(1) Masculinity and femininity, which are good, being twisted and redirected by sin. For example, man’s strength and aggression, designed to work and keep the garden, is used instead to oppress, exploit, and rob. Both men and women use their respective strengths for evil ends.
(2) Men and women rebelling directly against their design. For example, men who were given strength to protect and provide become lazy and soft, abdicating their responsibilities. Women who were given a unique ability to nurture their young can yet prove cruel and heartless to them. Men and women, designed for sexual relations with the opposite sex, sometimes pursue sexual relations with the same sex, contrary to nature.
(3) Enmity between men and women. They blame each other, are bitter against each other, hating and being hated by each other. There are men who despise and mistreat women, and women who despise and mistreat men. Masculinity and femininity get despised, blamed for their sinful perversions.
(4) Rebellion against the sexual distinction itself. Since the distinction between man and woman is an occasion of conflict, some want to solve it by getting rid of it. Other may be motivated by a desire to transcend their createdness, to avoid any prescribed identity. But one way or another, people rise up against this distinction and promote androgyny. Especially in our day, people seek to leverage the powers of science to overcome nature and free humanity from this distinction, making men and women interchangeable.
The good news is that redemption for sinners is found in Christ. Apart from Christ, humanity is lost in a labyrinth of confused and miserable rebellion, but that is not the case when one is in Christ. In Christ, you are forgiven and reconciled with God. In Christ, man and woman become co-heirs of grace, fellow members of the household of God. In Christ, you all are restored to live in accordance with your created design as the image of God and as men and women.
Some error by thinking that in Christ we transcend our created nature and are freed from these created distinctions. But the problem was not in your created design. The problem was in rebellion and the misery it caused. Redemption does not destroy nature but restores and perfects it. The unity and distinctiveness of man and woman is restored, purified, and perfected in Christ.
When Paul says in Galatians, “there is no male or female,” he explains what he means by saying, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Both men and women are fully and equally members of Christ and united as one body of Christ. There is no distinction in that respect, but that is not the case in every respect. The same Paul teaches that men and women in Christ do not loose their distinctive natures and duties, but are enabled and instructed to be godly men and godly women. Just as you are the image of God, and Christ restores your conformity to that identity, so in a similar way you are men and women and Christ restores your conformity to those identities in a way that is good and pleasing to God.
