Women and Men - Beyond Good and Evil - the Body of Christ

So, here we are, male and female components of the Adamic image of God, knowing good and evil and suffering for that knowledge, being sinners and thus out of fellowship with God our creator. Oh, wait! Those of us who have come to know the Christ and have decided to follow him have been born again. Behold, all things are become new - hmm, except for this body of flesh. I seem to be pretty much the same as ever on the outside. Paul describes this problem in his letter to the Romans in chapter 7. Here are some verses:

For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. v5,6

Let me point out here that the word 'sinful' is unduly loaded these days, but it simply means error-prone. Do not take upon yourself the condemnation of Victorian old maids - it's bad enough as it is. I assert that this sinful nature is simply our knowledge of good and evil, inherited from Adam, that causes us to go so oft astray from the love of God.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. v15
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? vs18-24

Paul argues here about how even the Law of Moses, given by God himself and thus as good as laws can get, simply became an opportunity for us to commit sin by identifying what sins are available to commit. I think that it is in our nature to want to do good; but Adam was not designed for good and evil. He, and all of us his children, are living in the physical world, not eternity. We "see through a glass darkly", meaning that because we are moving through the space-time contiuum, we can never see enough to reliably know whether something is actually good, until it's too late. And the more we wander off the path of righteousness, the more lost and messed up we all become. What's the answer? It lies in the word 'righteousness', meaning having the right relationship. The knowledge of good and evil was abstracted into the form of a beautiful fruit on a tree; Adam was an abstraction of the fellowship of God. With Christ's sacrifice on the cross, a way is provided for us to die to the old Adam and be reborn a child of the new Adam. So we Christians are learning to follow Jesus, moment to moment, trying to be in fellowship with Him. Never mind figuring out good vs evil: what does it take to get closer to Jesus, to know him better? That is the new guiding principle. We cannot see much of what is happening in the world, and less of what is happening in eternity; but we can see Jesus`as he reveals himself to us, and the more we see him, the more we become like him. The more we become members of his body, the less being male or female will matter.

Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Eph 2:3-7

I think I can safely say that in the spirit, I am a new creature, made alive by the grace of God and immersed into Christ's spirit. In my spirit, I am seated in the heavenlies with Christ and in the coming ages, God will be able to use me, built together with the rest of the Church, as an example of his incomparable riches of grace and kindness. In my spirit, I have already begun living eternal life in Christ Jesus, hallelujah!

In my flesh though, phooey! I'm still here in this wayward world, and oops! I'm still kind of wayward myself. By faith, I know that I am free of the law of sin and death; but every day, every moment that ticks by seems to bring me another choice to make, to live by faith in Him or by the knowledge of good and evil. Why couldn't it work so that when you're born again, your flesh is transformed too? Or just die on the spot, dust to dust, and all that's left is my spirit in Christ while I await the resurrection? Well for one thing, that might have hindered evangelism, but hey, it could have been worked around ;^)

Anyway, the serious answer is that God has decided on a different end-game, one that ultimately brings him greater glory. God is not into quick fixes; he likes the performance aspect of how this creation is playing out, in spite of all the grief it causes him. I really don't quite get how the payoff can make it worthwhile. He doesn't throw away this nice universe he's created just yet, but instead we go through a series of transformational experiences in our lives that are intended to make us more like Christ, more the building block of the Temple that each of us was meant to be. And collectively, we will be his bride, a new Eve for the new Adam and the two will become one.

This is the last of my series about Women and Men and Adam and Eve. I haven't really answered quite what I set out to answer, but instead feel as if I have found something that renders the question less important than it seemed. For more detail about this incredibly rich metaphor of Elohim, Adam and Eve, and the Body of Christ, I suggest looking at the Song of Solomon.

Women's Rights, Abortion, and Legislation

This subject has come up again, as so-called social conservatives seek to restrict women's access to abortion in the United States Congress and in the laws of various states. Women often see this as a bunch of old white men seeking to control their bodies; men don't often see the issue in those terms because their bodies are seldom the subject of legislation, at least what goes on inside their bodies. Perhaps they would feel different if the law required them to get their wives permission before they could buy viagra, get a tatoo, or get a vasectomy, Indeed, what if a woman could order her husband to get one, under the law?

I have two beliefs that come to bear here: 1)that when we marry, our bodies are no longer our own, as the two become one flesh, ie one organism; and 2)that once a child is conceived, it deserves full recognition as a natural person. These are my beliefs, and that's what this web site is for, discussion of beliefs. Okay, so far it's only about my beliefs, but I really do hope others will join in. Anyway, this is an issue where differing beliefs cause a big political controversy.

As I try to write about this, I keep getting sucked into the political dispute; but nobody really needs to hear my legal opinions. I want to try to stay focused on the spiritual issues here. Many people, Christian or not, fail to see the impact of "the two shall become one flesh", or try to apply it only in that women's bodies belong to their husbands and not the other way around. It's clear to me that oneness has to work both ways. And I don't need no piece of paper from the city hall (thank you Joni Mitchell) to recognize a marital commitment.

Oh, and what about unmarried women who become pregnant? Should a man who has sex without marital commitment have any input in this decision? Maybe, but I don't think so.

Still, I don't think a woman should make this decision alone. That really would be murder, when one person arbitrarily decides to kill another. A woman distressed enough to be thinking about it should be required to talk to a doctor about the medical issues, a social worker about the social issues, and the father of the child (if appropriate) about the personal issues. Ultimately though, I end up coming down on the woman's side on this one. If there is an irreconcilable difference with her advisors, the woman's decision must be the final answer. She will have to live with it more than anyone else. As with the matter of divorce, I see this legal process being necessitated by the hardness of our hearts.

So in a nutshell, I think that we could all avoid a lot of pain by agreeing on a few principles:

• A child is a person from the moment of conception.
• In our society, we do agree to kill people from time to time, after some due process.
• In an effort to limit the imposition of other people's beliefs, we need to respect the decision of the woman, as long as she has access to appropriate advice.

It's not a perfect world out there, and I believe that trying to legislate beyond this only leads to more oppression and sorrow for women. This is not a social problem that can be solved with mere legislation, so we must act to preserve liberty under the law.