What is True About God?
“Is God sexist?” *
The honest question came from my eighteen-year-old son over a lunch of grass-fed beef burgers and sweet-potato fries. We had just listened to a powerful sermon on what the Bible actually says about the high value of women.
My son was trying to reconcile the pastor’s teaching with one of the fiery subjects he and his friends spend late nights discussing. Being a follower of Jesus in a highly intellectual and secular school environment is not an easy feat. His question was fair, and I welcomed it. But to answer it and any other provocative question in the pressure cooker of faith and culture today, we had to go backward to a greater question.
“What is God’s character?”
His brow furrowed as he reflected deeply on my question.
I continued, “If God is good, can He be sexist?”
Our animated conversation grew thoughtful, wrapped in reverence, as we pondered our own core beliefs about God’s character.
What one believes about God’s character is crucial to the faith conversation. Knowing who God is creates a solid foundation for examining life’s hard questions, especially those which appear incongruent with what is good and right.
So, what is God’s character, really? Ask the question in the public square and get hundreds of different answers. But there is a place we can go to hear His own words about himself. In the United States justice system, even criminals are offered the opportunity to speak for themselves before judgment is passed. Why should we not give this same courtesy to God Himself? We learn who He is in the Bible. *
The Bible is the source of Truth about who God is and it is to the Bible we must go if we want to understand His character. If we are spending more time listening to others’ opinions about Him than reading His own letter to us about Himself, we will draw wrong conclusions that lead us far from Truth.
We also learn the truth about who God is through Jesus.
In John 17:25, Jesus prayed, Father, you are the One who is good. The world does not know you, but I know you. And these people know that you sent me. I showed them what you are like. And again I will show them what you are like. Then they will have the same love that you have for me.
Hebrews 1:1-2 affirms this again: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
Let’s look at a few things Jesus did to show us God’s character.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people…and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them (Matthew 4:23-24).
In this passage we see that God instructs us, He wants us to know Him and live in His kingdom, He heals us, and He loves us and cares for us.
John 8 gives the account of a woman caught in adultery and dragged by the religious leaders to the temple courts. Bent on trapping Jesus, without concern for the woman’s life, they thrust her before Jesus and demanded he judge her. The Old Testament law commanded that such a woman be stoned.
Jesus’ answer was astonishing, If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (verse 7). With those words, Jesus peeled back the rigid religiosity of the law and forced everyone to look at his own heart. He revealed that both men and women stand equally valued by God and equally in need of a Savior to rescue them from sin and shame.
The men slipped quietly away, leaving the woman alone with Jesus. They were guilty, too, and they knew it.
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (verses 10-11).
In this encounter, we see that even religious people can misjudge God’s character. Jesus demonstrates not only that God values men and women equally, but also that He is a defender of women and of truth. Impartial, He seeks justice for all, regardless of gender. We also see that He is kind and merciful, and shows us the way out of our sin.
Jesus ultimately showed us the depth of God’s love for people when he gave His life to pay for our sin and remove our shame:
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16).
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Knowing who God is based on Scriptural truth changes the way we approach many of the raging questions of the present age. It compels us toward a posture of quietness in the midst of the uproar, a pause in our rampages, an upward look to the One who cannot be sexist if He is also good.
The story in Genesis 16 of the Egyptian slave Hagar, who was used by Sarai and Abram to produce a child, only later to be expelled into the wilderness, appears sexist. It seems Hagar was degraded to the status of a mere object to produce an heir for God’s chosen man Abram. The reader can easily assume God stood by in approval while this happened.
Rash conclusions about God’s character, as in this example, that He is sexist, often overlook the role of human struggle, sin, and disobedience in difficult issues.
With the magnifying glass of God’s character, I can look more deeply at the situation. I know, for example, God always tells the truth (Isaiah 45:19). I also know that he cares for the oppressed and outcast (Psalm 9:9).
God made a promise to Abram in Genesis 12 that He would make him into a great nation. As time wore on and his wife Sarai failed to conceive, believing that God was truthful and would keep His promise became harder for Sarai. Her struggle to believe God is implied in her words to her husband in Genesis 16:2, “The Lord has kept me from having children.” Sarai blamed God for her barrenness and as a result, took the situation into her own hands. Instead of trusting God to do what He said He would do, she and Abram tried to make God’s promise come about through their own efforts.
With this evidence in mind, we might rightly conclude that Abram and Sarai, not God, acted in a way that was prejudiced and discriminatory toward Hagar. God, on the other hand, in keeping with His character trait of care and provision for the oppressed and outcast, met Hagar in the wilderness and gave her hope and a promise of her own. He also fulfilled His promise to Abram, giving him and Sarai a son through Sarai’s womb. (To read Hagar’s full story, go to Genesis 16, 17)
The tough passages of Scripture* take on a new depth when we view them through the lenses of God’s character. We can analyze them by asking better questions. What role did sin play in the passage? What was the instruction given by God to his people? Was human disobedience of God’s law part of the situation described? What do I know is true about God, and is it displayed in this passage?
If we have deeply studied who God is, we become thoughtful responders to life’s explosive issues rather than impulsive reactors. Knowing who He is makes us think.
And thinking people change the world.
Footnotes:
The Bible is sometimes referred to as The Word of God because, in it, we read God’s words to us. He entrusted these words to faithful men who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, recorded the essential truths about Himself and His plan for creation. The Holy Spirit ensured the inspired words were without error and accurately recorded God’s truths. 2 Timothy 3:16 states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Concerning the written scriptures, the apostle Peter stated in 2 Peter 1:20-21, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Britannica.com defines sexism as prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against women and girls.
The tough passages of Scripture : For an insightful discussion on the question “Is God Sexist,” listen to The Jude 3 Project’s podcast interview with Dr. Jo Vitale of RZIM here: http://www.jude3project.com/podcast/sexist