Removing the wonderful distinctions of boys being boys and girls being girls just because some people struggle with gender dysphoria is like removing all references to the joyful, hopeful and beautiful experiences of life just because some people struggle with depression.[1]
In relating to someone with depression, we have every reason to hold before them what joy-filled lives they could experience if the root and cause of their worthlessness and hopelessness were met by the healing and liberating power of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the same way, we need to make such a big deal about maleness and femaleness that everyone who struggles with any confusion about anything to do with being human can hear of the God-designed measure that tells us who we are as humans, and in our distinctiveness as boys and girls.
At the same time, we need to make such a big deal about the God-man, Jesus the Christ, who will heal every nuance of confusion over what it means to be human and restore everyone who comes to him to his own image and likeness. And, yes, this includes what he originally meant by creating humanity in both the male and female version.
There is not one sin, or one expression of sinful brokenness, that Jesus will leave the way it is when he himself is the measure of what it means for us to be created in his own image and likeness.[2]
Yes, sin has corrupted everything in order to steal, kill and destroy what Jesus made so good.[3] However, sin has been defeated in the redemptive saving work of our Savior, and now the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ will be applied to whatever sin has ruined in our lives so that, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”[4]
The darker the world becomes, the more brightly the light of our Savior shines through his people.[5] The more confused people become about what it means to be human, the more gloriously the clarity of God’s will and his rescue-mission stand out as the beacon of hope to all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.[6]
The world, the flesh, and the devil, all want us to think that what it means to be human is so confusing that no one should be allowed to speak with any certainty at all about who we are. This is only because they despise God for making a creature like himself through whom he reveals his glory to all the world.
Thankfully, God our Creator doesn’t see it that way because the way he sees it is not only his view on the matter, but is the supreme and glorious reality of our creation by the Lord Jesus Christ, and our restoration to his will in the redemptive work of our Savior.
In other words, because God, “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him,”[7] he will accomplish what he set out to do. The wonderful fact of life for every child of God is that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[8]
What will that “completion” look like for those who are presently “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another”?[9] That, “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”[10]
No matter how hopelessly we may struggle with any confusion or brokenness about who we are as a human being created in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, the issue is not what seems impossible to us, but what has been determined by God.[11] He has made clear that he has determined before the beginning of time to make all his people fully like his Son, and that is exactly what he will do.
Today, reach out to Jesus Christ for your salvation, deliverance, freedom and transformation. He will show you each day what he is doing to work all things “together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” and how he has predetermined that every one of his children would be “conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”[12]
God is not confused about who we are as human beings, or what it means to be male and female as he designed us in the first place. Neither is he confused about how to save us out of our sin and restore us to the image and likeness of his Son.
As Jesus’ sheep hear his voice above all the confusion,[13] his peace about everything he is doing will permeate our lives as we accept that he has this all figured out, and our place is to trust him to handle whatever it takes to get where we are going.
“He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”[14]
© 2018 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1] Yes, the hopelessness some people describe relating to their depression is just as real to them as the hopelessness other people describe relating to their gender dysphoria.
[2] Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16-17
[3] John 10:10
[4] Romans 8:37
[5] Matthew 5:14. Jesus clearly refers to his church as the light of the world. This was a prelude to everything he taught about ourselves as the branches through which he expresses his life as the vine, and us as his body through which he expresses himself as our head. We simply need to understand that, because we are in his image, he wants to express himself through us as the Father expresses himself through Jesus.
[6] Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13
[7] Ephesians 1:4
[8] Philippians 1:6
[9] II Corinthians 3:18
[10] I John 3:2
[11] Luke 18:27
[12] Romans 8:28-29, including Romans 8:30 as the glorious process by which he will do this.
[13] John 10:27
[14] I Thessalonians 5:24
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