Gender re-assignment and sexual identity choices have been hot-button topics in the media for a long time. Since the recent Bruce Jenner interview this has generated more heated debate and discussions.
It’s hard not to sympathize with someone who feels they are trapped in a body gender which doesn’t align with what their heart and mind identifies with. Then there are people who are born with ambiguous genital characteristics. As in many other areas which fall under the LGBTQIA umbrella, the media generally champions the right of the person to ultimately choose who they want to be. However these issues can be far more complex than most people realize.
This world tends to default to doing what it feels is right based on feelings. But what does God think? As Christians we should care and be informed.
The Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has produced an essay which first explores the various medical ramifications of this complex subject, and then it examines what the Bible has to say on these issues. What follows below is the biblical assessment portion of that article. Hat tip to Tim Challies.
From the article:
It is worth noting that the world of transgendered people has largely not shrugged off the dual relationship of the male and female gender. Most people, even in the trans community, prefer to identify as either a man or a woman. However, some within this community (occasionally referred to as “non-binary” persons) seek a gender identity outside of the male/female paradigm. We can be assured that medical and surgical treatments for such persons will increasingly be explored.
Study of this topic should deepen our amazement for the complexity of God’s created order. Our sexual identity is profoundly related to our physical bodies, evidenced by the surprisingly numerous physical alterations that a person must endure to “change” their gender through medical and surgical reassignment. The metabolic networks and complex anatomical structures of our physical bodies, glorious in their purpose and yet distinct in their complementary male and female sex, should cause us to marvel at the God who created the sexes and the purposes behind his creation of gender. We see from this study that our sexuality permeates through our whole physical body, not just the differences in our genitals, breasts, and stature.
As to ministry, imagine the message that a Christian could convey to the trans community if they could listen and speak about gender reassignment without misconception, displaying some knowledge of the treatments or surgeries this person may have endured. This informed compassion may not be expected from everyone in the church, but it would certainly go along way to reaching the trans community for Christ. The effort made to understand their predicament, their pain, and their procedures would open lines of communication to advance the conversation about God, the gospel, and its impact on gender.
We stand together with persons suffering from gender dysphoria as imperfect sinners, with imperfect bodies, and long with them for the day when we, too, may receive new bodies (Rom 8:23; 1 Cor 15:5–53). Amazingly, Jesus mentions those who had a sexuality that could not have been perfectly fulfilled by their physical bodies (Matt 19:12). Even sexuality that seems disjointed from our physical bodies can be used of God in his kingdom. Any vain attempt to find fulfillment from a perceived disordering of God’s providence outside of his gospel would be a rebellion against the God who authored us, and who will eventually restore every imperfection in glory.
All in all, Christians should prayerfully ask our Lord to increase our love for persons struggling with gender dysphoria, deepen our understanding of their personal pain, broaden our understanding of the complex medical and social implications of gender reassignment, and encourage us to speak truth into the confusion surrounding gender reassignment therapies. This article has introduced the various treatments and complications associated with gender reassignment, but as medical technology continues to advance and surgical options continue to proliferate, it will be an area of increasing study that Christian medical ethicists will need to keep in view, and that ministers of the gospel—vocational or otherwise—will need to be aware of as they minister to a sexually-confused world.
WHAT THE GOSPEL HAS TO SAY TO TRANSGENDERED PERSONS
It may be surprising to discover how much the Bible speaks about surgery on the genitalia. Among the many instances, the most prolific concerns the topic of circumcision. Beginning with the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 17:10–14, 23–27) and legislated in the covenant with Israel (Lev 12:3), circumcision is found throughout the Bible. Though the theological meaning of circumcision is beyond the scope of this article, it is worth noticing that this covenant included a form of surgery on male genitalia, displaying a distinguishing mark that served as a sign of the covenant made between God and man. Later, in a section of Leviticus where qualifications for priesthood were described (Lev 21:20) and again when Moses prepared Israel to enter the Promised Land (Deut 23:1), the Law excluded from the assembly of the LORD anyone who had “crushed testicles” or “whose male organ is cut off.”
Circumcision continues to play an important role in the New Testament. While the physical act of removing the foreskin is associated with the old covenant and thus discontinued in the church, its typological fulfillment—the circumcised heart (Deut 10:16; 30:6; cf. Ezek 36:26–27)—is common to all new covenant believers (Col 2:11). Transitioning from old covenant to new, the New Testament records many heated discussions about the discontinuity of physical circumcision (e.g., Acts 15; Romans 2 and 4; Galatians 2). Without engaging all these passages, what, if anything, might Scripture’s discussion of circumcision contribute to the modern discussion about gender reassignment surgery? Let me suggest two things.
First, gender reassignment surgery may, metaphorically speaking, be the “circumcision” of transgenderism’s “gospel.” Just as the true gospel includes a circumcision—of the flesh under the old covenant, which pointed forward to the true circumcision of the heart under the new covenant—so the false gospel of transgenderism invites its participants to mutilate their genitalia in order to find a kind of “salvation.” Likewise, just as the true gospel has a mediator who inaugurates a covenant with blood (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 9:18), so too transgenderism’s gospel has created a guild of mediators—advocates, entertainers, politicians, and now surgeons—who following the cultural zeitgeist can put to death the old man and raise “her” anew. Moreover, in denying God his rightful place as sovereign creator, they establish themselves as autonomous lords. By consequence, transgenderism mimicks the true gospel by solving a “fallen condition” that is not revealed by God’s Word, but that comes from an autonomous, personal feeling (i.e., men and women trapped in the wrong body). At the same time, transgenderism prescribes a method of “salvation” by way of bloodshed—a “new creation” through surgical “circumcision.”
Of course, sexual rebellion and the distortion of gender roles is nothing new. Lamech boasts of twisting God’s creation when he sings of claiming two wives (Gen 4:23–24), and the Law of Moses lists cross-dressing as a way humans reject the goodness of God’s creation (Deut 22:5).47 But now, with advances in medical technology, what used to be feigned through clothes and mannerisms is now surgically possible. There is nothing new under the sun, but what is new is the plethora of medically-acceptable ways to deface God’s creation.
Therefore, with many moral, theological, epochal, and physical differences between old covenant Israel and the modern transsexual, the one similarity worth noting is that both “religions” present salvation through the manipulation of the flesh. By doing something to the genitalia, it is perceived that blessings will follow—in Israel these blessings were the holy promises given to Abraham and his offspring; to the trans community blessing is found in sexual gratification—however that is defined by them. To be clear, there is a radical difference between circumcision under the old covenant and genital mutilation of modern transgenderism—the former was instituted by God (Genesis 17); the latter is the invention of men (cf. Rom 1:32). Likewise, Abraham’s circumcision was an act of faith, while gender reassignment surgery is an act of rebellion against God, his created order, and his sovereignty over gender.
Nevertheless, when we understand that circumcision of the flesh was always a sign pointing to the need for an interior purification (Deut 10:16; Deut 4:4; cf. Acts 7:51) and never meant to be salvific in itself, there are also striking similarities. For instance, consider the parallel logic at work in these two systems of salvation. Writing of circumcision’s ultimate futility, Paul encourages the Judaizers to go the whole way and “emasculate themselves” (Gal 5:12). Whereas the Judaizers believed that circumcision brought them closer to God, Paul knew as an inveterate sinner physical circumcision accomplished nothing. Therefore, he commissioned the Judaizers to go further and emasculate themselves, which under the Law invoked the judgment of God—i.e., separation from his holy presence. By analogy, Christians believe that despite the sincerest intentions of transsexuals, the surgery they desire to perform on the body needs to be performed on their heart. While these children of Adam long to match their bodies with their inner perception, what they need is not a new body, but a new heart. In this way, the Jews of old and the modern trans community are not without similarities, because both face the same problem: They have exchanged the glory of God for the glory of created things, and therefore God has given them over to a “depraved mind to what ought not to be done” (Rom 1:23, 28).
To reiterate, this comparison between Old Testament ritual and modern surgery is not materially the same, but when we consider how Jews misused circumcision (as means of salvation) and the way transsexuals pursue surgery as functionally salvific, their comparison becomes more apparent. Whereas circumcision was ordained by God and pointed to a circumcision of the heart that God himself would perform at the right time, the “circumcision” of transsexuals is the invention of (technologically advanced) mankind. Inspired by the father of lies, gender reassignment surgery promises abundant life through the manipulation of the flesh.
On this comparison, it reminds us that when we engage family and friends grappling with gender reassignment surgery, we cannot fight flesh with flesh—“Just learn to live with and love your God-given gender.” No, like Paul and Jesus in the New Testament, we must present a better circumcision—one that strips off the old man and gives disciples new life in Christ (Col 2:11–13; 3:1–3) so that learning to live out one’s God-given gender is not harsh and heavy, but a yoke that is light and easy (see Matt 11:28–30). Indeed, by understanding gender reassignment surgery as a kind of rite of circumcision, it helps us understand why someone would desire to cut on their genitalia—it is part of our story and religious hope too. By remembering circumcision’s place in salvation, it gives us an entry point to speak of a greater gospel, a greater circumcision, and ultimately a greater bodily transformation—the redemption of the body promised to all who are alive in Christ (Rom 8:23).
Second, moving from a big picture analysis of circumcision to a particular text, we return to one verse in Galatians. In Galatians 5:12 Paul expresses with rhetorical force how he wishes Judaizers who were stressing the need for circumcision would “mutilate” or “emasculate” themselves. In the context of Galatians this hyperbole emphasizes the worthlessness of physical circumcision, now that Christ has come. Against the backdrop of the Law, such an action would be both humiliating and disqualifying for temple service (see Lev 21:20; Deut 23:1). Applied to the present discussion, such genital mutilation would invite the curse of God, under the old covenant. Just as sacrifices under the old covenant could not be offered with “testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut” (Lev 22:24), because they did not meet God’s perfect standard, so willful mutilation of the genitals tears at God’s created design.50 To those who pursue “salvation” by genital surgery, the Law of God offers a warning and threat—“if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision” (Rom 2:27). This goes for the Judaizers in Galatia and modern advocates of gender reassignment surgery.
To both of these parties (as well as to those who sinfully take pride in their uncircumcision), the gospel of Jesus Christ makes a new way to find life. It offers forgiveness now and a glorified body in the new heavens and the new earth. Yet, as Russell Moore has observed, gender reassignment surgery, in the here and now, may “mangle” the body and “create an illusion of a biological reality that isn’t there,” but it cannot reassign gender. Therefore, as men and women come to Christ on the other side of their gender reassignment, the solution is not just external reassembly. Reconstructing a person’s bodily appearance may not be possible or (medically) wise, but what can be done and must be done is to point new creations in Christ to the approaching reality of their bodily redemption, and to live in light of that reality. As Paul says in Colossians 3, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is. . . . Put to death what is earthly in you, . . . Put on then [like a new garment], as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”
Until the resurrection of the body, Christians groan like the eunuchs of old. But like eunuchs in Israel who mourned their displacement from the covenant promises, the gospel of Jesus Christ promises family, children, and blessing in the kingdom of God (see Isaiah 54). On this point, Moore has again made the comparison between those who undergo gender reassignment surgeries with those are eunuchs. As with circumcision, eunuchs are mentioned throughout the Bible. In some instances they were males who were castrated, or had other genital surgery, to serve in special roles within their respective kingdoms. Others may have been born as eunuchs. Jesus speaks to both of these conditions when he says, “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 19:12). Still in everyone of these cases, the main point is that God is big enough to bring blessing to all who repent and believe in the gospel of the kingdom—even those who were deceived into pursuing gender reassignment surgery.
That being said, we must close with this unassailable truth. In the Bible, with all that it speaks about circumcision and the existence of eunuchs, it never supports practices changing a child’s sex at birth towards the opposite sex. It does present circumcision of the heart (Deut 30:6) asthe only way of lasting joy and salvation. In its affirmation of this spiritual surgery, the Bible stands against any kind of gender reassignment surgery, as a way of gratifying the flesh. Therefore, in all cases, we conclude that the Bible never supports the desire to change the appearance of the body to mimic the opposite gender. As with those who pursue sexual immorality—heterosexuals or homosexuals—the hope of the gospel is that any person through faith and repentance can be changed through the washing, sanctification, and justification of Jesus Christ, and not through the adoption, assimilation, or acceptance of sinful roles or practices (1 Cor 6:9–11).
Thus, a biblical understanding of sexuality cannot support gender reassignment surgery. This truth must be compassionately affirmed to those who are struggling with gender dysphoria, and who are contemplating such surgical procedures. Where the Bible affirms that we should receive our birth gender as a gift from God and that it should direct the nature of our sexual desires, it never affirms a person’s desire should dictate their gender. In every case, anatomy dictates and directs gender—not the reverse. Scripture commands that our physical bodies are meant to glorify God (1 Cor 6:19), and followers must humbly and willingly submit to God’s providence in giving us the body he wants us to have, in order to glorify him in the gender that comports to our anatomy.
May God honor our efforts to think biblically and critically about the issue of gender reassignment surgery. May he give us gospel-fueled grace to love the trans community in the name of Christ. And may he glorify himself by saving many in Christ who are now pursuing salvation in the flesh.
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