Episode Details

Prayer

Gracious God and Father, we praise and thank you for your mercies to us and for your word. As we open your word now, may your spirit enlighten the eyes of our hearts. May you show us the glory of Christ and reform and remake us into your image through him. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:18-20.

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

Meditation

Masculinity is Christological. “Christological” is not a word that gets typically dropped in every day conversation, but it is a word nevertheless well worth learning. It is a mighty word. Dare I say it, it’s a very manly word. Christology is the study of Christ, and if something is “Christological” that means it pertains to the study of Christ. If a thing is Christological, it means that it fundamentally relates to Christ, that it says something about Christ. It means that it is basically about Christ. With that in mind, I’ll say it again: masculinity is Christological.

Let me put this another way. As we focus in on the topic of masculinity in these studies, just as our text focuses in on the creation of the man, we’re not here to grandstand the male ego. We’re here to exalt Christ. We’re here to begin gazing upon the face of the bridegroom as his bride comes toward him – that’s the reality that the marriage in the garden points toward. But the question remains to be answered: Why do I say that masculinity is Christological? That’s what we’re going to begin unpacking in this meditation, and so a few observations on this.

Firstly, we should note that God himself is masculine. If we’re going to understand masculinity, and God’s purposes in making men, then this is fundamental: God is masculine. In anticipating an objection, I’m not saying that feminine identity is ungodly or irrelevant. Feminine identity, as with all things, finds its origin in the person and character of God. God has bound up wonderful, incredible, and beautiful mysteries in feminine identity – which I trust we’ll start to see in later studies. Men and women are made in God’s image, and are in union with one another (more mysteries of glory!). Nevertheless, as a starting point we need to see this: that God reveals himself as fundamentally masculine. He is not our Heavenly Mother, but our Heavenly Father. God did not send his only daughter into the world, he sent his only Son. God is not a man, but he is masculine.

Let me try and express this from another angle: man is the analogy, or image, of God’s masculinity. When we think of masculinity, we tend to think of men don’t we? We think of beards, muscles, and beer. But here is a fundamental shift that we need to make in our thinking here. Masculinity is not actually man-focused, it’s God-focused. Man is the copy, God is the original. Every earthly father is supposed to be a shadow of our Heavenly Father. Every earthly son is supposed to be a shadow of the Son of God. Every earthly husband is supposed to be a shadow of Christ the husband of his bride the Church. Masculine identity, then, is fundamentally a reflection of something that exists in God.

Here’s the next thing I want to point out: Christ’s manhood was eternally planned. God created the man before he made the woman, but there was something else that he did even before that. Before God created man, he planned for Christ’s incarnation. This is very important to realise. Before men or women were made, or the earth wa