Pastor Albert N. Martin continues his series on 'Distinctive Sexual Identity' by exploring the 'glorious design and dynamics of restorative grace' in male and female roles and relationships. He expounds Galatians 3:28 to demonstrate the restoration of original equality in Christ, emphasizing that all believers stand on equal spiritual footing regardless of sex, race, or social status. He then turns to Ephesians 5 to explain the purification of originally assigned roles, showing how redemptive grace enables husbands to exercise headship in Christ-like love and wives to submit 'as unto the Lord,' stripping these roles of the sinful baggage introduced by the Fall. Martin critiques 'evangelical feminists' for misinterpreting these passages and stresses the importance of letting Scripture speak for itself.
Primary Texts
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Galatians 3:28This verse is expounded as the 'watershed passage' demonstrating the restoration of equality in Christ, forming the first major point of restorative grace.
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Ephesians 5:21-33This section is expounded to illustrate the purification of originally assigned roles, detailing mutual submission among believers, and specific submission for wives and loving headship for husbands.
Review of Previous Studies: Creation and the Fall2:08
The Glorious Design and Dynamics of Restorative Grace4:50
Restoration of Originally Designed Equality: Galatians 3:286:45
Misinterpretations and True Meaning of Galatians 3:2814:57
Equality and Distinction in 1 Peter 319:36
Purification of Originally Assigned Roles: Ephesians 524:03
Specific Submission and Headship in Marriage (Ephesians 5:22-25)28:30
Practical Manifestations of Purified Roles38:56
Critique of Evangelical Feminism and Conclusion43:24
Key Quotes
“There are a thousand questions many of us have about specific details, but the great truth that we seek to emphasize again and again is you cannot approach the resolution of specific details of ethical behavior if you don't have your major pillars in place.”
“In fact, if you were to listen and if you were to read the pronouncements of the so-called evangelical feminists you would assume that this was the only verse in the Bible concerning male and female roles and relationships. They either cancel all of the other biblical data by this verse or they bend every other verse to fit this verse.”
“And that will give us the kind of relationship that will never introduce into the assumption of our fixed roles any , anything of a demeaning spirit anything of a tyrannical or superior spirit so that as elders take their place of assertive leadership in the church it will be evident they do so in a Christ-like servant's heart as husbands take their headship they do so in the loving self-giving sacrificial love where with Christ loves his church as women submit as unto the Lord it's not a cringing servile submission that gives the impression that they look upon themselves as dirt and unworthy no none of that will enter because all of us stand on equal ground in the Lord Jesus Christ”
“Is anyone prepared to say that that is a role that can be reversed and that we can take our blessed exalted enthroned Lord and bring him down from his throne put him beneath us and say now Lord we're going to call the shots and you be subject to us oh Lord let's have an egalitarian soteric relationship you call the shots on Monday I'll call them on Tuesday then we'll get together on Wednesday and have a consensus to see how we'll operate you say it's blasphemous yes it is but that kind of blasphemy is being propagated all throughout the evangelical church”
“how could that that would be may I say it without irreverence a schizophrenic a schizophrenic Christ who could on the one hand be the Lord my Savior and do all that he did to become that and yet be the Lord my oppressor by telling me to be submissive to my husband now you can't have it both ways dear Christian women either Jesus Christ is the Lord your Savior with a heart pulsing with eternal self-giving love and that's the very love that in redemptive and restorative grace underscores a fresh your role in relation to your husband and says now embrace it as unto the Lord”
“I've got far more respect for the atheist who says I'll do what I want to do and far more respect than those who bow down and say the Bible is the word of God but in the end say it has nothing to say to us about this burning issue of who am I as a man who am I as a woman how am I to relate to my husband how am I to relate to men in the church how are men to relate to women what a horrible thing if we're left with the latest opinion of the experts instead of the word of God which lives and abides forever”
Applications
Believers
Christian women should embrace their God-assigned role of submission to their husbands 'as unto the Lord,' trusting that a loving Savior would not mark out a role intended to harm or diminish their dignity.
Every Christian man should honor every woman, whether wife, other women, or daughters, recognizing their equal privileges in Christ as joint heirs of the grace of life.
Every woman should look upon every man in a biblical light, so that there is no threat, but joyful submission and mutual help in faith.
All listeners
Be able with your Bible to say, 'wait a minute, wait a minute, don't force the Bible to say something it doesn't say' when someone misinterprets Galatians 3:28 to advocate for interchangeable roles.
Recognize each other's God's estimation and acceptance in Christ, ensuring that fixed roles are assumed without a demeaning, tyrannical, or superior spirit.
Elders should take their place of assertive leadership in the church with a Christ-like servant's heart.
Husbands should exercise their headship in loving, self-giving, sacrificial love, as Christ loves his church.
Women should submit as unto the Lord, not with a cringing, servile submission that implies unworthiness.
Take the posture of subjection and willingness to be a servant to every brother and sister in Christ, regardless of sex or social standing.
Husbands should exercise their headship, which is assumed and not disrupted by redemptive grace, by making Christ's self-giving love, nourishment, and cherishing the paradigm for their relationship with their wives.
Seek to experience the purifying power of redemption and grace, seeing assigned roles beautified by grace.
Accurately reflect the relationship of Christ and his church in every marriage and family.
Be transformed by the renewing of our minds to prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, purging away errors from the world and poorly instructed church.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 49 paragraphs, roughly 50 minutes.
Machine transcription
Welcome and Introduction to the Series
May 8th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.
Now it is a special joy once again to welcome those of you who are visiting with us in our adult class this morning. It's my peculiar joy and that of my life to have with us Pastor Julian Bull from Newtown Baptist Church in the area of Sydney, Australia. Those of you who were here at the prayer meeting met him yesterday morning and I trust throughout the day many of you will have opportunity to interact with him. Pastor Bull, would you just at least stand so people know who you are, all right?
Thank you, Julian. Now for those of you who are visiting with us, just a word of explanation about this class, how we conduct it and where we are in our present study together. We try not to have it a second preaching service, but to involve the class in interaction.
We will rule, we limit that interaction to the members among other reasons for the simple fact that I can then recognize the members by name and call upon them when they raise their hands or any of you who have been members with us in the past and are visiting. It's embarrassing to say you or you. It's much more to my own comfort to be able to call you by name. So when opportunity is given for contribution or questions, please.
Just raise your hands and we'll seek to recognize you and receive your contribution. Now we are presently in a series of studies entitled Crucial Issues Facing the People of God. And we first of all laid a foundation for our approach to these crucial issues using Romans 12, 1 and 2 as a basic biblical framework, a passage which epitomizes how practical and ethical issues are approached in the world. In the framework of the Word of God.
Review of Previous Studies: Creation and the Fall
And on the basis of a loving, grateful response to God's mercies, the people of God are exhorted to present themselves in the entirety of their redeemed humanity as living sacrifices unto God. And then by refusing to be molded by the world and by having their minds transformed by the Word of God, they are to prove, that is, to work out in their own experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now the first major area of crucial concern that we are addressing is the area of male and female identity, roles, function, and relationships. And thus far we have examined two major categories of biblical material. And I want to underscore again that in these opening studies we are merely looking at the broad strokes of the overarching biblical principles. There are a thousand questions many of us have about specific details, but the great truth that we seek to emphasize again and again is you cannot approach the resolution of specific details of ethical behavior if you don't have your major pillars in place.
And it is these broad, overarching, biblical categories, which form the stuff out of which we construct a framework to answer specific concerns that are not explicitly addressed in the Word of God. And so we've been rooting around then in the opening chapters of the Bible in the creation account, and thus far we've looked at two categories of biblical revelation. Number one, the fundamental realities of male and female roles and relations embedded in God's creative design and activity. And we spent all of our time in Genesis 1 and 2.
Then last week we considered the tragic disruption of God's design through the Fall. And we saw that in the event of the Fall, as recorded in Genesis chapter 3, one of the dominant factors in that event was the tragic role reversal. And then some of the tragic consequences upon male and female roles and relationships and functions growing out of the intrusion of sin into the human race. Now today we take up a third major category.
The Glorious Design and Dynamics of Restorative Grace
Having looked at the realities connected with the original creative design of God, the tragic disruption of those realities by the intrusion of sin and the Fall, we come to consider today in the third place the glorious design and dynamics of restorative grace in male and female roles and relationships. The glorious design and dynamics. And dynamics means those operations of God's power and grace. When we use the term restorative grace, we mean that grace which comes in conjunction with redemption, the salvation of men. And so what we are concerned to extract from the word of God is God's design and the dynamics of restorative grace in male and female roles and relationships. And hopefully we'll cover three categories of the biblical data this morning. And the first is what I am calling the restoration of the originally designed equality.
A is the restoration of the originally designed equality. Now will you tell me what passage you think is pivotal in demonstrating that in the scheme of redemption God does something that restores the original creative design for equality. Equality between the sexes. For remember we started in the areas where male and female were equal.
Equal image bearers. Equally moral agents. Equally accountable. Equally responsible as stewards.
Restoration of Originally Designed Equality: Galatians 3:28
Can any of you think of a passage that speaks of equality of male and female in the restoration that comes through grace? Yes, Henry? Alright, Galatians chapter 3. That's the watershed passage.
In fact, if you were to listen and if you were to read the pronouncements of the so-called evangelical feminists you would assume that this was the only verse in the Bible concerning male and female roles and relationships. They either cancel all of the other biblical data by this verse or they bend every other verse to fit this verse. But the verse is there. And we are not at all embarrassed by it.
We glory in it. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 28. There can be neither Jew nor Greek. There can be neither bond nor free.
There can be no male and female for you are all one or one man in Christ Jesus. Now what is the apostle saying in this particular passage? Obviously, he didn't just drop this statement down out of nowhere. It comes embedded in what Professor Murray liked to call a universe of discourse.
We use a much simpler word, context. Context is the universe of discourse. In other words, this statement comes embedded in relationship to other statements and other units of thought. Well, in the book of Galatians, you remember Paul's great concern is to demonstrate that salvation is by grace, in faith, Jesus Christ, plus nothing.
The Judaizers were seeking to undermine salvation by grace alone and teaching that to be a full-blown Christian you had not only to believe on the Lord Jesus, you had to be circumcised and become identified with the whole mosaic system to be a full-blown Christian. Now in his excellent work, and I've already mentioned this, James Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective, speaking of this passage, Mr. Hurley writes, the central issue at stake in Galatians 3 and 4 is the role of the law in relation to faith. A strong secondary theme is that Jew and Gentile both come to God on the basis of faith. It is within this framework that our text must be read. Verse 22 prepares the way by establishing that the law is not a special avenue of approach to God, open only to Jews, but a statement from which God condemns both Jew and Gentile. Look at verse 22.
But the Scriptures shut up all things under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Because all kinds of men are thus under judgment and can be saved only by faith, Paul insists all men come before God on equal footing. Their race, Jew, Gentile, state of bondage, a free man or a slave, and sex, male, have no effect whatsoever on our right standing before God. Thus Paul says, you are all sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And the implication is clear then, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed.
So the context and the specific focus of this verse is to emphasize that in the new humanity all of the barriers raised by man and even some that were raised by God, for remember God hedged up the Jew to keep him separate from the Gentile, that all of those barriers are leveled with respect to several basic issues of spiritual standing and privilege. Male and female, bond or free, Jew and Greek, all have the same spiritual identity as the seed of Abraham. Verse 29, if you are Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, heirs according to promises. So here is a man who is a bond slave, a man owns his person. And here is a free man who calls no man master in terms of his social status. Paul says that in union with Jesus Christ they stand on equal footing before God, they are the seed of Abraham.
They are heirs of all the spiritual blessings promised by God. They are the spiritual blessings promised unto Abraham. Furthermore, verse 26, as we have already alluded, they have equal spiritual privilege as adopted sons and daughters. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
And then on into chapter 4, there is equal endowment of the gift and graces of the Spirit, the Spirit of adoption that enables us to cry, Abba, Father. And then as he goes on to speak of their mutual responsibilities, there are equal spiritual responsibilities and privileges within the body of Christ. And so, Galatians 3 and verse 28 is not addressing the question whether or not within the body of Christ there are functional diversities, does a slave still sustain a relationship to his master, which involves certain responsibilities that are different from the master's relationship and responsibility to his slave? Well, you see, that question is dealt with several times in the Apostolic letters. There are differences of function and role and responsibility. Furthermore, do parents have a responsibility to their children within the body of Christ and children to their parents that are not identical or interchangeable?
Well, obviously, the answer is yes, Ephesians chapter 6. Now, but with reference to standing before God within that body, there is complete equality. The master and the slave are sons and daughters of God. The father and his son, if they are in Christ, all have equal standing before God in terms of spiritual privilege.
A man has no more liberty and freedom of filial access to God than does a woman. A master has no more right to come saying, Abba, Father, than does a slave, a Jew or a Gentile. You see, the whole emphasis of the passage is to underscore that if by faith we have embraced the offered salvation and the offered Savior, we have equal spiritual standing and privilege. Now, do you all see that in the passage?
Misinterpretations and True Meaning of Galatians 3:28
If anyone doesn't see it, please, wiggle your ears, twitch your nose, stand up, stomp your feet, do something. Do you see that in the passage and in the context? All right. So when someone comes along and says, look, look, move out, therefore, we should have women elders.
We can have interchangeable roles of leader and head and provider in the home. Why? In Christ we belong. I hope you'd be able with your Bible to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, don't force the Bible to say something it doesn't say.
It is speaking of this specific concern in this context and the meaning is obvious when we approach it with an unbiased mind. However, it must be underscored that though Galatians 3.28 does not teach what many try to make it teach, it does teach what the Apostle Paul said in the book of Galatians 3.28 in the book of Galatians 3.28 what the Apostle Paul intended it should teach and this glorious truth must constantly be asserted and pressed and understood so that anyone coming in to a healthy well instructed congregation of God's people will sense that women and men people from various ethnic and social and economic classes all have certain things in common and it is the thing they have in common that are their distinguishing mark the glory in Christ Jesus they worship God and the Spirit they put no confidence in the flesh and and this is crucial because each
one recognizes in the other God's estimation of him or her God's work in him or her there is no rivalry between the social classes between the racial classes between the sexes there is a blessed wonderful relaxed unqualified mutual acceptance and respect and that ought to smack people between the eyeballs the moment they come in for the visitors sitting here this morning sitting perhaps closer to the back and they look around and say well there's different colors here different shaped eyes we have some orientals here we've got differing social tastes some of the men are sitting here with a lovely three piece or two piece business suit others are sitting with an open neck shirt and this is not all wooden uniformity and externals and certainly not in pigmentation and certainly not in shape of eyes what is the glue that holds us together well we've got a hint of it in our opening hymn all of us could sing with equal enthusiasm Jesus what a friend for sinners we stand on common ground as sinners in Adam and we stand on level ground in our acceptance in the Lord Jesus Christ that's what
Galatians 3 28 is talking about and we need to be sure that with our determination to maintain the other categories of truth that we will consider shortly and then God willing in subsequent sessions more fully of the fixed roles that still obtain within the family and within the church that must all be on the substructure and the solid foundation of this recognition of each other's God's estimation of one another and God's acceptance of us in the Lord Jesus Christ and that will give us the kind of relationship that will never introduce into the assumption of our fixed roles any , anything of a demeaning spirit anything of a tyrannical or superior spirit so that as elders take their place of assertive leadership in the church it will be evident they do so in a Christ-like servant's heart as husbands take their headship they do so in the loving self-giving sacrificial love where with Christ loves his church as women submit as unto the Lord it's not a cringing servile submission that gives the impression that they look upon themselves as dirt and unworthy no none of that will enter because all of us stand on
Equality and Distinction in 1 Peter 3
equal ground in the Lord Jesus Christ and it's very very interesting that the Bible can bring the two things together in almost one breath without any embarrassment for example turn to 1 Peter 1 Peter 1 Peter is obviously dealing with the matter of distinct role responsibilities he starts out by saying in verse 1 chapter 3 in like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands so here is a hierarchical structure within the marriage and then after he deals with the husbands and their responsibility notice the concluding descriptive statement in verse 7 husbands in like manner dwell with your wives according to knowledge giving honor unto the woman as unto the weaker vessel there is distinction see not as the equal vessel but as the weaker vessel as being also joint heir of the grace of life when it comes to the life which is the product of God's grace you are joint heirs equal family equal privilege equal access equal endowment
of the grace of God and all the marvelous gifts that grace brings in its train you see that in the passage so there is no contradiction in the mind to be a fossil definitive role responsibilities irreversible yes but in the context joint heirs with respect to that life which grace has imparted and which grace has brought to us in the book that I keep recommending the mark of a man by Elizabeth Elliot on page 166 notice how she has caught the heart of the teaching of Galatians 328 in this comment in the realm of the operation of grace distinctions of nationality social status and sex are gone there is no longer Jew and Greek slave and free man male and female there is no differentiation between male and female in their both bearing the image of God and in being morally responsible to him that was the original creative design you remember so there is no differentiation in their being the objects of God's grace as they bear the image of the earthly differently that is in different physical bodies so they bear the image of the heavenly differently the woman in response the man in initiation so she underscores the great truth that in
terms of our standing before God absolute equality while there is yet a maintenance of functional diversity alright so in the design and dynamics of restorative grace there is a restoration of the originally designed equality so that all of the sinful baggage that is built up around the difference of the sexes and the difference of the roles the starting point to get rid of that baggage is to recognize that we come into standing before God through Jesus Christ on equal footing and that's where we can begin to work out in the power of redemptive grace restorative grace our distinctive roles and responsibilities without the baggage that sin has attached to them alright any question then on that first subheading the glorious design and dynamics of restorative grace a the restoration of the originally designed equality key text Galatians 3 and verse 28 any question or further comment on that passage alright then let's move on to large letter B and it's what I'm calling the purification of the
Purification of Originally Assigned Roles: Ephesians 5
originally assigned roles not only the restoration of the originally designed equality but now grace has brought the ability for the purification of the originally assigned roles and therefore when we turn to the epistles in particular what do we find as an emphasis upon male female roles and relationships well let's look at several key passages if I were to ask you give me the four or five dominant role passages in the epistles which passages come to your mind immediately alright Doug alright Ephesians 5 let's take that that's what I have first so Doug did you seek a peek at my notes alright Ephesians chapter 5 okay in Ephesians chapter 5 the apostle has been giving what we would call our generic general directives for all of the people of God as they interact with the world notice verse 15 look carefully how you walk not as unwise but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is and don't be drunk
with wine or in his riot but be filled with the spirit and then you have five participles that follow these are as it were the five conduits by which one two three four a spirit filled life will express itself and not one of them is falling flat under the power or jumping up and down or speaking in tongues or giving prophecies be filled with the spirit speaking one to another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ according to the apostle the conduits through which a spirit filled life will manifest its reality are notice those words you may want to circle them speaking singing making melody giving thanks and submitting not a word about jumping shouting babbling prophesying falling on sheer nonsense and fanaticism utterly unfounded in the word of God and the only explicit
text in all of the epistles that commands us to be filled with the spirit is one that marks out how being filled with the spirit will manifest itself and it has none of those emphases so just remember that if anyone ever tries to seduce you and entice you with stories that make your spiritual fangs drift of how they felt liquid love being poured over them and all this other stuff that comes out in charismatic testimonies and in charismatic productions magazines etc well so much for that little digression but you need to be immunized against that business now notice the last of those conduits of a spirit filled man or woman is that of mutual submission you see based on the fact that we are one in Christ there is a very real sense in which I take the posture of subjection to every brother and sister in Christ I take the posture of willingness to be your servant for Jesus sake and you must take that posture to me male female master slave in this context there is no male female bond free that disposition of mutual submission that willingness to serve one another for Jesus Christ's sake is to mark all of the people of God
Specific Submission and Headship in Marriage (Ephesians 5:22-25)
regardless of their sex regardless of their social standing the father is to be in that sense submissive to his Christian son the husband is to be submissive to his Christian wife in terms of that disposition of preparedness to serve your best interests for the sake of Christ but now does that mean therefore that there is no submission required of the woman in the marital relationship submission required of the child in the domestic relationship submission required of the servant in what we might call the work relationship well obviously not because Paul goes right on to say now let's notice what he does verse 22 wives and if you have an older translation you'll see that the words be in subjection or in italics to indicate there is no verb in the original wives unto your own husbands drawing down the force of the word the participle subjecting yourselves one to another in the field of Christ there's the generic submission all believers render to one another but now there is a specific and unique submission of the woman to the husband wives unto your own husbands is unto the Lord for the husband is the
head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church being himself the savior of the body but as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their husbands in everything now dear people you may think it's strange but please believe me I am not misrepresenting reality there are responsible people with earned doctor's degrees propagating the notion that verse 21 advocates egalitarian marriages in which the husband and wife are mutually submissive to one another in the full extent of the marital relationship not submissive to one another in the general sense of verse 21 in which all believers are submissive one to another but in the marriage relationship and there's one man reviewing a book that takes this position 26 so called evangelical Christian scholars come up with that conviction he said it seems to me that they ought to have just looked at verse 24 which they completely overlook as the church is subject to Christ is anyone prepared to say that that is a role that can be reversed and that we can take our blessed exalted enthroned Lord and bring him down from his throne put him beneath us and say now Lord we're going to call the shots and you
be subject to us oh Lord let's have an egalitarian soteric relationship you call the shots on Monday I'll call them on Tuesday then we'll get together on Wednesday and have a consensus to see how we'll operate you say it's blasphemous yes it is but that kind of blasphemy is being propagated all throughout the evangelical church we're not talking now about the radical feminists who don't believe in the Bible and God and are mechanistic and materialistic atheists but we're talking about people who claim to believe the Bible and who take Galatians 328 and Ephesians 521 and that obliterates everything else but you see the apostle does not do that he speaks of the submission that the wives are to render to the husbands look at chapter 6 verse 1 children obey your parents there is a submission of the child to the parents and look at verse 5 of chapter 6 servants be obedient to your masters so you see if we simply let the Bible speak its message in its own universe of discourse comparing scripture with scripture with no axe to grind we come to the conviction that in the dynamics of redemptive and restorative grace not only is the original equality restored but there is a purification of the originally assigned roles for now the wife is to be
subject to her husband how as unto the Lord in other words her whole role as a wife a follower a helper one in submission is to be colored flavored permeated it is to have percolating through the entirety of it all the great realities of saving grace in the Lord Jesus Christ you see that wives be in subjection to your husbands as unto the Lord so that as a woman thinks of all that has come to her because Christ has in sovereign grace taken the initiative to win her to woo her to subdue her natively rebellious will and make her his bond slave as she thinks of what Christ has done now she looks at her role assigned by God in the original creation but alas encumbered with so much horrible baggage because of sin and now she sees that original role increasingly stripped of that sinful baggage and made glorious with these words as unto the Lord and she reasons this way if Jesus loved me
enough to die for me and if the great shepherd loved me enough to seek me and track me down until by grace he subdued me to embrace his own salvation then surely he would never mark out for me a role that was intended to harm me that was intended to crimp my style that was intended to shrivel and obliterate my dignity how could that that would be may I say it without irreverence a schizophrenic a schizophrenic Christ who could on the one hand be the Lord my Savior and do all that he did to become that and yet be the Lord my oppressor by telling me to be submissive to my husband now you can't have it both ways dear Christian women either Jesus Christ is the Lord your Savior with a heart pulsing with eternal self-giving love and that's the very love that in redemptive and restorative grace underscores a fresh your role in relation to your husband and says now embrace it as unto the Lord and likewise with the husband the emphasis falls upon the assumption that he is the head the husband
is the head of the wife verse 23 so assuming that he doesn't emphasize now husbands pack your whip assume your throne no he assumes that having said the husband is that's all they need to know to know what their place is now he says knowing what it is this is how you do exercise that headship verse 25 husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it now you see he assumes that that love from the husband to the wife will be assumed from the posture of her , even as Christ the head of the church to whom his people were given in that eternal contract that mysterious arrangement within the triune Godhead and Christ as the federal head and representative and surety of his people gave himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse it and present it to himself and even now continually does what he continually nourishes and cherishes the church verse 29 he says now husbands your headship which is assumed and is not disrupted by the provisions of redemptive grace
is now to be enhanced by all that you know that you've received from a Christ who has head loved and gave and nourishes and cherishes make him the paradigm make him the model make his self giving love that which continually regulates the manner in which you exercise your headship to your wife he is head and savior notice how those two things are brought together he is head and savior of the body brought together in verse where are we yes verse 23 I was looking down too far Christ is the head of the church being himself savior of the body head and savior there is no incongruity in all of the self giving service of Christ and his headship head and savior and that's to be reflected in the godly husband there should be no question who is the head in the marriage relationship in the family order and pattern of existence just as people's heads ought to be blown coming into a well instructed spirit filled congregation
Practical Manifestations of Purified Roles
seeing that all different classes and races and social and economic background people from all of that are obviously standing on common ground in redemptive privilege and in the enjoyment of that privilege then when they get into your home and they are there for 20 minutes it ought to be very evident hey somebody is calling the shots around here somebody is in charge no house has this kind of peace and order with everyone doing what is right in his own eyes and you see they are impressed with the fact that somebody is in charge not because you have a little mini throne you have built right in the middle of the living room and you have got some gold spray paint and you painted it and then there is a little crown that kids made you know in day to vacation bible school or something and you come home and you have a little mini scepter and you sit there and you sit there and you sit there and you come in and they see you go out in the kitchen and say to your wife honey can I help with getting the food on the table she says no dear it's fine and then they notice that well while she is busy with that you keep a special eye upon the children and they want to get in some deep theological discussion and you say look maybe we can do that when the kids are down for a nap but my wife is getting the food on the table I want to keep an eye on the kids they see you very much involved but they sense that there's order and structure and they know enough to know that doesn't
just happen somebody's in charge but it's not because you come wearing a big badge or a fake crown or go around with a scepter of barking orders but they notice that when your wife says to you honey the meal's ready and you say alright kids wash your hands time to come to the table there's no I don't want to and neither is there that innocent look that I didn't hear they notice each of the children runs off to the appointed place washes his hands and they say hey somebody's in charge around here that's what ought to impress them and then they really scratch their heads and say wait a minute two hours ago I was in a setting and it's evident that everybody's equal now I come into a setting and everybody's not equal then if they really want to have their heads blown invite them as visitors into a congregational meeting held that night after the evening service and they see certain men rise up out of the congregation and leave the meeting and propose a given biblical direction and give the rationale for it and everyone sitting there says hmm that's biblical that's right we'll embrace that and they say somebody's in charge here too nobody was it you see there should be that constant amazement because the world knows precious little it knows something of that where there's still common grace but apart from that it knows nothing of that the
only way it knows to rule is to tyrannize and to threaten and to pull rank and in reaction against that egalitarian relationship means everyone does what is right in his own eyes and you have a mess and chaos it takes 20 minutes to get the kids to the table and 14 wrestling matches and knock down drag out balls and horrible thing horrible thing but you see what God has done in redemptive grace is to purify the assigned roles so that husbands rule in love and wives submit as unto the Lord well I hope to get through a lot more but it's better that we get the things nailed down and we get through a certain amount of material but I do want to tell you hopefully after we cover the other passages you think now the other three or four pivotal passages and then since I promised to some of you who are singles I want you to know I haven't forgotten point C is going to be this having looked at the restoration of the originally designed equality Galatians three the purification of the originally assigned roles Ephesians five and a few other passages then we're going to look at the gracious adaptation to our abnormal emergency situation and there we will see that our Lord Jesus and his apostles were aware
Critique of Evangelical Feminism and Conclusion
that sin and the demands of the gospel and the disruption of society produce a situation where often singleness is the lot of a man or a woman but the dynamics of redemptive grace even sanctify singleness from a curse to a blessing and we're going to look at specific passages in which that is the teaching of the word of God and then we will have seen hopefully the glorious design and dynamics of restorative grace and let me again recommend if any of you do purchase Mr. Hurley's book read the wonderful chapter on page 82 and following where he describes Jesus and his apostles and their relationship to women and what he demonstrates is so vital because one of the arguments that the so-called Christian feminist views is that Paul was accommodating to the context of his own day and to his own rabbinic prejudice when he spoke of a hierarchical structure and of male dominance in the home and in the church and Mr. Hurley demonstrates that both Jesus and the apostles were cutting across the grain of existing rabbinic tradition and thinking about the dignity of women not following it they were contradicting it and negating everything that was sinful in it and if we see that in the ministry of the
lifetime of our Lord and the apostles then we know that when they by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit embed in their teaching that there is still a hierarchical structure in the realm of redemptive grace that is not some encumbrance of remaining sin that was coming out in their writings that is God's design for his people to the end of the age so that's why I commend that section as being very very helpful in neutralizing as it were the framework by which some of these more clever at least on the surface of things more clever so-called evangelical feminists I don't use that terminology of them I call them rationalists I call them impudent I call them unbelieving and arrogant because what they eventually do is while giving lip service to the inspiration and authority of the Bible they say in reality what's in the Bible about male and female roles and relationships really is not regulative for today I've got far more respect for the atheist who says I'll do what I want to do and far more respect than those who bow down and say the Bible is the word of God but in the end say it has nothing to say to us about this burning issue of who am I as a man who am I as a woman how am I to relate to my husband how am I
to relate to men in the church how are men to relate to women what a horrible thing if we're left with the latest opinion of the experts instead of the word of God which lives and abides forever well let's pray oh our father what thanks fill our hearts this morning that we have a sure word from yourself and we bless you that we sit here this morning living monuments that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female born nor free Jew nor Greek black nor white Caucasian oriental and any mixture of any of the races we thank you Lord that having stood on equal ground in our lostness and in our undone-ness in Adam we have also stood on equal ground before our immolated and bleeding Savior and we thank you that in him we are one new man we thank you that as men we may look upon all of our sisters as dignified with equal privileges in Christ knowing that we do not have one thousandth of a gram more privilege in Christ than they that we are joint heirs
of the grace of life help every Christian man in this place so to honor every woman of his sisters whether those sisters be wife other women or his own daughters and we pray that every woman shall look upon every man in that biblical light as well that we may be no threat to one another but joyfully submit one to another that we may be helpers of one another's faith and then oh Lord enable us to see and to experience the purifying power of redemption grace and dynamics while holding to our assigned rules to see them beautified with all that grace has brought oh God help us that we may accurately reflect the relationship of Christ and his church in every marriage in every family that we may accurately reflect that the head of every woman is the man and the head of the man is Christ even as we joyfully acknowledge that the head of Christ in the work of redemption is you his father and ours oh Lord purge away from us all that the error of the world and the poorly instructed church have caused to infect our minds may we be transformed by the renewing
of our minds to prove the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God we ask in Jesus name Amen Amen
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Passages Expounded
Galatians 3:28
This verse is expounded as the 'watershed passage' demonstrating the restoration of equality in Christ, forming the first major point of restorative grace.
Ephesians 5:21-33
This section is expounded to illustrate the purification of originally assigned roles, detailing mutual submission among believers, and specific submission for wives and loving headship for husbands.
Texts Expounded
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The book of Galatians is introduced as the context for understanding Paul's concern to demonstrate salvation by grace through faith, not by works of the law.
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This verse is presented as the pivotal passage demonstrating the restoration of originally designed equality between male and female in the scheme of redemption, emphasizing equal spiritual standing and privilege in Christ.
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This chapter is introduced as a key passage for understanding the purification of originally assigned roles within the dynamics of restorative grace.
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This verse is discussed as advocating mutual submission among all believers 'in the fear of Christ,' which forms the basis for specific submissions within relationships.
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This verse is expounded to show the specific and unique submission of wives to their own husbands 'as unto the Lord,' building upon the generic mutual submission of all believers.
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This verse is expounded to establish the husband as the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, and to connect headship with Christ's role as Savior.
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This verse is expounded to command husbands to love their wives 'even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it,' setting Christ's self-giving love as the paradigm for headship.