One of the things we might want to consider is the issue of the rulership of men over women, which God had warned the woman about in Genesis 3:16. We have already concluded that this was not a command of God to be obeyed by the woman, rather it was a forewarning that this would happen.

And so it has. Sadly we have seen the rulership of men over women happen throughout history and we see it still happen today.

However in the midst of this sad picture there has come a glimmer of hope, in the form of a cross, with the broken body of a man hanging on it. Who was this man? It was the God/ Man Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

He died so that sinful men and women might have life. As the apostle John expresses it

“ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.

John 10:10

Through Christ’s death on the cross the effects of the Fall have been reversed. What had been lost at the Fall: relationship with God, and relationship with one another on equal terms, has now been restored.

Furthermore men and women alike have been given authority. Please understand that this authority is a delegated authority, for it flows out of the authority, which has been given to Christ by His Father. We can read about this

“ All power is given unto me in heaven and earth.Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world ”.

Matthew 28:18-20

This passage reminds us of Genesis 1:28 when God said to the male and the female:

“ have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living things that moveth upon the earth ”.

That authority too was a delegated authority, which flowed from God.

There is one more important point I want to make though concerning the authority men and women, who are in Christ, have been given. This authority does never give anyone a right under any circumstance to lord it over another, to rule another for Christ did not come to be served but to serve, as Jesus said in Matthew 20:25-28

“ Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many ”.

Therefore Christ’s followers, be they men or women, have only been given the authority to serve. Jesus must have found this a particularly important message since He stresses this point at His Last Supper which can be found in John 13:1-17. He was about to die and so there was not much time left for any last teaching. It is quite remarkable that in these final moments He chose to teach in word and action on the vital necessity of having a servant heart, to those who would be the leaders of the church, those who would be the examples of the kind of authority the church was to demonstrate.

The message of restoration, because of Christ’s death, is the overriding theme throughout the New Testament. It is the message the apostle Paul preached. He taught what the Lord before him had taught in word and deed, that both men and women are equally sinful and equally in need of a Saviour and that Christ’s death on the cross provides total redemption for both men and women.

He taught that this redemption had made been possible because at the cross Christ had reversed the effects of the Fall, by becoming a curse for both men and women as we can read in Galatians 3:13.

“ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is ever one that hangeth on a tree ”.

As a result of Christ’s death on the cross both men and women can now become the righteousness of God in Christ according to

II Corinthians 5:21.

“ For he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him ”.

This means that every believer, male or female has become a new creation, for whom the old has gone and the new has come according to II Corinthians 5:17

“ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new ”.

Such a person is to forget the past according to Philippians 3:13

“ Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before ”.

Furthermore there is now no condemnation for the man or the woman who in Christ Jesus according to Romans 8:1-2

“ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death ”.

That person is to live unto God as Paul says in Romans 6:11

“ Reckon ye yourselves alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord ”.

Paul furthermore taught in I Corinthians 12 – 14 and in Romans 12:4-8 that every believer, male or female, is now part of the body of Christ and is to function as part of this body with the gift, or gifts the Holy Spirit has given to that believer for the benefit of others. These gifts are given as the Holy Spirit determines, without race, class or gender distinction.

In light of all this it becomes very clear that because of Christ’s death on the cross, men and women have been called to work together beside one another in the kingdom of God.

One example of the gifts of the Spirit working through both men and women can be seen in I Corinthians 11:4-5

Press here for the next page.

Please email me for more information, questions or comments.