the same we are alike in many ways made in God's image equally responsible for carrying out creation mandate we are commanded to be fruitful and multiply as men and women men and women are commanded to rule over the earth we are alike in so many ways in fact we are so alike that when
[29:51] Adam sees Eve for the first time the first thing that he says as he looks at her is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh finally after naming all the animals and surveying all these creatures that God has made now finally there's someone like me bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh yes we are alike but we are importantly we are different we are distinct from one another at creation in all the ways that God intends for us to be distinct from one another and we'll spend the next two ways teasing out filling out what the next two weeks filling out what those distinctions are what is unique about being a man that sets man apart from women and what is unique about women that sets women apart from being men but this morning all I want you to see is that this is this is a part of
[30:56] God's design and the creation and the creation is not complete and it cannot be declared to be very good until you have both man and woman man by himself image of God ruler over all the animals not enough not enough he needs his counterpart he needs one fit for him one who corresponds to him in all the right ways yes in physical ways for the sake of procreation but in many other ways as well that we'll see in more detail in the coming weeks but we can say at a minimum that there is some sort of leadership granted to the man in that just as he names the animals he also names his wife first he names her woman and there's a play on words there in the verse if you look at the end of chapter two where he not only says bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh but he says she shall be called woman right because she was taken out of man there's a play on words it works in
[32:09] English woman coming from man in Hebrew it is she will be called isha because she comes from ish so there's a recognition of their sameness by Adam even as in his naming of her he demonstrates that he has a leadership role and then he names her a second time he gives her her personal name Eve after the fall takes place the order of creation and indeed the acts of Adam throughout the story show us that one of the ways in which men and women are different is that men are given a unique kind of shepherding leadership role and the story as it progresses as we move into the next stage in Genesis chapter 3 the fall takes place in large part because
[33:10] Adam does not fulfill his shepherding leadership duties in large part that is why the fall takes place but of course as the story is laid out for us in Genesis chapter 3 we know that the instigator the real cause of the entrance of sin into the world is the serpent right the serpent who we are told in the new testament is the devil and satan the serpent is introduced first in Genesis chapter 3 and then we encounter the woman and then the man and then at the end of the story God comes in to assess the situation and render his judgment which means that in Genesis chapter 3 everything is backwards you notice that that the creation order is God who made all things and then humanity who is to be a steward for God and rule over the earth still subject to God's authority and then beneath humanity is or all of the creatures the creeping things of the ground specifically mentioned among whom the serpent is numbered
[34:29] Satan did not choose to come into the garden disguised as a serpent on a whim the whole purpose was to turn everything on its head that's what he's doing he's reversing everything so the order in Genesis 3 serpent that is a creeping thing on the ground woman man finally God comes into the picture the story itself is told to us in such a way that we understand that the whole purpose of the serpent was to introduce chaos into the world by means of inverting God's design and a part of that design not the whole of it but a part of it is the distinct role of Adam in leading and shepherding and protecting his wife Eve which he fails to do Adam was given the command directly by God before Eve was ever created and yet Eve is the one who is forced to defend God's word in the face of the serpent's challenges and you might think the serpent is called crafty maybe maybe the serpent approached Eve when she was out you know picking the morning's breakfast fruit found her alone but no what we realize as we read through the story is that Adam was present he was we are told he was with her take a look at verse 6 so when the woman after being
[36:00] Paul tells us deceived by the serpent so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate now listen to this last part and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate he was with her he was not absent where was he when God's word was challenged where was he when an unclean serpent entered into the garden paradise where was he he was there failing to lead as he ought to have led allowing sin to enter into the world there is a reason that the rest of the bible holds Adam not Eve responsible for the fall sure there have been theologians in the past both Jewish theologians and Christian theologians who have twisted God's word and blamed
[37:13] Eve for the fall and used that blame to say that women are somehow responsible for sin and all the bad things in the world but that is not what the bible says the bible says Adam is responsible the bible tells us that Adam is the one through whom sin and death entered into the world Adam is responsible because he didn't carry out his unique role as a man and as a husband he didn't do it sin entered into the world to be a subversion of God's design that's how sin made its way into the world and sin often advances in our lives and in the people around us sin often advances by twisting by distorting and sometimes by inverting God's design not just his design for us men and women but his design for the world in general that we were made to rule over the earth and to shape it for the glory of
[38:23] God and mankind's history is a history not of shaping the earth for the glory of God but shaping things into idols and then bowing down to lifeless masses and making the thing that they were to rule over the thing that rules over them sin comes into the world and invades our lives as a distortion and inversion of God's design for us and for the world around us and that is true when it comes to the matter of being made male and female there is so much confusion in the world today because the devil's design is to undo the divine design of the world that's why there is so much confusion but we're going to go back to the original question and ask why did
[39:24] God design it this way and why was the devil so intent on attacking this particular aspect of God's design why approach the woman first why why does he aim his attack first at subverting the roles of men and women why does he do that and why in close connection to that why did God design us in the way that he designed us he did not have to why make us male and female why give us distinct roles why make us so that we correspond we fit together why make us in that way because God has a grander plan in mind now Genesis chapters 1 and 2 do not tell us do not answer directly the why question they don't answer it directly we have to move into the New Testament to better understand that we see a couple of things in the
[40:27] New Testament first of all we see in the gospel of Matthew in Matthew chapter 19 I'd encourage you to turn there if you have a Bible with you we see first of all in Matthew chapter 19 that God's design is not something that disappears after the fall just because the devil has messed things up does not mean that God has given up on his basic design for humanity and Jesus tells us that that's not something that we have to discern for ourselves Jesus tells us that exactly Matthew chapter 19 Jesus is asked a question by the Pharisees is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause and he answered his answer takes us back to Genesis chapter 2 he answered and chapter 1 have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female that's chapter 1 and then chapter 2 and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh and now the conclusion that Jesus draws from that the conclusion that shows us that this design of creation is still operative so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore
[41:45] God has joined together let not man separate Jesus rules out divorce because God's design is still operative he says you can't separate them because God has joined them together and this is a part of his design so the first thing that we see as we try to understand the why question is that the design of male and female do not disappear just because they are distorted by the fall that plan remains in place and now finally to our question why why has he designed us in this particular way Ephesians chapter 5 verse 31 Jesus quotes the same verse that he quotes I mean Paul quotes the same verse that Jesus quotes in Matthew 19 therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh that's the genesis design here's why this mystery why did
[42:52] God make them this way why make marriage why design us male and female this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church the design of our design as male and female and the introduction of marriage in Genesis chapter 2 into the equation that design exists so that men and women might be joined together in marriage and that that relationship would point toward the relationship that Jesus had with his people the church whom he gave his life to redeem why did God make us male and female why did God bring Eve to Adam and why were they joined together in one flesh why all of this why do it this way the answer is the same as it always is in your Sunday school classes Jesus it's all designed to point to
[43:56] Jesus specifically designed to give us a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his bride his bride the church over and over the church called the bride of Christ and when we come to that last stage when we come to the consummation there we see once again marriage and its purpose laid out for us Revelation chapter 19 we read this verse 6 then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters like the sound of mighty peals of thunder and then the praise begins hallelujah for the Lord our God the almighty reigns let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb that's Jesus the marriage of Jesus has come and his bride that's the church has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints and then the angel says blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb all of it all of it designed to point ahead to this future marriage supper this future wedding
[45:20] Revelation 21 verse 2 John describes the holy city Jerusalem which is another metaphor for the church as coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband all of it the whole thing male female marriage man woman all of it throughout all of human history aimed at magnifying Christ by means of his relationship with his bride the church that's what it's about that's the answer to the why question there are those who challenge that there are those who would say that no once we're Christians once I'm Christians this whole business of male female distinctions and roles all of that goes away and disappears and I want you to know about this particular objection because you're going to hear it
[46:22] I know I've been talking for a while so I'll try to finish quickly but I want you to hear this because this is what you will often hear from people who believe the Bible is true but have drunk a little bit too deeply from the waters of our age we read in Galatians chapter 3 verse 28 Paul says this for those who have put on Christ neither Jew nor Greek there's neither slave nor free there's no male and female for you're all one in Christ Jesus and what we often hear is that there's the answer no longer do we have to bother with male female distinctions in Christ no longer do we have to worry about creation roles all of that is done away with in Christ and that's not the point that Paul is making here at all what Paul is telling us here is that when it comes to redemption when it comes to salvation we are all on level ground whether you are a slave or free whether you are a man or a woman we are all of us redeemed in the exact same way and we receive the exact same inheritance how are you made right with
[47:35] God Paul tells us that it is by faith in Christ alone Paul tells us in that same chapter that Christ became a curse for us Christ endured the punishment we deserve so that we men women Jew Gentile every economic situation and status it doesn't matter all of us can be made right with God in the same way he says in verse 11 it is evident that no one is justified no one is made right before God by the law you can't get right with God by doing good stuff you can only get right with God by trusting in Jesus it's the only way and Paul's point here is not to say that God's design for creation has been erased in Christ what Paul is telling us is that you are redeemed no matter who you are you are redeemed you can only be there there's not a way for men to be saved that's different from how women are saved there's not a way for the
[48:45] Jew to be saved that's different from the way that non Jews are saved there's not a way for the wealthy to get right with God that the poor do not have access to the only means by which we can get in a right relationship with God is through faith in his son faith in what he did for us on the cross and becoming a curse for us and Christ does not erase the distinctions between male and female he helps us to see and realize the purpose of it all and then to live out that purpose in our church in our homes and even in the world at large to actually reflect the glory of God as we relate to one another as men and women let's pray