Created Male and Female: Gender in the Image of God

Passage: Genesis 2:5-24

One of the most beautiful and significant truths in the Bible is that God “created man in his own image.” (Genesis 1:27) As we saw last week in the introduction to our series Created in the Image of God, mankind was made to reflect, relate and rule with his Creator. And essential to that truth are the next words in that verse which say “in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” God created humanity as two distinct sexes and genders made perfectly and purposefully both physically and spiritually to reflect his image. Unfortunately that reality is being suppressed and seeking to be silenced by the confusion and deception of what we might term the modern ‘gender identity crisis.” While such confusion has existed and had negative effects since the fall distorted the image of God in men and women, it has manifested itself in recent years in ways that have challenged the very categories of male and female. The result is a deception that says you can or even should create yourself in whatever image you feel or desire, a view that is causing untold damage to men and women, boys and girls created in God’s image. The key to addressing this gender identity crisis is to hold forth the beauty and blessing of God’s fearful and wonderful creation of each of us male or female just as he planned and designed, and Jesus’ taking on our human flesh in order to redeem, dignify and restore what it means to be a son or daughter of God. Join us Sunday as we consider how we are created male and female in the image of God.