Does God Have “Man Hands”…?

God’s “Gender” — or Lack Thereof

As a Christian I subscribe to the teachings of the Bible, the “textbook” for Christianity. The Bible consistently addresses God as “He” and “Him,” and so I’ll address God the same way, even though . . .

. . . God has no gender.

1/ The Bible is my source of authority — and everyone has a source of authority for what they believe and how they live life. For various reasons I’ve become convinced that the Bible is divinely inspired, though in physical terms written by human beings. If you’re resistant but open to that idea, you may be interested in the following:

• “Who’s Your Authority?”
• “How Do We Know the Bible Is True?”
• “Is the Bible Reliable?”
• “Is the Bible inspired? The Bible and Religious Writings of the World”
• “Bible Authority: How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?”
• “Can We Trust the Bible?”
• Biblical Reliability | Cold Case Christianity

2/ Christianity — as taught in the Bible, NOT always equivalent to how “Christians” behave! — makes life make sense to me. One author has expressed it this way:

Christianity can be seen as an explanatory hypothesis to account for certain phenomena we observe in the world: the origin of the universe, the design of the universe, and the universality of morality. The explanations that Christianity provides to this empirical data provide a cumulative case for the rationality of Christianity, and in fact, the superiority of Christianity to other belief systems.

But I’ve always loved the way C.S. Lewis puts it: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” (They Asked For a Paper, ch. 9: “Is Theology Poetry?”) The worldview of the Bible sheds light on everything we observe and experience.

3/ The Bible sometimes uses feminine metaphors for God — but never feminine titles. The Bible calls Him “King” — but never “Queen”; “Father” — but never “Mother”; etc. (See “Our Mother Who Art In Heaven?”)

4/ The Bible explicitly tells us “God is spirit” (John 4:24), “not a man” (Numbers 23:19; likewise 1 Samuel 15:29). God is the Creator of humans — not human Himself. Because He’s nonhuman, He is neither a man nor a woman.

5/ The Bible says God created BOTH women and men “in his own image. He created them to be like himself. He created them male and female.” (Genesis 1:27) Thousands of years later, one of the New Testament writers counseled husbands to “give honor to [their] wives,” because they are “equal partner[s] in God’s gift of new life.” (1 Peter 3:7)

The Bible goes even further, however: “Husbands, love your wives the same as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.” (Ephesians 5:25) That’s a high calling!

____________

It’s clear, then, that (a) God is sexless, and (b) women have equal value with men.

But if that’s the case, why does the Bible — despite occasional feminine metaphors — overwhelmingly treat God as if He were male???

Again I defer to C. S. Lewis:

“You are offended by the masculine itself: the loud, irruptive, possessive thing — the gold lion, the bearded bull — which breaks through hedges and scatters the little kingdom of your primness as the dwarfs scattered the carefully made bed. The male you could have escaped, for it exists only on the biological level. But the masculine none of us can escape. What is above and beyond all things is so masculine that we are all feminine in relation to it.” [That Hideous Strength, ch. 14: “Real Life is Meeting”]

Masculinity, to God, includes such things as leadership, protection, self-sacrifice, and even, when necessary — making war. In His own Being, God epitomizes these traits — and humans collectively are intended to be God’s “bride,” as it were (see Isaiah 54:5; 61:10; 62:4; Hosea 2:14–20; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:31–32; Revelation 21:2). We are supposed to be covenanted to Him, and never separated. He is our Leader and Protector and Provider.

So in literal, biological terms, then, God is neither “he” nor “she.” Yet in another sense, a spiritual sense — He is more “masculine” than any human male could be. And because masculine language for God is the norm in the Bible — while feminine language is the exception — this means it’s inappropriate to address God as “she” or “her.” “If God is the God of the Bible, then we call Him ‘Him’ because He calls Himself ‘Him.’ ” (Timothy D Padgett: “He is God: Creating God in Our Image”)

For further reference:

• Our Father in Heaven: Christian Faith and Inclusive Language for God, by John W. Cooper