Introduction. Just as “by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3), we also believe God, “at the beginning made them male and female” (Mt. 19:4). Hence just as we reject evolution in all its forms, we must also resist the unisex movement and all attempts to remove the distinctions God made at the beginning. We are what God created us to be. Anything else lessens and mars us. God made some very important distinctions between male and female. Yet subtle influences are permeating the culture seeking to remove them. They are in the schools, movies, workplace and homes. We must guard against them and allow only the truth to guide us.
The First Distinction. The first distinction God made between man and woman was in the order of their creation. While the animals were simultaneously formed male and female from the dust of the earth, God first created only Adam from the dust and placed him by himself in the garden. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” (1Tim. 2:13). Although a small distinction, God used it to reveal how man and woman work together today in the home and in the church (1Tim. 2:9-15).
The First Distinction. The first distinction God made between man and woman was in the order of their creation. While the animals were simultaneously formed male and female from the dust of the earth, God first created only Adam from the dust and placed him by himself in the garden. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” (1Tim. 2:13). Although a small distinction, God used it to reveal how man and woman work together today in the home and in the church (1Tim. 2:9-15).
After repeating “it was good” (Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25), why did God say “it is not good for man to be alone?” Was it an oversight or flaw in God’s plan? Obviously not! God intentionally created Adam first and alone. Though Adam was a living being with an eternal soul in God’s image, God created him with strengths and weaknesses making him vulnerable and incomplete without Eve.
As God brought every beast and bird to Adam, Adam saw “there was not found a helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:20). While oxen could help him plow and donkeys could bear his burdens, the aloneness God had created within him could not be helped by these things. What Adam needed was a helper “comparable” to him. Yet even the translators struggled with this word. “I will make him a helper comparable (NKJV), suitable (NASB), fit (ESV), meet (ASV) for him.
The Hebrew word means “a part opposite to another as a counterpart” or “what is in front of and corresponding to.” Think of a mirror reflecting Adam’s soul with all its strengths and weaknesses. Yet not a mirror, but another soul created as a helper for all the weaknesses inferred in “not good for man to be alone.” Every weakness in Adam found “a part opposite” to it “as a counterpart” in Eve’s strengths and thus Eve was a helper comparable to him. Every strength in Adam was “in front of and corresponding” to the weaknesses in Eve and thus Adam became a helper suitable or fit to her. They were both helpers comparable to and corresponding to one another.
The Second Distinction. WHAT MAN LACKED THE WOMAN COMPLETED and WHAT THE WOMAN LACKED THE MAN COMPLETED. At the pinnacle of Adam’s realization he was alone, God made Eve to perfect and complete him. Nothing could create greater gratitude and appreciation when Adam awoke than by first seeing how difficult life would be without her. Prior to his deep sleep, Adam was alone, when he awoke, he was married, complete, and one with Eve.
God’s final act, making everything “very good,” was the family. All of this is revealed with Adam’s words: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23-24).
The Third Distinction. The WOMAN IS THE GLORY OF MAN and WAS MADE FOR MAN.
These passages reveal that though God used His own image to make Adam, His image was modified enough so it was not good for Adam to be alone. God intentionally created gaps or areas of weakness to make Adam incomplete. After creating Adam with these weaknesses, He formed the “helper comparable to him” completing what Adam lacked physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.
This is the reciprocity of “a helper comparable to him.” They perfectly complemented and completed each other. While God used Himself for the template to create Adam, He used Himself and Adam to make Eve. Alone both man and woman are incomplete, when they are one, they are complete for each is a “helper comparable” to the other.
The final words of God proclaim this didn’t just happen one time at the beginning. It occurs every time a man and woman marry. The one flesh relationship completes what each lacks just as it did in the beginning. This is the purpose of the “therefore” in God’s final words: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” This is why God created Adam alone!
Jesus confirmed these words: “He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mt. 19:4-6).
God joins each man and each woman in the same way He did Adam and Eve - each becoming a new family and with specific roles. They complement each other, much like a lock and a key. Neither is independent of the other for just as God made the woman from man, He now has every man come from a woman. “Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God." (1Cor. 11:11-12). These things are fixed and absolute and cannot be changed.
So at the creation, the woman came through man, but every time since, man has come through a woman. This is how God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” is fulfilled. Neither can fulfill this alone, but together; it has been done this way since the beginning and will continue to the end.
At the end of the Old Testament, another important reason why God created us in this way is revealed: “He sought godly offspring.” God knew when man fulfilled his role as husband and woman fulfilled her role as wife, He would receive godly offspring. “But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth." (Mal. 2:15).
Conclusion. This is why it is so important for those who love God to properly fulfill their roles. When a man acts like a man created in the image and likeness of God as a husband and father, godly offspring will be the fruit. When a woman acts as a woman created in the image and likeness of God and fulfills her role as wife and mother, godly offspring will be the wonderful fruit of the union.
As God brought every beast and bird to Adam, Adam saw “there was not found a helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:20). While oxen could help him plow and donkeys could bear his burdens, the aloneness God had created within him could not be helped by these things. What Adam needed was a helper “comparable” to him. Yet even the translators struggled with this word. “I will make him a helper comparable (NKJV), suitable (NASB), fit (ESV), meet (ASV) for him.
The Hebrew word means “a part opposite to another as a counterpart” or “what is in front of and corresponding to.” Think of a mirror reflecting Adam’s soul with all its strengths and weaknesses. Yet not a mirror, but another soul created as a helper for all the weaknesses inferred in “not good for man to be alone.” Every weakness in Adam found “a part opposite” to it “as a counterpart” in Eve’s strengths and thus Eve was a helper comparable to him. Every strength in Adam was “in front of and corresponding” to the weaknesses in Eve and thus Adam became a helper suitable or fit to her. They were both helpers comparable to and corresponding to one another.
The Second Distinction. WHAT MAN LACKED THE WOMAN COMPLETED and WHAT THE WOMAN LACKED THE MAN COMPLETED. At the pinnacle of Adam’s realization he was alone, God made Eve to perfect and complete him. Nothing could create greater gratitude and appreciation when Adam awoke than by first seeing how difficult life would be without her. Prior to his deep sleep, Adam was alone, when he awoke, he was married, complete, and one with Eve.
God’s final act, making everything “very good,” was the family. All of this is revealed with Adam’s words: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23-24).
The Third Distinction. The WOMAN IS THE GLORY OF MAN and WAS MADE FOR MAN.
- 3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God ... 7 For a man .... is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 1Cor 11:3, 7-9
These passages reveal that though God used His own image to make Adam, His image was modified enough so it was not good for Adam to be alone. God intentionally created gaps or areas of weakness to make Adam incomplete. After creating Adam with these weaknesses, He formed the “helper comparable to him” completing what Adam lacked physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.
This is the reciprocity of “a helper comparable to him.” They perfectly complemented and completed each other. While God used Himself for the template to create Adam, He used Himself and Adam to make Eve. Alone both man and woman are incomplete, when they are one, they are complete for each is a “helper comparable” to the other.
The final words of God proclaim this didn’t just happen one time at the beginning. It occurs every time a man and woman marry. The one flesh relationship completes what each lacks just as it did in the beginning. This is the purpose of the “therefore” in God’s final words: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” This is why God created Adam alone!
Jesus confirmed these words: “He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mt. 19:4-6).
God joins each man and each woman in the same way He did Adam and Eve - each becoming a new family and with specific roles. They complement each other, much like a lock and a key. Neither is independent of the other for just as God made the woman from man, He now has every man come from a woman. “Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God." (1Cor. 11:11-12). These things are fixed and absolute and cannot be changed.
So at the creation, the woman came through man, but every time since, man has come through a woman. This is how God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” is fulfilled. Neither can fulfill this alone, but together; it has been done this way since the beginning and will continue to the end.
At the end of the Old Testament, another important reason why God created us in this way is revealed: “He sought godly offspring.” God knew when man fulfilled his role as husband and woman fulfilled her role as wife, He would receive godly offspring. “But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth." (Mal. 2:15).
Conclusion. This is why it is so important for those who love God to properly fulfill their roles. When a man acts like a man created in the image and likeness of God as a husband and father, godly offspring will be the fruit. When a woman acts as a woman created in the image and likeness of God and fulfills her role as wife and mother, godly offspring will be the wonderful fruit of the union.