as she relates inwardly towards her Lord and Re deemer, Jesus Christ. To understand the life and nature of the New Testament church, it is helpful to see from the Scriptures what God has to say about human sexu ality and the future of sex as planned by God. In the fulfillment of our new lives in Christ, the dif ferences between the sexes eventually are to be eliminated; in heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage. Paul writes also that in Christ there is neither male nor female. The pas sages do not suggest sexlessness in the age to come, however, but sexfullness. God loves sex; He Him self is a sexual Being. When the distortions in sex resulting from sin have been removed, our final state will probably be properly called supersex— a state much more exciting and adventurous than sitting around on a cloud listening to harp music played by sweet little old ladies in tennis shoes, which is how some skeptics of Christianity would like to describe our future for us. Physically and genetically, the differences be tween the sexes are minor. The principal contrasts are social and cultural. Maleness might well be defined as the capaicty to lead, to be aggressive, assertive, logical, rational and outgoing. Female ness includes passivity, receptiveness, intuitiveness, emotionality and the ability to be a good follower. In the final sense, maleness might be defined as the ability to give love, and femaleness the ability to receive love. God is always “He,” that is male in the Bible, because He is outgoing, outpouring, creative Love. In a sense, the creation has a femi nine, receptive ability to respond to God’s love and to be fruitful on His behalf. Our folk refer ences to “mother nature” and “mother earth” take this into account. We ourselves as vessels and con tainers for God’s Spirit are feminine in a deep sense, and the Scriptures often use the figure of a woman or a wife to represent the believer in relationship to God. In the family, the man is always to head the relationship and to account to God for the wife and children. He is to lead, guide and take the initiative. In the community, the man not only earns a living but provides aggressive and responsible male lead ership. The woman is to follow, submit, support and fruitfully enrich the world as man’s helper. She needs loving encouragement and firm guidance from her head in order to be all she is intended to be. As Eve was taken out of Adam to be his helper, so we can think of the church as the Second Eve, the helper and bride of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew word for “ help” in Genesis means “ to surround, enclose, help or support.” It is related to the word for “ rib.” Earthly marriage is basically a picture of man’s relationship to God. In the Old Testament, Jehovah likens Himself to the husband of Israel who is usu
ally an adulterous wife. James, writing to disobedi ent Christians says, “ You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God . . . ?” He reminds us that we are always creatures of love and if not in love with God whole heartedly, we automatically are idolatrous or adul terous. All sin is a prostitution of an intended re lationship with God. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I accept Him as my Leader and my Lord. I am to submit, follow, obey and respond to Him in exactly the same way a loving wife responds to a wise husband. Whether I am externally male or female, I should think of myself as a woman in my personal relationship with God at the deepest level of my heart and being. In my relationship towards the world I am, however, not a woman, i.e. “ feminine” or passive, submissive, helpless and dependent. Towards the world the individual believer, or the corporate Body, is a strongly masculine, authoritative figure. The church is designed to set the pace in knowl edge, to war aggressively against evil and moral corruption, and to arrest the decay of society which is constantly subject to the forces o f godlessness and lawlessness. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Fa ther who is in heaven.” Thus in relationship to her Lord the church is like a woman; toward the world she is a militant soldier. A verse in Song of Solomon applicable to the church describes her, “Who is this who looks forth as the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?” As the moon shines only by reflecting the light of the sun, so the strength, integrity and power o f the church come only by the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ whom Malachi calls “ the Sun of Right eousness.” In the primeval garden in Eden, the first Adam faced the subtle deception of evil which came to him through his wife who had eaten the forbidden fruit. His choice was to walk with God by faith and to believe what God declared to be, or to yield to his own desires. Temptation comes to each of us through the fallen feminine element symbolized in the Scriptures by the figure of a great and universal harlot. All sin is like immoral sex ac cording to James who says, “Each man is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.” In yielding to temptation rather than fol lowing God man prostitutes himself, and his inner character becomes that o f a whore. Jesus Christ desires to restore the church, nourishing and
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JANUARY, 1969
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