The other dimension of Paul’s concern with the gender blurring, if not gender exchanging, behavior of the Corinthians, was their implicit rejection of the God-given order between husbands and wives, and the consequent dishonouring of one’s head occasioned by their behavior – that is, the husband’s dishonouring of Christ and the wife’s dishonouring of her husband (vv. 4-5).71 While, in contemporary western cultures, “there is no piece of clothing that functions as a cultural equivalent to the first-century Graeco-Roman head covering,” this does not mean that there are no cultural symbols that send a similar message.72 Taking the teaching of this passage seriously, then, will necessarily impact the way Christian men and women ‘do gender’; that is, the way we present ourselves in terms of hair style, clothing choices and general demeanor. Although cultures differ, “in every culture there are certain kinds of adornment which become culturally acceptable norms of dress for men and women.”73 Therefore, our aim is not to replicate first-century church practice, but to operate within the norms of our culture and to do so in such a way that we signal our recognition of both the God-given differences between men and woman and our grateful embrace of our own biologically-given gender.
(iv) As we reflect further on the implications of the above passages, it is important to recognise that none of them suggests that those with genuine gender incongruence are culpable for their condition. There is a biblical category of ‘affliction’ (Gk. malakia) that is, most certainly, a consequence of humanity’s sin but not necessarily, and certainly not always, a consequence of the afflicted person’s own sin (e.g., John 9:1-3). Therefore, unlike wilful, rebellious gender bending or deliberate and destructive gender erasing (which are certainly prohibited by such texts), the experience of gender incongruence would appear to be largely a non-volitional, and to that extent a non-moral, illness.74 It is also a deeply distressing illness. Consequently, our first response to those who suffer from it ought to be compassion and care, not condemnation or censure.
However, the Bible’s teaching certainly has implications for how we should respond to gender identity problems – whether our own or another’s. There are right and wrong ways to address or manage all of life’s challenges, including mental health issues like gender incongruence. It therefore needs to be said that, as far as the Bible’s teaching is concerned, trying to obliterate, disguise or live at odds with one’s God-given gender is contrary to God’s will and against human good. Consequently, any attempt to do so is not only sinful but will not ultimately bring the relief that sufferers are seeking and may well bring them even greater distress in the longer term.75
f) The saving and sanctifying power of Jesus Christ
What then, according to Scripture, is the way forward? Here is where we need to understand the saving and sanctifying power of our Lord Jesus Christ and how it is applied by the Spirit to believers in the present age.
(i) The first and fundamental thing to appreciate is that all those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead, are justified from sin, brought to new birth by the Holy Spirit and given a new identity as sons and daughters of the living God. “Therefore,” writes Paul, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). This vital, spiritual union is necessarily determinative of a whole new self-understanding. We are no longer defined by our failures or our feelings. For as Paul writes elsewhere: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20a). In short, no Christian is what they once were (1 Cor 6:11). Christ has taken from us all that shamed and defiled us, all that crushed and condemned us, and made us “sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed.”76 Due to the indwelling of his Spirit, Christ is in every believer and every believer is ‘in Christ’ (John 14:16-20). Christians have truly been given new life (eternal life!) that we might be and become our true selves.
(ii) Second, new life means a new lifestyle. Those in Christ are called to “no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). This does not, of course, mean that Christians experience the removal of all temptations and afflictions – not, at least, in this age. Rather, because there is a new power at work in us (that of the Holy Spirit), there are new possibilities open to us (choosing righteousness over sin). “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Rom 6:12), writes Paul. The reason such resistance is now possible is because “our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6). This call to walk in “newness of life” (Rom 6:4) has profound implications for every dimension of our existence, including what we do with and to our bodies. For the Christian’s body is now a temple of the Holy Spirit. “You are not your own,” says Paul, “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20). A further implication of this is that all forms of bodily self-harm are nothing less than a defacing of that temple.