22nd June, 2022
I was always brought up to believe that God doesn’t have any gender, that ‘He’ is neither male nor female.
[The same Christains who say that God has no gender though usually get their knickers in an especially tight knot if you refer to God as “she” or “they” or anything other than “He.” So essentially, if we’re honest what we really believe is that God is male, and probably also straight and white.]
God is neither male nor female because God transcends such silly human things as gender. God is better than we are, it’s insulting to suggest that God has a gender. ‘He” doesn’t. That’s what I was always taught.
But why? Why does God need to transcend gender? And if God has to transcend gender because it’s so human what else does he transcend? Relationship? Compassion? Love?
What’s wrong with gender? Why would God “transcend gender” as though it’s sinful, dirty or inadequate? It isn’t. I’m a woman, and it’s amazing, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s nothing wrong with being a man either. Or non- binary, or anything else you identify as.
In fact, our gender identities are “good,” they are God-given, wonderfully created. Genesis 1:27 says “so, God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (and note it says male AND female, not male OR female, there’s no binary language used)
So if God created male and female in their image that can’t mean that God is neither male, nor female, but rather that God is both male AND female.
God is both male and female.
And the language of the bible bears this out. We all know of God being referred to as ‘Father” but God is also referred to as a mother throughout the Old Testament (e.g: Hosea 11:3-4, Hosea 13:8, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Deuteronomy 32:18, Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15, Psalm 131:2) The words used throughout the Hebrew bible to describe the Holy Spirit are almost exclusively feminine.
My female-ness is part of who I am as an image bearer of God, God created me to reflect her female-ness, because God is female. God is also male. God created all of us in their image, we all reflect something of God, and that includes God’s gender. Which isn’t “neither male nor female” but BOTH male and female. God is transgender.
So if you are transgender, be assured, you reflect the image of God, you are as you were created to be, you are an image bearer of God and you reflect God’s transgender-ness. How amazing is that? You are beautiful, wonderfully created, God’s very own masterpiece.
And if you’re cis-gender, it’s worth noting that your God isn’t.
God is transgender.
