Creation, Sex, and Gender

The Bible’s account of the Creation and Fall defines many areas of human interest. One of the areas it affects most is human sex and gender. The opening chapters of Genesis establish a pattern that is both explained and applied in the rest of Scripture. What the Bible teaches about sex and gender is not only true, it is also essential to human nature and flourishing. The Bible’s teaching can be summarized in the following propositions.

1. God created humanity in His image (Gen. 1:26–27). While human beings are in some ways similar to animals, they are also different. Of all created beings, only humans are made in the image and likeness of God. This image makes them unique and places them far above the other living things that God made during Creation week. God did not merely take some lower creature and add His image to it; rather, He integrated His image and likeness into human nature itself.

Furthermore, God created humans so that both the outer (material, bodily) person and the inner (immaterial, spiritual) person together constitute His image. God did not create humans as souls that live in bodies. He created them as bodies and souls together. Personal identity consists not only in the inner (which would be Gnosticism) or only in the outer (which would be materialism) but in both together. To deny that either is essential to individual identity is to deny the fullness of human nature.

2. God created both sexes to image Him (Gen. 1:27). God made humans in exactly two sexes: male and female. Neither maleness nor femaleness is humanly assigned. Neither is a social construct. Both maleness and femaleness are aspects of human nature, and both are necessary for humans to image God. Because God made the differences between male and female, those differences are essential.

Since the image of God inheres in both sexes together, neither is more important than the other, and neither is better than the other. Women can and should delight in being female. Men can and should delight in being male. Both should delight in a created order that includes the other. Both should image God to the other.

3. Sex has a purpose in God’s creation (Gen. 1:27–28). Clearly God intended humans to reproduce. Sexual intimacy is His means to that end. By definition males are humans whom God designed to beget children. Females are humans whom God designed to conceive and bear children. Maleness and femaleness are directly related to the purpose of reproduction through sexual intimacy, and sex organs are designed to fulfill this purpose.

God did not, however, intend reproduction to be practiced indiscriminately between all males and females. From the beginning He protected reproduction and sexual intimacy by restricting it to partners within the institution of marriage (Gen. 2:24). God always intended marriage to bind together one man and one woman. A marriage is constituted when a man and a woman do two things. First, they formally subordinate all other human relationships to their relationship with each other (“leaving father and mother”). Second, they solemnize their faithful devotion to each other (“cleaving,” signified by the marriage oath). This leaving and cleaving are then reflected and consummated in sexual intimacy (“they shall be one flesh”). Within marriage sexual intimacy is holy and blessed by God; outside of marriage it falls under His judgment (Heb. 13:4).

Jesus grounded His teaching about marriage in the Creation account (Matt. 19:3–12; Mark 10:2–12). According to Jesus, God overlooked some sinful marriages during the Old Testament period. Drawing upon the Creation account, however, Jesus emphasized that marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. Marriages to more than one spouse are always wrong.

In contrast, because of the nature of sex and marriage, marriage to a person of one’s own sex is not possible. Unlike polygamous marriages, same-sex marriages are not marriages at all. They are sinful because they falsely pretend to be marriages, and they attempt to mimic sexual intimacy through same-sex genital manipulation. Same-sex manipulation does not constitute sexual intimacy and does not make same-sex partners “one flesh”: it constitutes a perversion of the purpose and nature of sex.

4. The distinct functions of male and female imply different roles within certain spheres (Eph. 5:22–23; 1 Tim. 2:8–15; 1 Pet. 3:1–7). Males and females are equally valuable and dignified in the sight of God. Nevertheless, God has constructed them differently— males are begetters, and females are conceivers and bearers. Consequently, within certain spheres God has assigned roles according to these functions. For example, within the home, males are responsible to provide for their own, to love their wives, and to take leadership of the household. Within the church, only males may occupy the office of pastor-bishop-elder. While these roles can be sinfully twisted by abusive males, they do not themselves grow out of any sinful ambition or reflect any abusive attitude. On the contrary, these roles are grounded in human nature and are part of the created order.

5. Sex and gender are distinguishable but not separable for humans (1 Cor. 7:1–16). One’s sex—being male or female—is a matter of biology. Sex cannot be changed, though the bodies of either sex can be mutilated to resemble the bodies of the other sex. A male will always be a male; a female will always be a female. Being male or female constitutes a significant aspect of every person’s identity.

Gender expresses this biological reality through behavior. While gender is tied directly to sex, to some extent it is culturally and socially envisioned. To the extent that cultural visions of gender do not contradict Scripture, males have a duty to learn culturally-envisioned masculine patterns of conduct, and females have a duty to learn culturally-envisioned feminine patterns of conduct. For any person deliberately to create confusion concerning sex or gender is contrary to nature (i.e., to the purpose for which God created sex).

All understandings of sex and gender that contradict God’s creative purpose are sinful. Because both men and women share human nature, what they hold in common is much greater than what distinguishes them. When some vision of gender denies one of these areas of commonality (as when some cultures deny that men should be gentle), it becomes toxic. Furthermore, whenever some vision of gender introduces sinful elements such as arrogance, predation, immodesty, or resentment, its vision of gender becomes toxic. Both sexes are right to resist sinful, toxic visions of gender.

Because gender is tied to sex, it is not fluid. It is not possible to be a woman trapped in a man’s body or vice versa. It is, however, possible to experience confusion about one’s role and behavior (gender) as a man or a woman. Part of the business of Christianity is to help men learn to be rightly masculine and women learn to be rightly feminine.

6. The Fall has damaged the created order, including human embodiment (Gen. 3:17–19). Our bodies, like the rest of creation, have been made subject to vanity; the created order “groaneth and travaileth in pain” until it is redeemed at the resurrection (Rom. 8:20–24). People’s bodies often fail to perform according to the purposes for which God made them. God created eyes to see, but some people are blind. God created ears to hear, but some people are deaf. Similarly, God created sex for reproduction, but some people are not able to have children. The fact that some people are not fertile does not erase the fundamental purpose of sex any more than the fact that some people are blind erases the fundamental purpose of the eye.

Furthermore, some people are born without important parts of their bodies, and others are born with misshapen parts. These and similar conditions are abnormalities. Some are even disabilities. They are not the way things are supposed to be, and they do not erase the fundamental fact that God made humans to have eyes, ears, hands, and so forth. Most importantly, people with such afflictions continue to bear the image of God and are entitled to the full measure of human dignity.

In a very few instances, these abnormalities may take the form of disorders of sexual development (DSDs). In these disorders, people are born with or develop some level of bodily sexual ambiguity or irregularity. The cause may be genetic (as with Klinefelter or Turner syndromes). It may be hormonal (as with androgen insensitivity syndrome or congenital adrenal hyperplasia). DSDs may also arise from other causes. These conditions together have been labeled “Intersex,” and they are genuine medical conditions.

How should Christians respond to people with DSDs? First, these conditions are extremely rare and do not redefine what is normal for humans. Second, because DSDs are physical defects and disabilities, they are not sinful or shameful (though they are, of course, very personal and usually private). Third, DSDs do not alter the fundamental structure of humanity as created in two sexes; they do not introduce a third sex or make male and female into a continuum. Fourth, people with DSDs face very difficult choices, none of which may be ideal. Christian physicians and counselors should help them to choose in ways that are both moral and conducive to personal flourishing. Finally, because people with DSDs are made in the image of God, they deserve full acceptance, respect, and compassion.

Human Value and Dignity

Creation in God’s image gives all humans value and dignity (Gen. 1:26–27; Psalm 8). Even sinful people (and we are all sinful) still bear God’s majestic image. People who are confused about gender still have value and dignity. People who commit sexual sins (including same-sex sins) still have value and dignity. Jesus invariably greeted sinners with compassion; He showed anger only toward those who tried to thwart His mission.

Christians must stand against wrong ideas and wrong conduct. Part of their calling is to expose the unfruitful works of darkness, including deeds that are too shameful to dwell on (Eph. 5:3–14). Rebuking a sin, however, is not the same thing as demeaning or belittling a sinner. Part of the Christian calling is also to bring the hope of the gospel to all kinds of people, including people who do shameful things. Believers can welcome and befriend sinners of all sorts—just as Jesus did—without condoning the sins that they commit.

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Kevin Bauder is research professor of Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis. He has been a pastor and is also a chaplain in the Air Force Auxiliary.

(Originally published in FrontLine • May/June 2020. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)

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