In his big discussion of head coverings, the Apostle Paul reads and interprets for us Moses’ account of the creation of man and woman (Genesis 2). Paul says that male and female, all these things about gender, come “out of God” (“ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ” 1Corinthians 11:12). But that is puzzling. How might we understand gender coming out of God?
There are several ways. One of the most foundational things about God is the fact that He is Husband. Gender is not exclusively about marriage, but marriage is a place where we see gender in high relief. And again and again, the Scriptures speak of God as Husband or Bridegroom.
Husband Through and Through
At the very beginning, in Genesis, the Lord creates a husband (Adam) with a wife (Eve) and calls it His image. Most strikingly, the rest of the Pentateuch (the Bible’s first five books) portrays God’s relationship with people in marriage terms. Exodus 34:11-16 and Deuteronomy 32:16, 21 speak of His jealousy over His “wife,” Israel. Leviticus 17:7, 20:4-6, Numbers 15:38-40, Deuteronomy 31:16 all cast the relationship with God as a marriage to which His people must be faithful.
The history that follows openly declares how God expects devotion from his people like that of a loving wife. Judges 2:16-17, 8:27, 8:33, for example, repeat the Law’s descriptions, portraying God as a jealous (with good reason) husband.
What the Pentateuch and historical books suggest the prophets boldly develop. In Isaiah, God calls Himself Israel’s bridegroom (Isaiah 62:5), and mourns her marital infidelity, from beginning (Isaiah 1:21) to end (Isaiah 57:3). Jeremiah (1, 2-3), Micah (1:7) and Ezekiel (16, 23) speak similarly. The entire book of the prophet Hosea depends upon the understanding of God as a husband (unfortunately, ill-treated).
Even the Old Testament wisdom poetry, or writings, declare the Heavenly Husband jealous for His “spouse”’s specific devotion. Psalm 78:58, for example, says “They moved Him to jealousy.” Another entire book treats this topic: the Song of Solomon. However you interpret those steamy passages, you cannot miss that the fiery love of that book is lit from “the very flame of the Lord” (Song of Solomon 8:6).
The Marital Ways of the New Wine
This title is not discarded with the fuller revelation of Christ, but rather expanded. The New Testament electrifies this teaching. Every time Jesus uses the word, “bridegroom,” He is speaking of Himself. So, the apostles develop the church’s self-understanding as His bride (John 3:29, Ephesians 5:31-32, 1Corinthians 6:15-17, 2Corinthians 11:1-3, James 4:4, Revelation 19, 21-22). God portrayed as Father may be prominent, but the identification of God as Husband or Bridegroom also pulses through the Scriptures.
I have not even mentioned how the prime expression of our salvation: Union with Christ, is itself marriage language. As a husband and wife come into union with one another, so we come into union with Christ. This is how it works. Because this is how God works.
We must know that “Husband” is only a metaphor. The God Who dwells in unapproachable light cannot be a husband as we know husbands. But the Bible’s repeated portrayal of His ways as beautifully marital tells us something true about Him. God’s acts reveal Who God is: in our terms, foundationally, a Husband. He is not this way part time. Even before there were people around, He must have been husbandly. But God could only be such because He is Triune.
Triune Logic
Another basic title is Father. We understand God as being “Father” before any of creation existed, and rightly so. Yet he can only be eternally Father if there is an eternal Son. In this way, Jesus’ characterization of God as Father leads us to the Trinity.
Just so. As there cannot be a Father in essence unless there is a Son, so there cannot be a Husband unless there is a Wife. As the first husband we know was the source of the wife (Genesis 2:21-22), so the First Person of the Trinity is the Source of the Second. And, as Gregory Nazianzus put it, as Eve was made of the same substance (or ‘homo-ousious’) with Adam, so the Second Member of the Trinity is of the same substance as the First. All these metaphors direct us to what theologians call Their processions.
These are wondrous things. As Thomas Aquinas put it, “God being himself simply and universally perfect, has preexisting in himself the perfections of all his creatures” (Summa Theologica I:Question 13, Article 2). In other words, the “perfection” of a good human marriage, one of the prime reasons for gender, was first of all in God. Then the Creator and womanly Wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-31) created earthly husbands and wives, along with ones who proceed from their love, so we could better understand Who God is in Themself: the Promiser, the Beloved, and the Fruitful Witness to that love.
This is one of the ways we can see, as the Apostle Paul says, gender coming “out of God.” Does understanding yourself and your relationship as mirroring God ThemSelf inspire awe at who you are?