Christ lived fundamentally as a man
empowered by the Spirit…
Over
my years of ministry I’ve read and reviewed hundreds of books by men for men about manhood and masculinity. Most are out
of the same cut of cloth – good advice for better living, spiritual technologies
to work harder, being better and so on. The only authoritative, accurate book
by men and for men, however, is the Bible. From start to finish it is God’s self-revelation
and the story of why and how He sends Good News into our helpless, hopeless estate. My secondary go-to source for ministering to men is great theological
works. One such new edition is The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ by Dr. Bruce Ware. Ware gives us a profound insight and
appreciation for the significance and reality of the much ignored and
misunderstood doctrine of the humanity of Christ. In it he tackles some
thought-provoking questions about Christ’s identity and he offers a robust
defense of the masculinity of the God-man Jesus Christ.
In view of the heightening confusion over gender roles, even in churches, Ware presents a strong, cumulative case that
Jesus lived his life fundamentally as a man, empowered by the Holy Spirit with
the power, grace, and wisdom he needed, moment by moment and day by day, to
fulfill his Father’s mission. When we realize that Jesus was truly a man just
as we are, his sinless life seems all the more incredible. But Jesus’
obedience and miracles were not performed by Christ “tapping in” to His divine
power, but rather through his being empowered by the Holy Spirit (see Acts
10:38, Isaiah 11:1-4). Ware gives us twelve solid reasons why
Jesus was human, why the Savior had to be male and why the sacrifice for sin we need had to be both God and man.
Ware helps us to see that Jesus lived his
life as one of us — as a full and complete human — who carried out his
obedience with the same resources now given to us. Jesus knew and relied on the
Word of God, prayer and, very importantly, the Holy Spirit who indwelt him. If
Jesus lived his life as a man, in the power of the Spirit, believing the Word
and praying to the Father — these are all things that we, too, have as
Christian men. Therefore, it is right to call us to “follow in his steps,” and
we can rightly look at Jesus as an example for how we should live in light of
the gospel:
“Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.” Philippians
2:5-11
Complementarianism
from the Gospel Coalition’s Founding Documents (Article 3
"We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God's agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God's wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments."
Danvers StatementIn December, 1987, the newly-formed Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood met in Danvers, Massachusetts, to compose the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Prior to the listing of the actual affirmations that comprise the Danvers Statement, we have included a section detailing contemporary developments that serve as the rationale for these affirmations. We offer this statement to the evangelical world, knowing that it will stimulate healthy discussion, hoping that it will gain widespread assent.
Rationale
We have been moved in our purpose by the following contemporary developments which we observe with deep concern:
The widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity:
the tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling the fabric of marriage woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood;
the increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives;
the widespread ambivalence regarding the values of motherhood, vocational homemaking, and the many ministries historically performed by women;
the growing claims of legitimacy for sexual relationships which have Biblically and historically been considered illicit or perverse, and the increase in pornographic portrayal of human sexuality;
the upsurge of physical and emotional abuse in the family;
the emergence of roles for men and women in church leadership that do not conform to Biblical teaching but backfire in the crippling of Biblically faithful witness;
the increasing prevalence and acceptance of hermeneutical oddities devised to reinterpret apparently plain meanings of Biblical texts;
the consequent threat to Biblical authority as the clarity of Scripture is jeopardized and the accessibility of its meaning to ordinary people is withdrawn into the restricted realm of technical ingenuity;
and behind all this the apparent accommodation of some within the church to the spirit of the age at the expense of winsome, radical Biblical authenticity which in the power of the Holy Spirit may reform rather than reflect our ailing culture.
Affirmations
Based on our understanding of Biblical teachings, we affirm the following:
Both Adam and Eve were created in God's image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood (Gen 1:26-27, 2:18).
Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart (Gen 2:18, 21-24; 1 Cor 11:7-9; 1 Tim 2:12-14).
Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a result of sin (Gen 2:16-18, 21-24, 3:1-13; 1 Cor 11:7-9).
The Fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women (Gen 3:1-7, 12, 16).
In the home, the husband's loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity; the wife's intelligent, willing submission tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility.
In the church, sin inclines men toward a worldly love of power or an abdication of spiritual responsibility, and inclines women to resist limitations on their roles or to neglect the use of their gifts in appropriate ministries.
The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, manifests the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women (Gen 1:26-27, 2:18; Gal 3:28). Both Old and New Testaments also affirm the principle of male headship in the family and in the covenant community (Gen 2:18; Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; 1 Tim 2:11-15).
Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.
In the family, husbands should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives; wives should forsake resistance to their husbands' authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands' leadership (Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; Tit 2:3-5; 1 Pet 3:1-7).
In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men (Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 11:2-16; 1 Tim 2:11-15).
In all of life Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women, so that no earthly submission-domestic, religious, or civil-ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin (Dan 3:10-18; Acts 4:19-20, 5:27-29; 1 Pet 3:1-2).
In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside Biblical criteria for particular ministries (1 Tim 2:11-15, 3:1-13; Tit 1:5-9). Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God's will.
With half the world's population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world (1 Cor 12:7-21).
We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.
