Man and Woman

A Zondervan Digital Short

Wayne A. Grudem

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780310496229
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Why did God create two sexes? Can men and women be equal and yet have different roles? 

Derived from Wayne Grudem’s perennial bestseller, Systematic Theology, this digital short summarizes the Bible’s teaching on men and women.

Complementarian in perspective, Grudem explores the dignity of men and woman as well their differences, with special attention paid to the implications of those differences for marriage. The creation of humans as male and female shows God's image in: 

1. Harmonious personal relationships.
2. Equality in personhood and importance. 
3. Difference in role and authority. 

Both clarifying and challenging, Man and Woman is an accessible resource on a historic teaching of the Christian church.

Man and Woman

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Man As Male and Female

Why did God create two sexes? Can men and women be equal and yet have different roles?

EXPLANATION AND SCRIPTURAL BASIS

One aspect of man’s creation in the image of God is his creation as male and female: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). The same connection between creation in the image of God and creation as male and female is made in Genesis 5:1–2, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.”¹ Although the creation of man as male and female is not the only way in which we are in the image of God, it is a significant enough aspect of our creation in the image of God that Scripture mentions it in the very same verse in which it describes God’s initial creation of man. We may summarize the ways in which our creation as male and female represents something of our creation in God’s image as follows:

The creation of man as male and female shows God’s image in (1) harmonious interpersonal relationships, (2) equality in personhood and importance, and (3) difference in role and authority.²

A. Personal Relationships

God did not create human beings to be isolated persons, but, in making us in his image, he made us in such a way that we can attain interpersonal unity of various sorts in all forms of human society. Interpersonal unity can be especially deep in the human family and also in our spiritual family, the church. Between men and women, interpersonal unity comes to its fullest expression in this age in marriage, where husband and wife become, in a sense, two persons in one: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). This unity is not only a physical unity; it is also a spiritual and emotional unity of profound dimensions. A husband and wife joined together in marriage are people that “God has joined together” (Matt. 19:6). Sexual union with someone other than one’s own wife or husband is a specially offensive kind of sin against one’s own body (1 Cor. 6:16, 18–20), and, within marriage, husbands and wives no longer have exclusive rule over their own bodies, but share them with their spouses (1 Cor. 7:3–5). Husbands “should love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph. 5:28). The union between husband and wife is not temporary but lifelong (Mal. 2:14–16; Rom. 7:2), and it is not trivial but is a profound relationship created by God in order to picture the relationship between Christ and his church (Eph. 5:23–32).

The fact that God created two distinct persons as male and female, rather than just one man, is part of our being in the image of God because it can be seen to reflect to some degree the plurality of persons within the Trinity. In the verse prior to the one that tells of our creation as male and female, we see the first explicit indication of a plurality of persons within God: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion’ ” (Gen. 1:26). There is some similarity here: just as there was fellowship and communication and sharing of glory among the members of the Trinity before the world was made (see John 17:5, 24), so God made Adam and Eve in such a way that they would share love and communication and mutual giving of honor to one another in their interpersonal relationship. Of course such reflection of the Trinity would come to expression in various ways within human society, but it would certainly exist from the beginning in the close interpersonal unity of marriage.

Someone might object that such a representation of the plurality of persons in God is not really a complete one, for God is three persons in one while God created Adam and Eve as only two persons in one. If God intended us to reflect the plurality of persons in the Trinity, why did he not create three persons rather than two who could reflect the interpersonal unity among the members of the Trinity? First, we must agree that this fact shows the analogy between marriage and the Trinity to be an inexact one. Second, although we cannot be certain of the reasons why God did not do something when Scripture does not explicitly tell us those reasons, we can suggest two possible answers: (1) The fact that God is three in one while Adam and Eve were only two in one may be a reminder that God’s own excellence is far greater than ours, that he possesses far greater plurality and far greater unity than we ourselves, as creatures, can possess. (2) Though the unity is not exactly the same, the unity in a family among husband, wife, and children, does also reflect to some degree the interpersonal unity yet diversity of persons among the members of the Trinity.

A second objection might be raised from the fact that Jesus himself was unmarried, that Paul was unmarried at the time he was an apostle (and perhaps earlier), and that Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:1, 7–9 seems to say that it is better for Christians not to marry. If marriage is such an important part of our reflection of the image of God, then why were Paul and Jesus not married, and why did Paul encourage others not to be married?

For Jesus, the situation is unique, for he is both God and man, and sovereign Lord over all creation. Rather than being married to any one individual human being, he has taken the entire church as his bride (see Eph. 5:23–32) and enjoys with each member of his church a spiritual and emotional unity that will last for eternity.

The situation with Paul and his advice to the Corinthian Christians is somewhat different. There Paul does not say that it is wrong to marry (see 1 Cor. 7:28, 36), but rather views marriage as something good, a righ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Man and Woman