When it comes to gender dysphoria, the experience of sensing a disconnect between biological sex and their gender identity, we need to understand something important. Mark Yarhouse, professor of Psychology at Regent University in Virginia Beach, writes:
The person is navigating gender identity concerns. These concerns are real and often quite confusing and isolating. The person worries about who would believe them, what people would think about them, and so forth. This is tremendously isolating and often associated with other concerns, such as depression and anxiety.
Another writer says:
It is crucial to understand that this is a genuine experience. People with gender dysphoria experience the feeling that their biological body is lying. A person in this situation really thinks that he or she is, should be, or would feel better as, the gender that is opposite to their biological sex, or no gender at all.
If this is true of people who experience gender dysphoria, then it’s just as true of those who are intersex, who have atypical characteristics in their sexual anatomy and/or chromosomes. It’s important for us to understand that these are real people with genuine experiences. We would do well to listen carefully to them before responding.
Listening to Stories
As we’ve said, no two stories are the same. It really helps to listen to stories, like that of Stephen, an older married man who cross-dressed for 34 years before announcing that he would change his name to Stephanie, take cross-sex hormones, and eventually pursue gender reassignment surgery. Or Kat, a Christian who experiences some gender dysphoria, and is seeking to follow Christ wholeheartedly. Or Lianne — a new friend who’s praying for today’s sermon — who was born with an intersex condition called Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis, where some of her cells have a Y chromosome while others do not.
If you haven’t had time to listen to stories like these, a good place to start is by listening to a podcast called Theology in the Raw. Go back and listen to episodes 756 and 760. It will be worth your time.
What the Bible Says
So what does the Bible say? To answer this well, we really need to ask three questions. Here they are.
Are male and female the only two sexes?
Genesis 1 and 2 is the most important text to answer this question. One of the most important verses on human identity is Genesis 1:26-27
:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
I want you to notice the connection between being created and being male and female. Male and female is connected to our reflection of God’s image. We don’t just reflect God’s image as humans in some generic sense, but as sexed humans — humans who are male or female. They’re embodied identities. Genesis is talking about our entire lives, our embodied lives, as male or female. It covers what we would today call both our biological sex and our gender identity.
In chapter 2 we read about the creation of woman:
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
The word “rib” here in Hebrew is actually side. God creates Eve from Adam’s side. “The woman is presented wholly as his partner and counterpart … She is valued for herself alone” (Derek Kidner).
We learn a lot from Genesis 1 and 2:
- Humans are male and female
- Male and female are complementary and equal
- Embodied sexual differences are part of what it means to reflect God’s image
- Our bodies and are sexual differences are pronounced by God to be very good (Genesis 1:31)
Okay, but what about the rest of the Bible? As we look at the rest of Scripture, we can come to four conclusions:
First, Jesus seems to affirm a male/female binary. In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus says, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” He cites both Genesis 1:27 and 2:24.
Second, whenever Scripture talks about crossing gender boundaries, it always speaks negatively. Whenever it speaks of being one sex, and presenting yourself as the opposite sex, it always says that it’s wrong. For instance, Deuteronomy 22:5 prohibits cross-dressing. 1 Corinthians 6:9 uses a term that describes men who act like women. 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 assumes that men and women are different and that such differences should be expressed and celebrated. And Romans 1:26-27 seems to argue against same-sex sexual relationships because they violate God’s creational design for humanity as sexually different persons.
