NATURE, GENDER, AND THE IMAGE OF GOD

The invisible things of Him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made- Romans 1:18

The natural world exists by reason of an imbalance that keeps the world going. Imbalance of nature creates wind and weather and the movement of continents. It keeps the stars and planets in motion. Perfect equilibrium would be death.From physics we understand the universe consists of matter and anti-matter, which naturally cancel each other out. Because of an imbalance called baryon asymmetry, matter exceeded antimatter in quantity at the big bang, and so our universe is made of left-over matter. Our bodies also reveal a two sided reality, left and right, one side normally stronger than the other in certain ways, producing right handed or left handed, right brained or left brained individuals. It appears that normality is for everything to be a bit out of balance.

Humanity is created as male and female. Male and female also exist in a kind of symmetry, but never in perfect balance. Both are equally human, yet the two are never equal.   In any given activity or situation, one or the other will dominate. Just watch who naturally jumps in to plan social events and who moves first to fix the plumbing in a church. Sometimes men lead, and sometimes women,  yet the balance between male and female influence in any given activity is always in flux. Whatever the balance at a given moment, humanity can not exist  without the presence of both genders. The absence of one means the extinction of the other, so that both are equally indispensable.  Not only with regard to physical survival,  but equally with regard to wholeness in relationship, there must be both men and woman in order for humanity to be completely human. How does this reality in the visible world reveal the invisible realm where God is?

When social relationships get out of balance one has the stuff of life and art and story and science, and the human struggle for justice is inevitably a struggle for balance. Injustice is imbalance to the point where the bounce back is inhibited, and instead of  balance readjusting, the weaker side in crushed.  If creation reveals the Creator, then we should expect to find something similar in God, and the Trinitarian formula points to this truth. The Father is not less God than the Son, nor is the Son less God than the Father. Yet the Son obeyed the Father and became flesh. The Father would not be Father without the Son, nor would the Son be Son without the Father, as Yves Raquin wrote in the Depth of God half a century ago. Identity depends upon relationship, and in God we see both perfect balance and the flow of love that together allow a kind of fluctuation in relationship we might call perfect imbalance. This is not obvious at first, but if humanity is the image of God, and Jesus is the perfect man, then in Jesus we see that perfect balance and imbalance in his relationship with his Father and also with us.

Elohim is the word for God in Genesis 1:1. Elohim is a plural noun describing a singularity, and Genesis 1:26 tells us that humanity is the image or icon of Elohim. One can therefore conclude that humanity is also a plural noun describing a singularity. It was in disobedience that humanity  lost its balance, fell, and was smashed into a multiplicity of individual visions, both of what God is and what it means to be human. That is why humans invented a plurality of gods, who in their divisiveness reflect the image of their creators. We see the proliferation of idols today impersonated by entertainers, sports heroes, and political hopefuls. We do look to these idols for wholeness  and hope, and they regularly disappoint us.

Still despite the fall and our brokenness, what humans are reveals what God is, the invisible seen by what is  visible. The romantic ideal of male and female in love has kept alive the memory of God and provides an analogy that Christ has brought to perfection, still waiting to be made visible—that is the oneness of humanity by faith in Christ’s faithfulness. We do not see this yet made visible in flesh, but Jesus prayed for it in John 17, that we all would be (visibly) one on earth as the Father and Son (invisibly) are in heaven.  Revelation 19 draws directly from the male/female equation in Genesis 2 as Paul does also at the end of Ephesians 5.  A man leaves his father and mother and grasps his wife in a unity as close as the umbilical chord that was cut from his mother. In the same way the Son left the Father to become one with his bride, and when we receive the heavenly Bridegroom, He sends his Spirit to impregnate our lives, producing the eternal fruits of righteousness—love, joy, peace, endurance, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. In this way we participate in the life of the family line coming directly from the Heavenly Father and become visibly one on earth with the invisible life of the Father shared eternally with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Oh the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out (Romans 11:33).