The Problem with Sexual Politics

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God instituted marriage at the creation of Adam and Eve. Sin made marital relations a struggle.

Sexual politics is the idea that men and women must compete for power in order for there to be equality or justice or fair treatment and the like. There are so many problems with sexual politics that I hardly know where to begin. I will start with the most obvious, though it is so often ignored that we think it is less obvious than it ought to be. Sexual politics is an oxymoron, which is to say it is a phrase which contradicts itself. Sexuality is naturally intimate and personal, and politics is naturally public and common to all. When you try to combine the private with the public what results is chaos, confusion, and insanity.

Sexuality is a gift from God for the purpose of strengthening the marriage bond between a husband and his wife, and for the purpose of filling the world with people through procreation. The sexual act is so personal and intimate that if God had not blessed it and made it pleasurable for both husband and wife, then no one would ever engage in it, and if that were true, and had sin also never entered the world, then the entire world population would still only be two people, Adam and Eve.


The problem with sexuality is that sin has perverted our use of God’s good gift, and turned a wonderful, intimate, private act into a selfish, filthy, perverted, public spectacle. When people give in to the devil’s temptations then we pervert God’s good gifts, and turn them into wicked things. Any use of sexuality apart from the normal use in natural marriage is a misuse of God’s gift which is forbidden by God’s Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”). God forbids such acts because, as Scripture says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18) God’s commandments are all given for our good to forbid us from doing things which hurt ourselves and others, and God’s commands encourage us to do things which are good for others and ourselves.

The devil’s temptations to sexual sins promise to give us physical pleasure without the lifelong commitment required in marriage. The tragic consequences of sexual sins are that they interfere with, and destroy, our relationships with one another, especially relationships between men and women. Sexual sins also ruin the sinner’s view of himself or herself because one who commits sexual sins is sinning against one’s own body as noted above.

Romantic ideas about marriage are neither Biblical nor sustainable. Marriage is a lifelong commitment.

Sexual politics turns relationships between men and women into struggles for power. These power struggles are the opposite of loving and are never beneficial for anyone concerned. Even if you “win” the power struggle you lose much more, including friendship, respect, cooperation, companionship, assistance, help, comfort, fidelity, and more. True love is concern for someone else over your concern for yourself. Holy Scripture’s “Golden Rule” is a good guide as to what true love is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Power politics (especially when applied to the two sexes) are all about what is good for me, not someone else, and that is, by definition, selfish and unloving. No one will think well of you if you gain power for yourself, but everyone will think well of you if you care for others above your own self interest.

Feminism is a main contributor to the problems of sexual politics. Here I will only briefly mention the problems with feminism because it is a topic so broad (pun intended) and complex that it could fill many whole books. Feminism is fundamentally Marxism for women. Especially as it has developed, feminism is completely power politics. Sexual politics is just one troubling aspect of feminism, of which there are many more. Twenty-first century feminists completely reject the ideals of the original feminists. They still can talk a good “equality” game, but hardcore feminists are all about domination, and frequently sneer at the suggestion of equality. Also, don’t even mention accounting for women’s needs and desires for protection in marriage and motherhood. There are many prominent feminists who hold to the idea that a woman has the right to murder her own children, or she isn’t a real feminist. This is so ridiculous that it shouldn’t need comment except for those who advocate for such barbarism with vehement sincerity.

The Holy Family is a good example of a loving family.

Another problem with the politicizing of sexuality is that it objectifies the pleasure of intimacy and that makes it inherently selfish. When sexual intimacy is based on selfishness then it leads quickly to all kinds of perversions. If someone views sex in political or selfish terms, then all that matters to that person is how he (or she) feels personally. All kinds of sinful perverted acts can make a person feel pleasure if they don’t care at all about the person with whom they are engaging. This leads people to seek their “pleasure” in adultery, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and all kinds of violent perversions including rape and more. There is no end to perversions if someone only cares about the momentary pleasure of sexual stimulation.

Sexual politics also directly leads to murder in many cases. There are news stories every day about murders of passion where the betrayal of a spouse, or an uncaring lover, leads someone to murder. Also the selfishness of sexual politics leads to the most common cause of death in America – abortion. When children are conceived through selfish acts, those children are seen by their parents as unwanted burdens, and the easiest way to eliminate the consequences of one’s selfish actions is to commit murder. No civilized society in the world allows the murder of children in the womb, but such is the wickedness of the human heart that so many societies, though they may be advanced in many ways, allow the barbaric practice of pre-natal murder of children. There is no such thing as a truly unwanted child. There is always someone who is willing and able to care for children otherwise “unwanted” by their parents. Truly civilized societies support and maintain structures and organizations who will protect and provide for the most vulnerable of the victims of sexual politics and the sexual revolution.

Husband and wife are not faceless, generic partners. They are individuals committed to one another for as long as they both shall live.

The problem of gender confusion is a somewhat surprising development and outcome of this topic and it really has made sexual politics absolutely crazy in the second decade of the 21^st century. One hopes that sanity will soon prevail, so that gender confusion is just a passing fad, but for now those who combine sexual politics with gender confusion are getting otherwise rational people to do some truly insane things. In some states boys who obviously and falsely claim to be girls have been allowed to participate and have been declared champions in girls sports. Obviously that doesn’t work the other way – girls or women who falsely claim to be male will never prevail at a high level, even when they take body-destroying performance enhancing drugs which would immediately disqualify a boy or a man in the same sport. Men are being allowed in women’s and girls’ private places such as locker rooms and toilet facilities, and this has even gotten so bad that on this issue the President of the United States (Barack Obama at the time) openly expressed his ignorance of the difference between boys and girls even though young children know that this difference exists and is obvious even with casual (not intimate) observation.

Marriage is related to the tree of life because through marriage (ideally) the next generation is born and raised and taught how to be good people.

Related to gender confusion is the idea of homosexual marriage. Homosexuality is probably the origin of much confusion in sexual politics because it replaces the natural complementarity of the sexes with the sameness of the perversion, and tries to pretend that there is no difference between intimacy with the same and intimacy with someone who is sexually complementary. This confusion has also gone to high levels when a slim majority (5-4) of ignorant ideologues on the United States Supreme Court ruled (“Obergefell v. Hodges”) that the States had to allow marriage between people of the same sex. The five justices of the majority were ignorant in this decision because they not only ignored over two hundred years of precedents where the states each made their own decisions about marriage laws, but they also ignored thousands of years of precedent where marriage was only between a man and a woman (or men and women in some cases). The foolish majority ignored all scientific information and common sense that men and women are made for each other. But most importantly for the context of the Supreme Court, they ignored the fact that the United States Constitution and all its amendments do not give the Federal government nor the courts the authority to regulate and redefine marriage.

I always enjoy 50th Anniversary parties. They are always celebrations of life and commitment, and show how loving parents produce good children and grandchildren.

I have to wonder if, because of Obergefell v. Hodges, my marriage to my wife (who is the opposite sex to me, in case there is any confusion) is still legal! There is no definition of marriage in the constitution and there doesn’t need to be because it is obvious to anyone who cares that marriage is between a man and a woman of opposite sexes. But now the Supreme Court has given a “legal” definition of marriage, and it only acknowledges marriage between people of the same sex. Natural marriage does not fit that definition. Already people are losing their jobs and/or being prosecuted (“Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” for example) for maintaining that true marriage is only between one man and one woman. I remain married to my wife, and will continue in my marriage as long as we both shall live, as I promised, whether or not is is legal for us to do so in this crazy world of sexual politics, but you can see the crazy insanity which results when sexuality is inserted in the political process (no pun intended, honestly).

It is interesting to note the societal fallout which began in the United States shortly after the death of Hugh Hefner. Hefner helped popularize the sexual revolution when he founded the porn magazine Playboy in 1953. Very soon after Hefner died in 2017 we started to hear about women complaining that they had been raped by men in positions of power, but had been afraid to speak out for years in some cases. Some high profile Hollywood actresses started the “me-too” movement to encourage other women to come forward and publicly expose the wrongdoing of powerful rapists and sexual abusers. The timing of the emergence of the “me-too” movement was interesting from a Spiritual perspective, as if whatever demons that influenced Hugh Hefner (and other pornographers) suddenly lost much of their fear-making influence on sexual abuse victims once Hefner died.

King Herod's broken family caused the holy family to flee to Egypt and the death of all the children in Bethlehem.

The nature of power politics (with the “help” of Marxist feminism) is such that the “me-too” movement is being turned from an honest search for justice into a weapon against innocent men in power. The most obvious of these was the unsubstantiated (and literally unbelievable) allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The woman who made the accusations against Kavanaugh was a California Psychology professor who appeared to have been under the influence of hypnosis (or something) so that she would appear to believe the lies she was telling, but it did not help her to give any information which would be believable to objective outsiders. The end result of the attempts to defame Brett Kavanaugh is that his opponents opposed him simply because he is a man, and some of the most radical feminists want to believe that to be a man is equal to being a rapist even when it is not true. Here is a good lesson: if your ideology requires you to lie or dismiss the truth in any way, then it is a false ideology and pursuing it is a waste of time.

The growth in the popularity of pornography and the politicizing of sex has led to the breakdown of the family in affected societies. Since the family is the fundamental foundation of society and civilization, once it has begun to crumble we see the signs that the societies under this destructive influence have also begun to crumble. This is most evident in the United States of America, and in some European countries as well as China (with its one-child policy and enforced abortions). In the USA sexual politics has actively encouraged divorce and the destruction of families. Our prisons are full of fatherless children from broken families. Instead of reversing the breakdown of families which lead fatherless children to lives of violence and crime, sexual politics spurs its adherents to work harder to destroy the foundational structures of society and civilization.

It is somewhat strange that although the USA and some other Western countries have moved to embrace destructive sexual politics, like homosexual marriage, which have never been seen in the history of the world, the push for polygamy is late to the game. Polygamy has been known for thousands of years, and although the lack of enforcement of adultery laws has made the practice of polygamy (or at least, adulterous promiscuity) common, but the legal status of polygamous marriages is still not recognized. We see polygamous marriages in the Holy Scriptures, even among some of the most prominent patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob. Isaac was monogamous and loved Rebekah, his wife, but he seems to be an exception. The Scriptures don’t really condemn polygamy outright, but rather simply define and describe marriage as between one man and one woman for as long as they both shall live. The Scriptures also often show the dysfunctional outcomes of polygamy. When asked about the topic of divorce, Jesus (in Matthew 19) teaches about what God intended for marriage since the very beginning. Divorce was never God’s intention, but because of man’s stubborn sinfulness God allowed divorce in some circumstances (with strict limits) in order to mitigate further sin. Christ’s teaching in Matthew 19 also answers the objections of those who falsely claim that Jesus never forbade same sex marriage. If Jesus taught about God’s institution and blessing of natural marriage when asked about the practice of divorce, then there is no reason to assume he would have taught otherwise when asked about same sex relationships.

God blessed the first marriage and He still blesses marriages even of unbelievers.

It is no small thing that the first two people God created on earth were a husband and his wife, who became the ancestors of all people. The perfect relationship between the two didn’t last too long before they were at odds with one another. They fell into sin before their first child was conceived. When God confronted Adam about the guilt of his sin, Adam referred to Eve as “The woman you gave me” (Genesis 3:12), which was a far cry from “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23) which means Adam originally considered his wife to be the best part of him. Yet, even after the fall into sin, there was forgiveness, and Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people (Genesis 3:20). God foretold the problem of sexual politics with His words to Eve in Genesis 3:16, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The problem here is not that the man would rule over the woman, but that she would desire to rule over him, but would not be able to do so. Also, the sinfulness of the man’s rule would also cause problems. Women aren’t the only cause of problems in this world, only about half, by my calculations.

Abraham was not the perfect husband but God still blessed him and Sarah with a son who became the ancestor of our savior, Jesus.

It might come as a shock to the sexual revolutionists that Christians are not opposed to sex, but have very healthy attitudes about sex and a proper use of sexuality, and are not hesitant to talk about it at all. It is just that Christian attitudes about sex are in many ways opposite of the revolutionists. When it comes to sex, Christians talk about marriage and intimacy and commitment and faithfulness and love and compassion. It is not about selfish pleasure and technique or any of a number of perversions. Now, it is true that you may find some folks who purport to be Christian who follow the revolutionist party line and speak of sex in terms of perversion, and pleasure, and technique, and politics, and the like, but we call those people heretics. Just because someone claims to be Christian doesn’t make them Christian. If they renounce the clear Scriptural teachings then they are heretics at best, and unbelievers at worst.

Despite the false teachings of Christian heretics, the Holy Scriptures give a consistent view of marriage and sexuality throughout all the books of the Bible. God instituted natural marriage when He created Adam and Eve and blessed them when He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) This did not change after the fall into sin. Sin only brought sinful behavior into the equation which God forbade when He gave the Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit Adultery.”) The Sixth Commandment affirms natural marriage as good for all people, especially parents and children. Also the Levitical laws for the Israelites affirm natural marriage, restrict divorce, and condemn unnatural relations. There are also New Testament admonitions in favor of natural marriage and against perversions which gratify the flesh over and against God’s institution of natural marriage. God gave these laws and admonitions because strong laws and societal norms favoring natural marriage are what is best for a stable society, and happy productive citizens. This is confirmed by the best scientific research. One may find some research reports which say otherwise, but those have either been shown to be inaccurate, or seriously flawed in their testing procedures or data gathering or manipulation in some way. God’s word remains true and good no matter how much sinful people might wish otherwise. God created people in His image originally and blessed them subsequently. We are always ill served when we act against God’s ways and according to the ways of our own wicked imaginations. God knows what is best for us, and we would do well to live according to God’s directions.

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See also my article on “The Problem with Democracy”  

See also my article on “The Problem with Socialism”

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The Real Homophobia

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Flight to Egypt

Homophobia is often portrayed as being one of the greatest ills in our society. At least, that is what the homosexual lobby and their sympathizing friends in the media would like you to believe. The fiction of homophobia is that all who are opposed to homosexual practice are somehow fearful of homosexuality.

Our neighbors who promote the idea of homophobia would also like you to to ignore the fact that those whom they call “fearful” are the people who are not afraid to speak out publicly about the inherent immorality of all kinds of sexual perversions. Outspoken opponents of homosexual practice are the some of the least fearful people around, but they are the ones who are called homophobic. What is going on?

It would seem that homophobia is, in fact, something that is greatly desired by those promoting acceptance of homosexual lifestyles and practice. If you oppose the homosexual lobby in even the smallest way you are bullied into submission by being called “homophobic” or “bigoted” or other such things until you are afraid to speak out against these people. This is what the homosexual lobby wants. The more that people are fearful of speaking out against the normalization of homosexuality, then the more the homosexuals are free to do whatever they want without having to answer for their actions.

What is the homosexual lobby most afraid of? Jesus gives us the answer in John 3:19-20, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” This is the real homophobia: homosexuals are afraid their actions will be exposed as evil.

Day Six of Creation

This should come as no surprise to anyone. We all have fear that our favorite sins will be exposed. Adam and Eve also had this same fear which they dealt with by first covering themselves with fig leaves, then running away from God in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were naïve about how to deal with the guilt of their sin, because it was all new to them. But we deal with sin every day of our lives from our conception, and we can become quite accomplished at hiding our guilt, especially if we are not frequent with repentance.

Homosexuals fear that if they were forced to admit that homosexuality was wrong, then they would have to give up the one thing which gives them great pleasure. Don’t misunderstand me, they all know it is wrong, everyone knows homosexuality is wrong, but those who promote homosexuality have a great aversion to admitting that it is sinful. Sexual sins are specially difficult to overcome because sexuality is so closely tied to our self-image that when we get caught up in these sins we easily come to believe that our sin is synonymous with who we are, and we fear that we would cease to exist without it. Saint Paul acknowledges this in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” Note that this applies to all sexual sins, not just same-sex desires.

Those of us who are not particularly burdened with great sinful desires for intimacy with people of our same gender find it hard to understand the attraction to this sin, but sinful desires are common to us all. It helps to understand how temptation works. The devil cannot force us to sin, but can only tempt us to sin. He does this by making sin seem desirable to us. Once we desire to sin we do it on our own without any further “help” from anyone else. It would seem that this would be an impossible task – to make the thing which would destroy us an object of our desire, but the devil is quite accomplished at this. What makes the devil’s job easier is our sinful nature, which takes great pleasure in all kinds of sin. By our nature we all want to sin. We enjoy sinning, and we cooperate with those who seek to destroy us. It really is disgusting when you think about how much pleasure we get from sin, but that is the reality of our sinful nature. It doesn’t matter what the sin is, it could be coveting persons, coveting possessions, lying, stealing, adultery, murder, dishonoring father and mother, desecrating the Sabbath day, blasphemy, or even idolatry; our sinful flesh takes pleasure in all these wicked things. (Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 15:19)

Though other sinners may not want us to call them to repentance over their sin, and we, too, may not want to confront other sinners with their sin, we cannot keep silent. Just as you would not keep silent if your beloved child was about to do something foolish which would bring great physical harm to himself, so we must speak out to warn our neighbors about the great harm they are bringing upon themselves, in body and soul, through sexual sins.

Christians need to remember that we are no better than anyone else, even unbelieving homosexuals. If we are honest we must say with Saint Paul, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) We can be kind and compassionate (Ephesians 4:32) about the problem of sin and guilt because we deal with it every day, too.

Creation and the Fall of Man Window from Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

It is a terrible thing to have your life defined by your sin. Sin always leads to death (Romans 6:23). But Christ’s redemption sets us free from sin and gives us life. “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:2-4)

Because Christ has set us free from the guilt and punishment for our sin we are truly free from the fear that if we struggle against our sin that we will have no pleasure in life. It is true that Christians still struggle against sin and temptation. It is not easy for anyone to say “no” to the pleasures of our sinful flesh. However, because Christ Jesus has given us eternal life and has freed us from the slavery to our sinful desires we know that whatever we may suffer temporally in our struggles against sin will be more than made up by the blessings of Christ, both now and eternally. Yes, we may suffer for fighting against temptation, but that suffering is only temporary, and we can find joy in Christ, even in the midst of our struggles because the God who rules the universe has redeemed us from our sin and has adopted us as His beloved children through Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:22-27)

The world may hate you for telling them the truth. They may say you are homophobic, hateful, hypocritical, bigoted, prudish, and maybe much worse things. Yet, you should feel free to speak the truth of God’s Word in love to your neighbors. If they don’t hear that what they are doing is deadly then they may never know because they are enjoying their wickedness too much. Then if they don’t hear that there is forgiveness in Christ for even the worst sinner then they may prefer to risk the consequences of their sinful pleasures rather than endure the pains of self-denial for some unknown benefit. Yet, we must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). For those who receive Christ’s forgiveness are freed from the bondage and terrors of sin and death. Also, in Christ, even the agonies of repentance are trivial compared to the eternal pleasure of life in paradise with our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:18-21)

Don’t Trash the Dress

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Window from Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois

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Galatians 3:26-27

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Isaiah 61:10

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Revelation 7:13-14

Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?’

I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’

And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’

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There is a fad among some wedding photographers to schedule a photo session with a new bride some days or weeks after the wedding ceremony where the bride gets dressed up in her wedding gown once again and then proceeds to “trash the dress”. From what I have seen this usually involves the bride ending up swimming in the ocean or river or pond or pool, but the effect is that it ruins the dress. Visually it often looks like a baptism gone wrong, though I suppose that if this fad catches on sinful minds will come up with all sort of terrible ways to destroy a beautiful dress.

Jesus and the woman at the well from Emmanuel Lutheran Dearborn, Michigan

I do not like this practice on several levels. First, the Seventh Commandment forbids us from stealing, which includes destroying anyone’s property, including our own. Many times when I have taught this commandment I have heard objections stating that people can do as they please with the things that belong to them. This is not a Christian way of doing things. If we have more than what we need then we should share with others who are lacking, not wantonly destroy our possessions so that neither we, nor others can use them. Because of this I do not like the destruction of anything that can be put to further use, even if that use is simply to remind the bride of her wedding day and marriage vows.

Second, it used to be the practice for the bride to preserve and protect her wedding gown so that the dress would look as good on the couple’s 50th anniversary as it did on their wedding day. This was done in recognition that marriage was for life and something generally only done once in a lifetime. A wedding gown, like marriage itself, was treasured as something valuable worth preserving. This is less common in our society, and out of this comes the “trash the dress” practices. If marriage is not something to be preserved at great cost, then what is a dress? This destructive fad reinforces the belief that marriage is something easily discarded and this is another reason why I do not like it.

Window from Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois

Third, the Holy Scriptures often portray the Christian’s relationship with God with the metaphor of the bride and groom. Christ is the perfect, loving groom who cherishes His bride, the Church, so that He gives His life to redeem her from sin and death. The effect of Christ’s sacrifice is to wash away the stain of our sins and to clothe us with pure white robes of His perfect righteousness. These pure righteous robes are not like clothing that covers up something shameful, but they reveal the righteousness of Christ which is given to His people by faith to purify them inside and out. This scriptural imagery of marriage to describe God’s gracious relationship with us is the main reason why I do not like the “trash the dress” practice.

All people at some point in our lives treat Christ’s righteousness as if it were some raggedy old garment which could be thrown in the trash at will. We do this whenever we think that our own attempts at righteousness are somehow more pleasing in God’s sight than the redeeming work of Christ on our behalf. In the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:2-14) the man who is found not wearing the wedding garment (i.e. Christ’s righteousness) is thrown out of the feast. Here Jesus teaches that we will never receive salvation if we rely on our righteous acts to clothe us in preparation for God’s eternal wedding reception. Only Christ’s righteousness can properly clothe us so that we may receive the gracious gifts of eternal salvation from our beloved God.

Because of this Scriptural imagery of the wedding garment, let us encourage one another to avoid the practice of “trashing the dress” and instead encourage one another not only to treasure marriage and the traditional wedding practices which view marriage as a lifelong gift from God, but even more let us treasure the gift of Christ’s work of salvation which clothes us in an eternal robe of Christ’s own righteousness that we may, by His grace, feast with Him at His eternal wedding banquet.

The Crown of God’s Creation

Creation Day Six from Emmanuel

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. (Genesis 1:24-31)

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On the sixth day of creation God created animals and man. One might be tempted to say that on the sixth day God just created all kinds of creatures, but that is not how the Holy Scriptures tell what happened. It is true that man is certainly a creature created by God, but there is something very special about the creation of man that distinguishes us from everything else that God created.

When God had made nearly everything in the universe and had come to the last part of His creation He said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” So God created man in His image. This is special because God did not do this for anything else in creation. Man is the “crown of God’s creation” because God made people in His image. What does it mean that man is made in God’s image? It means that Adam and Eve were made holy, like God. They were made immortal because death only came after the fall into sin as a punishment for their disobedience. The image of God is also seen in verse 26 in the passage above where God gave Adam and Eve the authority to rule over the earth and all other creatures just as God has authority over us and ultimate authority over all things.

We should also see that it wasn’t for Adam and Eve’s sake that God made them in His image. Yes, God loved them dearly, but He also knew that they would rebel against Him, reject Him, become His enemies, and face His wrath and condemnation. Instead, it was for the sake of Jesus that God made man to be the crown of creation. Even before anything was made, God knew that He would need to become incarnate as a man to redeem his beloved, but rebellious people. Saint Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:18-21) This shows us that God had planned to save us before the creation of the world. It was for the sake of His beloved Son (Jesus) that God made people the crown of creation, though because of Jesus, God did this for our benefit and eternal joy.

Saint Paul also said much the same thing when he wrote “For he chose us in (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:4-8) Here again we see that it was according to God’s plan of salvation from eternity that He created us in His image, but it was for the sake of Christ, who redeemed us that we might be “adopted as His sons”. Strictly speaking, Jesus is the crown of God’s creation, but because of Jesus, we have been redeemed through His blood, forgiven of our sins, and adopted into God’s family so that through faith in Jesus we can share in the glories of His eternal inheritance.

There is so much in the creation account that I can only begin to describe the importance of it in this short essay. It is important to note that the creation account in chapter one of Genesis is not the only information we have on the creation of people. Genesis chapter two gives a more detailed account of what God did when He created Adam and Eve. Some people try to discredit the Biblical account of creation by saying that the stories in chapter one and chapter two are different stories, but that is stretching the text too far. It is very clear that the account in chapter one is a general summary of God creating man, and then chapter two gives more details about the creation of man on day six. There is nothing in chapter two that contradicts chapter one, it only expands on the details.

We see in the creation of man that God also created marriage. Eve is described as Adam’s “wife” just as soon as she is formed out of Adam’s rib and given life. Here is the answer to all who would redefine marriage as something other than the lifelong union of one man and one woman. When God created people He also created marriage and blessed this union and commanded them to be fruitful. We also see that the woman is not a lesser being to be dominated, but a true partner, as Adam declares that this woman who was formed out of his rib is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23)

Nevertheless, there is still a hierarchy in the order of creation of the husband and the wife. The wife is to submit to the husband as the husband is to submit to God, but this doesn’t mean that the woman is the man’s servant or property. After sin came into the world man started getting some strange notions about the roles of husband and wife and twisted around God’s good institution. However, people who take seriously the Genesis account of creation have throughout history have had a higher view of marriage, and women in those cultures have enjoyed greater protections and stability than those cultures which either put women down to the level of servant or property, or those which raise women up to a level of superiority over men.

In the New Testament Jesus acknowledges the sanctity of marriage when He was asked a question about divorce in Matthew 19:1-9. Jesus references the creation to show what God intended and says that marriage is “what God has joined together” so that no one should separate those united in marriage. Saint Paul also gives a bold endorsement of marriage in Ephesians 5:21-33 even though he remained celibate in his life. Even though Paul’s words have been twisted throughout history he gives a beautiful picture of marriage where the wife submits to the husband, and the husband loves his wife and submits to God. If you read Paul’s words carefully as written you see that he does not give the husband the authority to dominate his wife, but requires him to give his life for his wife as Christ gave His life for the church (all believers). So if the husband loves his wife enough to die for her, then he will not dominate her, but will care for her as he ought.

We see God with us in the account of creation in that He not only made all things for our benefit, and made us in His image, but also in what God did for us when we rebelled against Him and became His enemies through our disobedience. God could have destroyed all people for their sin. He maybe should have, but out of love for us creatures God came to earth Himself as one of us. Jesus came to keep God’s law, which we are unable to do, and also to endure the punishment for sin as our substitute so that we are freed from that threat of punishment. This is what Jesus did out of love for God’s disobedient creatures.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest