Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 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.”
Genesis 3:1-15
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Before we dive into the role of women, I want to take a moment to address the issue of gender and sexuality and the ancient/modern effect of sin on God’s original design. Homosexuality and gender dysphoria are as old as the Bible. We first find a circumstance where men were attracted to men in Genesis chapter 19 in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The book of Jude later references Sodom and Gomorrah and the sin that brought judgment as the perversion of sexual relationships.
Male and Female
Genesis 1:27 “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Matthew 19:3–6 “3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 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’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””
The original design was two complementary genders that were equally important and equally reflective of the image of God. The two genders had individual and yet complementary roles. These exclusive roles and anatomies were designed to enable them to be fruitful or productive together in their work as well as to multiply and fill the earth. This is the design from God the creator. He created us independent and at the same time reliant on each other to fulfill the creator’s design.
Sin immediately distorts.
Genesis 3:7–10 “7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.””
The immediate response to sin was to cover the parts that are dramatically different and also hide from God. Now there was shame associated with the individual way God created males and females.
Satan desired power and authority as well as equality with God. God had given dominion over creation to the man and the woman with the instruction to multiply as a means to exercise full dominion over the earth. When Adam and Eve sinned, they became fearful and ashamed of the means by which they were to achieve dominion. Human sexuality had become distorted from God’s original design. It has been Satan’s ploy from that point forward to confuse our roles and sexual identities. If he can distort, he can stop us from fulfilling God’s plan.
Sin introduces pain.
Genesis 3:16–19 “16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””
Now that sin has distorted Adam and Eve’s view of themselves, they are also introduced to the reality that dominion would involve a great amount of pain. Childbirth would be painful, and work would be painful. The introduction of pain as a result of man’s sin set in place a vulnerability in mankind that Satan has capitalized on from its inception. Man desires to avoid pain. Throughout the Bible, man has attempted to take the possessions of others in order to avoid the pain of work as well as indulge in procreation without the consequences of childbirth and raising children. Satan was able to take advantage and turn man from God’s design of fruitfulness and multiplication to self indulgence and the avoidance of pain.
This idea of pain avoidance shows up in western culture birth rates. Birth rates have been plummeting in western culture for decades to the point that we are not replacing ourselves. The birthrate in the US and Australia is 1.6, UK 1.4, and South Korea is .68. When the desire for more prosperity and less pain become the focus of any culture, God’s original design becomes distorted. God did not tell Adam and Eve to stop working or multiplying. This low birth rate can be attributed to the rise in career-fused couples, reduction in marriage rates, availability and cultural acceptance of abortion, and cost of raising children.
The acceptance of modern definitions of sexuality and morality is from a place of pain avoidance. How do you say no to someone who feels a certain way? How do you deny yourself something?
The solution was through obedience.
Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
God’s answer to man’s disobedience was not for man to solve the problem but for man to be obedient so as to allow God to solve the problem. It would be through the pain of childbirth that God would solve the problem through Jesus.
This put Satan on a hell-powered bent to destroy the means by which God had orchestrated man’s redemption and restoration. Satan would attempt to distort the very thing that God put in place to bring about the man’s deliverance, and as early as Genesis 19, we see sex distorted in a way that produced nothing but pain. Satan attacked the nuclear family as soon as it started. The offspring of Adam and Eve kill each other through the incitement of Satan.
Genesis 4:7 “7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.””
Obedience was required over man’s feelings or emotions. Sin distorts emotions and feelings, and the “avoidance of pain at all cost” nature of man causes us to follow the course that provides the least amount of pain in the immediate future. God asked Cain to obey in the presence of his contrary feelings.
The Feeling of Sexual Distortion
The desire for homosexuality or transgenderism is not fake. It is not fabricated, and in some cases cannot be simply shut off. It is a result of Satan’s active desire to thwart the original design of God. It has been a part of the distortion from the book of Genesis on. The Bible is absolutely clear that it is a distortion. Genesis 19, Leviticus 18, Romans 1,1st Cor 6, and Jude vs 7 all deal specifically with this as a sin.
Since the original sin, man has wrestled with the choice of doing what feels right or what is right. God did not deny Cain’s feelings, but he asked him to have dominion over them just as his original design was for Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth. The part of man that is different from everything else is the ability to feel a certain way but do something else. We are given the ability to obey regardless of our feelings because we are expected to have dominion.
If Satan can reduce us to our feelings he is then able to exercise dominion over us just as we were supposed to exercise dominion over the animals. Can God deliver? Yes! Should we pray that way? Yes! What do we do when he does not deliver? Obey! When God does not deliver, he is asking us to rule. God asked Cain to rule over his desires toward his brother, and he asked Paul to rule over his desires.
2 Corinthians 12:8–10 “8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
We give grace and teach the truth. The church’s motivation should be for all people to receive salvation through Christ and receive the power to live a life that honors the gift that was received. We give grace so that people can come to the saving knowledge of Christ. We preach truth in order that people avoid judgment. Truth without grace is not love, and grace without truth is equally unloving.