The Whole Church and the Human Body

I used to enjoy thinking about controversial issues. Leading a church through the chaos of the last decade, however, would change that. Where I once loved to think in public, such activity became a liability—an invitation for yet another community-splitting fight. Politics and ideology wore me down.

One issue rears its head in ten thousand ways: human sexuality. Our culture is profoundly confused about what it means to be human, questioning the very categories of maleness and femaleness. While this confusion has ideological causes and political implications, it is a fundamentally theological confusion. We need reminded that God is the creator of all, and we need encouraged that this is good news.

Worn down by politics and ideology, I wanted to think about theology. In 2020 I began the PhD program at Midwestern Seminary. I soon became interested in one particular doctrine: the catholicity of the church. Studying this ancient doctrine of the church’s universality and wholeness helped me re-engage this cultural moment in surprising ways. Catholicity gave me clarity, context, and confidence to cheerfully confess what Christians across time and space have always confessed.

Catholicity Gave me Clarity

The worldwide witness of the church is a testimony to the Scripture’s clarity. There are core truths that all Christians everywhere have confessed.

But how might this apply to human sexuality? Glad you asked.

The Apostles’ Creed begins, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”

The Nicene Creed begins, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.”

Both begin something like the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen.1:1) Later in that chapter, God’s creative power is applied to humanity, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

The witness of the creeds is a testament to the Bible’s clarity: God is the creator of all things, especially and including his crown jewel: humanity. God created us male and female; maleness and femaleness are intrinsic to God’s good design. Any theological formulation of the human body must not begin with a cultural stereotype; it must begin in the Garden of Eden.  While this passage and these creeds do not give us a comprehensive theology of gender, they give us something profoundly helpful for an age of anthropological confusion. We have rock solid, foundational truth—we are created by God, and God made us male and female.

Catholicity Gave me Context

The pastoral voice may have political implications, but it is primarily ecclesial speech. Within local churches, we live as part of one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Together, in the church, we learn to live as the people of God. It is necessary in every place and every generation to teach the people of God the fundamental truths of Scripture, when these truths are popular, and when they are not. This is the heart of the pastoral task.

To be clear, there is a political context for issues related to human sexuality. There are even ideological debates that need to be had. It is not, however, the only context that frames these discussions. Cultural issues have a pastoral context. The people of God need clear directives from the Word of God.

A disdain for partisan politics and ideological fights cannot keep pastors from issues that affect church members. While some pastors are eaten up by these things, others avoid them entirely. Call it fight or flight, if you will. I found in myself a temptation to disengage from contested cultural issues completely. Yet, a shepherd cannot choose which enemies will attack his sheep. In the same way, pastors must be ready to defend those in his care and be for them a consistent voice that points them to the voice of God. The pastoral voice is not one of a commentator; it is one of a shepherd.

Catholicity Gave me Confidence

Finally, the catholicity of the church gave me confidence. The burden of proof lies on those who diverge from the creedal consensus on the Bible’s teaching, not those who confess fundamental truths Christians have always believed. While it may be popular to separate gender and sexuality, it is also novel. We are only beginning to see the negative effects, both cultural and personal, of turning from the catholic witness of the church to more novel gender ideologies.

Confusion in our culture need not shake the confidence of the church. When we cheerfully confess that God is our creator and his gendered design is good, we model a better way of being in the world he created. With Christians across time and space, we believe that God created us male and female. We believe we are created beings—that we inhabit a world that is not our own. We believe that this Creator has made himself known in the person of Jesus Christ, and that life, meaning, and purpose are found in him.

With the whole church we live in light of the whole truth for the whole world.

Photo retrieved from Unsplash