I would like to make the claim that one of the most significant and most central consequences of sin is gender confusion. We could even go so far as to argue that the doorway to sin's entry into the world was gender, and confusion of male and female was the first domino to fall in a long line of them. Here are some considerations:
Male and Female Were Created In The Image of God
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Day six is the day that gets the most coverage, suggesting the activity that God was up to on that day had perhaps a special place in his heart. What did he do, you ask? He made his image bearers. Mankind would be central and significant to the purposes of God in the world, namely, to display the greatness of God's image throughout all creation.
Notice that one of the first things we learn about the image of God is that it exists in either male or female format. Yes, there are only two genders. No, there are not 98 genders. Again, we will come to see in verse 28 that male and female would be necessary to perpetuate the image of God and the glory of God. Not just that God's glory is revealed in male or female, respectively, but that the qualities of male and female would be needed (you know what i'm talking about) to reproduce this glory throughout the earth.
God Goes To Adam First
In Genesis 2:15-17 God goes to Adam, pulls him aside, as it were, and gives him some important instructions for life on the earth. He tells him to keep the garden and he tells him to avoid the tree in the middle of the garden. Seems pretty simple, right? Somehow he managed to trip and spill his coffee all over himself and he smashed his brand new mug to boot.
What is important at this point is that God designs an order and roles for the Genders. Adam is placed in charge because he is given the commands. After sin enters the world God goes to Adam first. In the NT it is the man, Adam, who is responsible for sin entering the world (Romans 5:17).
Satan Goes To Eve First
Satan is a glory stealer. We believe that Satan was where he was at in the first place because of a coup, a coup directed at stealing the glory of God. Originally in heaven as an angel of God, now Satan finds himself plotting against God's holy character not from within the cabinet but from the pit of hell after he was ousted from heaven.
We are told that Satan was more crafty than any other beast of the field (Genesis 3:1). This is an important clue and it was God's way of helping us develop the right attitude about Satan as we witness his first act. Having this particular mindset about Satan would help us to rightly interpret the significance of what he was about to do. And what was he about to do?
Many of you may have said that he was about to deceive Eve. There is actually something Satan does before he deceives Eve. He goes to Eve. That is right, the fact he went to Eve first is an enormous problem, the 600,000 lb elephant in the room, if you haven't noticed it already. Now our world of sin is marked by gender confusion and rebellion and it all began because Satan went after Eve.
The significance of this is that we see Satan's game plan and it includes a reversal of the good order that God has implemented. When Satan goes to Eve he is forcing a situation that God never intended. God went to Adam, Satan goes to Eve. God went to Adam and gave him the rules. God went to Adam and told him what he could and couldn't do. When Satan goes to Eve we see Satan thumbing his nose at God saying, "what you have put in order I will reverse, confuse, destroy and distort."
And it all started with gender confusion. The first thing we learn about God's image bearers is that they were male and female. In the fall the curse of sin is gender specific and it affects the way male and female would ever relate to each other. Genesis 4:7 says that Eve would no longer be satisfied with simply helping Adam, she would want to rule over him.
Remember he is more crafty than any other beast of the field. Thus, we should pay attention to the master manipulator, not so that we can improve as manipulators but because the things Satan targets to destroy God's beauty must be very strategic. Who would know better how to disrupt what God has made? Who would be more motivated to thwart the plans of God, to be represented in all of his glory, throughout the earth? Doesn't Satan's tactic to tamper with gender tell us how important gender is to the beauty of God being represented in the earth? Doesn't his tampering reveal how crucial gender roles are to God's order for life and joy? It sure does!
Jesus Restores His Creation
Satan has attacked a beautiful thing but he reveals to God's people how highly the church should prioritize the restoring work of the gospel in gender roles. Thankfully, in Genesis three we see the one who will crush the head of the serpent, we know now this is Christ. Christ died on the cross to make us his children, to forgive us of our sins and to restore what God has put into motion in creation. Everything that sin and Satan reversed about God's design is something for which Jesus died to put back.
June designated to celebrating the destruction of sin and the deception of the devil. Pride month isn't loving, it is affirming confusion and destruction and encourages folks to stay on a bus that is driving over a cliff. It is loving to say, "don't get on the bus." It is loving to say, "get off of the bus." Jesus stands in victory over sin and Satan and he welcomes you, no matter your struggle, to go to him and find healing. While Christians shouldn't rejoice in the culturally mandated celebration of sin it is an opportunity for us all to recognize our own gender confusion, our own rebellion against God and the salvation that is ours through the precious blood of Christ. We can always rejoice in that and extend it to the world around us.
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