Jesus showed us that Christianity is a welcome place for the “Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free” (Colossians 3:11), “nor is there male and female.” (Galatians 3:28) We, the members of His Church, are both men and women, redeemed from our brokenness and “baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13) The Christian faith embraces the sinner, slave, adulterer, addict, corrupt, and complacent because Jesus “desires mercy, not sacrifice, and He came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13) The Christian Church reaches beyond the Israelites to the Romans to the Egyptians to the Ethiopians to the Chinese and Indians and Americans and the wide expanses of every people group in our world. It is raised high above gender, politics, class, society, culture, and language. Christianity is the great, overarching, all-inclusive abundant life (John 10:10) offered to every living person on this planet through a carpenter named Jesus, who died and resurrected for the sins of all. There is no slant—male or female. Only a huge welcome sign for anyone that chooses to receive the grace He offers.
1. How does your community work to distinguish biblical truth from cultural tradition?
2. What would gender restoration look like if we approached this discussion with grace and confidence in our identity as Children of God instead of with hostility and competition?
This piece was originally published on Q Ideas. Used by permission.
