Gender Confusion

I. Introduction

1. Gender Dysphoria

1. Transgenderism

II. A Biblical Theology of Gender and the Human Body

A. God created men and women in His own image.

• Genesis 1:27-28, 31 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.... And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”

• Genesis 2:25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

• Psalm 139:13-14 “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

• Christian view: gender includes

1. Physical body
2. God-given dispositions/inclinations
3. Cultural expressions that may vary across time

• Secular view:
  1. Sex = physical body
  2. Gender = psychological identity

B. The fall has distorted us in body and mind.

• Genesis 3:16-19: the curse of death à bodily sickness and abnormalities

• Romans 1:18, 21 à the results of the fall in our hearts ... who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth... they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

• Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

• The reality of fallen self-perception

• The consequences of rejecting God’s design

• Our bodies: not blank canvases, but flawed masterpiece.

• The hope of Christ: Titus 3:3-4 “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray.... But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us...”

C. The resurrection affirms the goodness of the gendered body.

• The resurrection of Jesus as a man

• 1 Corinthians 15 – glorified bodies, yet continuity of personhood

• Transgenderism: psychological identity trumps physical anatomy

• Christianity: we are united, body and soul. The body is good!

III. Loving Our Neighbors in a World of Gender Confusion

A. Seek Wisdom

B. Adopt a Posture of Compassion

C. Speak the Truth and the Gospel in Love

D. Call Others to Realistic Repentance

E. Persevere by God’s Grace