Created by Design

The following is one of six position papers written for the ordination standards. The prompt for this paper was: “What is your view on the respective roles of men and women? Include how this applies in the church and in the home.”

Introduction

In order to rightly understand how men and women are to relate to one another in various contexts, we must begin by answering the question: “what is a man and a woman?” And in order to answer that question, we must look back to creation, where God formed the first man and woman. The relational realities flow from creational realities, so it’s imperative to understand what we were made FOR. Understanding that begins at the beginning in Genesis 1–2.

Creation Realities

The creation story shows us God’s intention and design for the world. In the creation of human beings, God is the direct agent. Almost everywhere else there is mediation in creation: the earth brings forth vegetation, and the waters bring forth fish. In the case of man, God directly acts. All other creatures were formed according to the pattern God devised, but only man is designed to image God himself. In Genesis 1, we see that God creates man in his own image (Gen 1:27) and commissions them to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it (Gen 1:28). What’s clear from Genesis 1 is that both men and women came from God, were both made in his image and likeness, are distinct as male and female, and are authorized to carry out God’s mission on earth by being fruitful and ruling the earth. These commands are given to both men and women equally, and thus both are to obey and fulfill the mandate. However, Genesis 2 spells out the fact that men and women are to do this as men and as women.

In Genesis 2, Moses zooms out from the foundational realities that men and women are created equal and are equal in their worth in relation to the image of God to show that equality does not constitute undifferentiated sameness. Adam is created first and put in the garden by God to work and keep it. He is to be a priest in that Garden; representing God by guarding and keeping it holy (Gen 2:15). To help him do this, God creates Eve out of Adam and she is presented to Adam (Gen 2:22). Here we see the reality of male headship. Ray Ortlund Jr. defines headship from Genesis 2 this way:

“In the partnership of two spiritually equal human beings, man and woman, the man bears the primary responsibility to lead the partnership in a God-glorifying direction.”

In bringing Eve to Adam, the Lord displays his intention for the man to take responsibility. God does not name her woman, Adam does. She comes from him and is under his derived authority. 

So, from the opening chapters of Genesis, we are to understand that men and women were created by God with equal worth and value. They are to obey the creation mandate, but to do so as men and as women. And we see from Genesis 2 that it is in their very design that Adam was to be Eve's federal head, having authority over and responsibility for her, and Eve was to be Adam's suitable helper, responding to and respecting Adam's lead. The dynamics of this relationship were to govern all future husband-wife relationships and even to set the pattern for broader male-female relationships in the community. In short, men and women were made for each other to continue God’s work of forming and filling the earth as he did at creation. The man forms (subduing & exercising dominion over the earth) and the woman fills (be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth).

Redeemed Relational Realities

Because men and women were created in certain ways, we can not escape these realities. We can not stop living in God’s world. So what was true in the Garden at the beginning is also true today. In Ephesians 5:22–25, we learn that marriage is a symbol that ultimately points us to the relationship between Christ and the church. Husbands are called to have authority (2 Cor 10:8), take responsibility for (Gen 3:11), sacrifice for (Eph 5:25), and take initiative towards their wives. Correspondingly, wives are called to submit to their husbands (Eph 5:22), obey their husbands (1 Peter 3:6; Titus 2:5), and respond to the lead of their husbands. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1–16 shows that the world remains hierarchical. Sin did not flatten out creational distinctions at the Fall. 

While all of this is clear in husband and wife relationships, how does that relate to the church (which, interestingly enough, Paul calls “the household of God”)? 1 Timothy 3:1–7 lists various qualifications for an elder; among these are the requirement that he be the husband (emphatically making the office exclusive to men) of one wife (1 Tim 3:2) and that they must be able to manage their own households well (1 Tim 3:4). Paul makes the connection between how husbands led their homes to how pastors/elders are to lead the church (1 Tim 3:5). 

We can apply this principle to the question of the role of men and women in the church. The operational paradigm must be how God has designed and commanded men and women to relate in the home. Therefore, pastors can only be men, and they must lead and have authority over the church, and will be held responsible for their leadership (Heb 13:17). Conversely, women may not be pastors, nor should they operate in any capacity that would be seen as authoritative. This would include preaching, teaching mixed groups of men and women (1 Cor 14::34–35; 1 Tim 2:12), and exercising any leadership. This is not because of some inferior status of women in a qualitative sense or due to the Fall, but rather in how God designed men and women in creation. Over and over again, Paul anchors the commands of headship and submission in the creation account, so they should not be perceived as “cultural” or “that’s just how they did it back then”.

At bottom is the question of obedience. Will we obey God’s good design for us in our very bodies, made explicit in Scripture, in how we relate as men and women? Or will we act like Eve, reversing God’s design in a vain attempt at being our own gods?