Humans “Male and Female” and Marriage as Pictures of God’s Unity in Diversity

The creation of humans as male and female, marriage and reproduction are all a part of the image of God in human beings, and are all an intelligible picture of God's unity in diversity. They also point to our unity iwith each other and God n the Church.

As has already been said, Genesis 1:27 attests that God created man “in his own image… male and female.” The image of God’s complex unity found in the complex unity of a single human being has already been discussed–and is the basis, elsewhere in scripture, for God’s prohibition of both murder and slander. Genesis 9:6; James 3:9.

However, while each individual human carries God’s image in their person, and even though God gives man, male and female, dominion over the earth and the God-like power of procreation, in subsequent verses, the only way God expressly states that man is made in His image is that man is male and female. God created the first woman out of the first man. Genesis 2:21-22. Thus, Eve came out of Adam, just as the Son comes out of the Father. Moreover, Adam instantly recognized when he saw Eve, she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, as God himself confirmed. Genesis 2:23-24. Therefore, Adam and Eve shared one flesh, just as the Father and the Son share one substance.

It is also said that man and wife share one spirit, Malachi 2:15, though the translation of this verse is notoriously difficult. This parallels the Father and the Son, who share the Holy Spirit. The middle clause of Malachi 2:15, saying that God established this unity between husband and wife so that they might have godly offspring, also echoes Genesis 1:28 and 3:15-16 in saying that the godlike act of procreation is one of the reasons for which God made humans male and female, able to have the one flesh (and shared spirit) experience. In this way, a couple, by being joined, brings forth a third being that carries their image, Genesis 5:1, and so bears God’s image to the same extent they do. This is also analogous to the Father and the Son jointly, eternally bringing forth the Holy Spirit.

Adam and Eve, as they were originally created in innocence, were a nearly perfect picture of the Trinity. Indeed this picture was imperfect in only two respects. First, because the first man and woman were temporal, created beings, Adam had to be created first for Eve to be created out of him. By contrast, the scriptures are clear that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are equally eternal and none existed before any of the others. See, e.g., Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1-3. From eternity, the Son comes out of the Father, without implying that either one is limited to time or had a beginning in time. Second, where the Son does only the Father’s will and the Father and Son are eternally loyal to each other, the loyalty of Adam and Eve to each other, though complete in their innocence, had never been tested. Philippians 2:5-11; John 5:19-23. When tempted by the serpent, the first couple departed from their loyalty to God and to each other. Genesis 3:6-8, 11-12 & 16. By contrast, when tempted by the devil, the Son remained loyal to the Father, and when the Son took the sin of the world upon himself on the cross, the Father remained loyal to the Son. Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 22:39-46; Luke 23:46; Acts 2:22-36; Romans 1:1-4.

The effect of this sin on the unity of the first man, “male and female,” is shown by Adam’s naming of Eve:

The other theme is more frequently treated: the commandment and preeminence or domination. A name assigns a place and a spiritual value. By naming the animals Adam shows his power over them and puts them in their place within the order of Creation. Again in this situation, Adam takes initiative: there is no predetermined order which Adam would limit himself to recording as he names the animals. He establishes his own order, before the Fall: a “taxonomy” which is a free, invented expression of the supremacy God has given him. God leaves Adam free to make this choice (“to see what he would call them,” says the passage, so that “whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name,” Gen. 2:19).

But in this created world, in unity and unbroken communion with God, Adam does not give a name to his wife. It is only after the Fall, in the midst of the disorder of powers, that he names his wife also: “Eve, because . .. ” (Gen. 3:20). This is a reflection of the disorder of powers; for God’s power is a restrained power. He does not occupy all the space. The God who speaks also lets his creature speak. God does not speak continually, covering over all noises and all expression.

Jacques Ellul (J.M. Hanks, Tr.).  The Humiliation of the Word.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans 1985), 66.

Before sin entered the picture, the first couple had no need to name each other, and neither need nor desire to exercise dominion over each other. They were two people forming one entity. After sin, they were no longer perfectly one. They needed names for each other, as separate entities. And Adam was the first of them to assert dominion–by naming Eve, just as he had named the lower animals. This was a result of sin. It was not a part of God’s plan for them.

However, at the present time marriage, in Christ, is a picture of the Trinity. It has been marred by sin and is no longer the nearly perfect picture presented by the first couple in their time of innocence. Nevertheless, man and wife, though distinct individuals, become joined by God as one flesh in a manner analogous to Adam and Eve, who were distinct persons though literally created from the same flesh. Matthew 19:4-6. Neither mate owns his or her own body; that body belongs to the other mate, to them both jointly. 1 Corinthians 7:4. Further, it remains true that a married couple, joined by God, to a large degree shares a single, merged spirit. Malachi 2:15.

However, the New Testament also clearly states that Christian marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church. Ephesians 5:22-33. The Church is the body of Christ, and every believer is a member of that body. 1 Corinthians 12:27. The Church exists only because Jesus the Son died to bring it into existence and the Father and the Spirit raised him from the dead to empower it to live. Acts 2:24-33; Colossians 1:18-22, 2:9-15; Ephesians 5:23, 25-27; Hebrews 9:14. Christ is the Head of the Church, his Body, and the Church is growing out of its Head, just as the Son eternally comes out of the Father. Ephesians 4:15-16; Colossians 2:19. Yet, the Church is also the Bride of Christ, and Christ is at the present time (as we see time) perfecting his Bride so that he can present it to Himself without spot or wrinkle. Ephesians 5:25-27. The Son and his Bride are, thus, distinct persons, yet a single body, just as the Father and the Son are distinct yet one. Moreover, the Son and his Bride share a single Spirit, that same Holy Spirit which the Father and the Son share. See, The Trinity in Which we Share; God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is at this point that the mystery of the Trinity and the central mystery of the gospel intersect. This mystery is stated by the Apostle Paul in several different ways. On the one hand, the “mystery of Christ” is a mystery about the Church corporately, namely, that through the gospel the gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:4, 6. On the other hand, the mystery which God is now making known is a mystery about believers individually, namely “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. Yet these are opposing sides of the same mystery. The Body of Christ grows out of its head in part by adding members. Acts 2:47; Ephesians 5:30. Each member is brought into the Body by being given the same Holy Spirit which the Body shares with the Head and the Son shares with the Father. Acts 2:15-17, 33, 38-39; Romans 8:9. A person who has the Spirit of Christ has Christ himself dwelling within, and, though still a separate person, is one spirit with Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:17; Romans 8:9-11. But the individual who has Christ has also been immersed by that same Spirit into one Body with all other believers and has become a member of that Body, of one substance with both the Body and its Head. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27. On the other hand, the Body of Christ also grows out from its head in part by the growth of its existing members, as each is brought into a more mature relationship with the Head. Ephesians 4:11-16. Thus, the relationship between Christ, the individual believer, and Christ’s Church is properly likened to marriage, as Paul does in one explanation of the mystery of the gospel:

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:25-32 (NASB)

Thus, as Father and the Son, though distinct, are one substance and man and wife are one flesh, the Son and his Body are one and are mutually one with each member of that Body. Similarly, as the Father and the Son share one Spirit, and a man and wife are one spirit, the Son, his Church and each member of his Church share one Spirit, the same Holy Spirit which the Father and the Son share. Moreover, that Spirit is a distinct personality from the Father, the Son, the Church and each of the members of the Church in which he resides, just as the spirit of a marriage is distinct from either of the partners separate from the other, yet he perfectly represents the Father and the Son to each other and to the Church. While God’s Word gives us much instruction concerning this mystery, only one who is personally a part of the mystery, a member of Christ’s Body, can ever hope to understand it. The doctrine of the Trinity is beyond human intellectual understanding. It can only be understood by being lived.