The Complementary Gender
Genesis 2:18-25
I find it hard to believe that any adult who is living in American today could not see that we are living in and witnessing all around us a MAJOR MORAL REVOLUTION.
Some of the things which are occurring are things which many people never believed would ever happen within the span of their lifetimes.
Recently, Pastor David Jeremiah wrote a book entitled I Never Thought I’d See the Day wherein he outlined nine cultural developments which he never believed would become social norms, and yet have in a very short time.
One of the most scandalous of these “new norms” is the ever increasing tendency of people to blur the lines between manhood and womanhood.
It seems like everywhere we look, there are attempts to remove any type of distinctions which would be common to men and women exclusively.
Even the popular website Facebook has waded into this social issue by creating now a new way for a person to “define” their gender.
No longer are the choices limited to male and female.
When a person creates a profile now, he or she is given 51 different options regarding gender.
These include:
Agender - Someone who refuses to identify exclusively with any gender identity.
Androgynous - Someone who identifies with neither male or female, but maintains traits of both.
Neither - Someone who refuses any label at all.
They go on to include: Gender Fluid, Gender Diverse, Gender Variant, Gender Nonconforming, on and on, etc.
If this seems like madness, there is a reason: It is madness.
But Facebook is not alone in their provision of the absurd in the new cultural morality.
Many public schools across America are having to deal with the legal issues which are associated with “gender-related” issues.
Many schools are having to make difficult decisions regarding what to do with boys who identify themselves as girls and likewise vice versa, and with the many in society who are supporting them.
Consider the words of Oakland, California psychologist Diane Ehrensaft, who said: “This generation is really challenging the gender norms we grew up with. . . . A lot of youths say they won’t be bound by boys having to wear this or girls wearing that. For them, gender is a creative playing field.” (http://www.albertmohler.com/2009/11/20/the-blur-of-gender-is-the-new-york-times-trying-to-tell-us-something/)
Just consider the massive implications of that statement: Gender is a “creative playing field”.
What a tremendous shift in the moral conscience of a nation it must be to ever support a statement that is so obviously fraught with error.
Beloved, this morning I want us to take an opportunity to look at the subject of gender from a biblical perspective.
Primarily, since this is Mother’s Day, we are going to examine the female gender.
I want us to see that God did create men and women differently from one another and He did so that they would COMPLEMENT one another in this world.
And I hope to show the blessings which result when we have a proper understanding of the roles in society and in the family which God has established in and through our genders.
While the world is desperately trying to ELIMINATE the differences between the genders, we as the Church should CELEBRATE God’s distinctive design.
READ: Genesis 2:18-25
Many years ago, within the church and Christianity as a whole a new debate arose regarding the specific roles which men and women should fill in the church.
There were basically two positions:
Complementarianism - Masculinity and femininity are ordained by God and that men and women are created to complement, or complete, each other.
Egalitarianism - There should be no distinctions made regarding gender because we are all equal in Christ.
From a biblical perspective, there can be no doubt that Complementarianism is the teaching which comes from the text.
Those who teach the Egalitarian perspective must re-interpret or simply ignore the many passages which speak of God’s different design for man and women.
As Dr. John Macarthur has said, men and women are different, and we are “Different by Design.”
So, when we consider the idea of “Design” it is good for us to go back in Scripture and look at the passage wherein God tells us about His creative purpose.
Genesis 1 thru 3 tells us about God’s creation of the world and man’s subsequent rebellion against him.
In Genesis one, we have the outline of the six days wherein God created the world, and on the seventh day He rested.
In Genesis three, we have the narrative of mankind’s rebellion which resulted in God’s punishment.
But it is in Genesis two, that we find the expansion of God’s creation of mankind.
Genesis one mentioned man and woman both having been directly created by God to be His image bearers.
But Genesis two tells us how this whole event took place.
And it expresses to us the reasons why it came about in the way that it did.
The text tells us that God created a man first, from the dust of the ground (v.7).
He establishes for that man a place to live (v.8).
It was a garden which produced food (v.9) and rivers of water flowed through it (v.14).
He also established the responsibilities of the man, to work and keep this garden (v.15).
God then established a boundary for the man, telling him he could eat of anything in the garden with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from which he was forbidden to eat (v.17).
It is at this point that God decides to create a second human being - but one who would not be exactly like the first.
This new human being would be both a different sex and a different gender than the first.
“Sex” refers to our biological and physiological characteristics.
“Gender” refers to our social and familial roles, behaviors and activities.
Male and Female (terms used in Genesis 1) are specific to our “sex”.
Manhood and Womanhood are specific to our genders.
So, God is here not only creating a “scientifically different” being.
The second person was created specifically to Complement (COMPLETE) the first in every way.
OUTLINE:
The Purpose of the Complementary Gender
The Establishment of the Complementary Gender
The Blessing of the Complementary Gender
I. The Purpose of the Complementary Gender (v.18)
v.18 “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
There are two questions which naturally arise from this text:
(1) Why it is not good for man to be alone?
God created the world and everything in it, and He ordained that everything He created was good.
But, please remember that this statement of everything being “good” came at the end of having created everything, including both men and women.
This situation is happening on “Day 6” - God is in the midst of His creation and He makes the statement that to make only one man is “not good”.
It is not good because man, without the complementary gender of woman, has a natural deficiency.
Not the least of which is the inability to procreate and fulfill the command to be “fruitful and multiply”.
But procreation is not the only deficiency.
God could given man the ability to reproduce himself in some other way.
The real deficiency was one of relationship.
Man needed a being who would complement him in a relationship.
One who would not be exactly the same, but one who would have the ability to complete what he was lacking.
NOTE: There is no complement in a relationship between two men (or two women), as both represent the mirror image of the other, not the complementing image.
So, man had this deficiency and God chooses to create for him another one who would complete this deficiency.
QUESTION: What if a person chooses to remain single, are they wrong?
Marriage is not God’s will for everyone; Jesus tells us that some people are meant to be single, but they have been specifically gifted to singleness.
It is not the norm, in fact it is a rarity that a person finds themselves without the longing for an intimate relationship.
But just in case that is you, I don’t want you to think that you are in some way wrong - You are not a “second-class” citizen; the single person whom God has gifted to that is a blessing because that person can fully devote themselves to God --- if anything, your’s is a higher calling.
But what we mustn’t miss is that even though there are some - relatively few - who are gifted to singleness, God did not create the first man to be a single man.
Adam was incomplete for his role in this world without Eve.
It certainly was ‘not good’ for him to be alone.
(2) What does the word helper mean?
From a biblical perspective, the word “helper” is a person who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
In the Bible, God is often referred to as our “helper” (Heb 13:6)
And many modern translations use this term for the word “Paraclete” which we often associate with the word “Comforter” when Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to us.
NET Notes: “In this context the word seems to express the idea of an “indispensable companion.” The woman would supply what the man was lacking in the design of creation and logically it would follow that the man would supply what she was lacking, although that is not stated here.”
The word “Helper” is where we get the foundation for Complementarianism.
The woman is intended to complete the man.
She is not meant to be everything he is... she is meant to be everything he is NOT.
That is why she is called “fit” or “suitable” for him.
The word “fit” literally means “according to the opposite” of him.
The two genders “correspond” to one another.
In short, the purpose of the complementary gender is that the two complete one another.
I. The Purpose of the Complementary Gender (v.18)
II. The Establishment of the Complementary Gender (v.19-23)
v.19 “Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.”
Some might think this to be a strange thing, that Adam would be seeking out a complementary being from among the animals.
But there is great genius in God’s plan here.
God is showing something to Adam that is very important.
God is demonstrating to Adam that there is not another being in all of the created order which is like him.
He is the one who bears God’s image, and there was not another among the created order who shared that blessing.
Animals are not people.
They do not bear the imageo dei, the image of God.
Thus none of them could be the complementary figure in Adam’s life.
v.21 “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. [22] And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
The moment has come... God has created a second being who is also made in His image.
She bears the imageo dei, and thus she alone is fit to be Adam’s companion.
And Adam exclaims in zeal with the phrase, “AT LAST!”
He found nothing else in all of creation which could rightly be called his complement --- but now he has!
Many great preachers have noted from this passage that the woman was taken from Adam’s side.
Not from his feet to be trampled upon, nor from his head to Lord over him... but rather from his side, to demonstrate that she was his complement, his helper.
It is interesting that the word for the Holy Spirit - that word Paraclete - means one who is called to come alongside.
The woman was created out of man’s side to be his completion.
I. The Purpose of the Complementary Gender (v.18)
II. The Establishment of the Complementary Gender (v.19-23)
III. The Blessing of the Complementary Gender (v.24-25)
The blessing which came along with God creating the second person was the establishment of the family.
v.24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
The family is established when a man and a woman come together in a covenant before God and pledge themselves one to the other.
From that flows children and grandchildren, themselves being a blessing to the parents.
They are also the opportunity to create what Voddie Bauchem calls a “multi-generational legacy”.
Many of you here today are the result of the legacy of your parents.
They passionately demonstrated to you their submission to God and love for Christ.
And through their example, you came to know Christ as your Lord as well.
But I also know there are some of you who didn’t come from that.
You’re parents didn’t know Christ... some still do not.
But you now have a family, and an opportunity to start a fresh legacy of your own.
You can show your children your love for Christ - and though you cannot bring about their salvation, you can be to them an example of Christ’s grace, and a mouthpiece for God’s Word to them.
The family is the blessing which came from God establishing this complementary gender called “woman”.
This blessing is compounded when we consider what is also supposed to come along to be a part of marriage: namely trust.
v.25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
Now, I realize that this is simply indicating the condition of Adam and Eve prior to the fall - that they were naked and unashamed because they knew not any form of evil.
But I want you to consider also a very precious truth.
The reason why there was no shame was because their relationship was not burdened by sin.
When sin came in, they covered and hid from one another and from God.
But, beloved, one of the precious realities of marriage is that it is supposed to be the one relationship wherein two people can be totally open - totally naked, both physically and emotionally - with one another... and there be no shame.
The blessing or blessings in regard to marriage is trust.
Two people who complete one another, entering into a completely trusting relationship, with the promise that they will support, encourage, defend and respect one another from the moment the covenant is established, until death do them part.
CONCLUSION: Today is Mother’s Day... it is a day wherein many all around our nation are celebrating the blessing of motherhood.
Beloved, I encourage you today while celebrating to be meditating not just on the blessing of motherhood, but on the blessing of womanhood in general.
In Christ, we share an equality in that we are all made alive in Him.
But that equality of grace does not mean we are all the same.
God has given the world men and women for a reason, and He has made them distinct for a reason.
We should celebrate manhood and womanhood as God designed them.
We should not conform to this world which is always seeking to eliminate those God-designed distinctions.
We should praise God for His creative genius in establishing from the beginning, manhood and womanhood, the perfect complementary pairing, to bring about the blessings of marriage and family in this world.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
