--Why does the Bible call God a He/Him?
--We don’t mean that God is a masculine body. That doesn’t make any sense, given that God is Spirit, not bodied.
--Why not she or it?
--God is not It because God is telling us something very important about Himself through gender. And if He were It, then gender would be a useless clue about God. Also, it typically refers to objects rather than to people.
--But why not she?
--The basic difference between male and female is in who initiates the giving of a gift and who receives it. And since God is in every way the initiator of gifts: the gift of life, of love, of Creation, and of salvation, He is masculinity itself.
--But remember that masculine also means to serve, to be devoted to, to protect, to provide, and to nurture the female.
--And since the Bible calls us the Bride of Christ and very overtly compares our relationship to Jesus as that of a bride to a bridegroom, we learn that we all (male and female human alike) are positioned as feminine to God’s masculinity in all these ways.
--And if someone thinks that this is a statement of inferiority, just consider the sort of love displayed for a bride by a groom, the awe and wonder and devotion of the groom watching her walk down the aisle. Then consider the wonder and love displayed by God in making us, making Himself known to us, and in sending Jesus to die for us when we needed it.
--We don’t mean that God is a masculine body. That doesn’t make any sense, given that God is Spirit, not bodied.
--Why not she or it?
--God is not It because God is telling us something very important about Himself through gender. And if He were It, then gender would be a useless clue about God. Also, it typically refers to objects rather than to people.
--But why not she?
--The basic difference between male and female is in who initiates the giving of a gift and who receives it. And since God is in every way the initiator of gifts: the gift of life, of love, of Creation, and of salvation, He is masculinity itself.
--But remember that masculine also means to serve, to be devoted to, to protect, to provide, and to nurture the female.
--And since the Bible calls us the Bride of Christ and very overtly compares our relationship to Jesus as that of a bride to a bridegroom, we learn that we all (male and female human alike) are positioned as feminine to God’s masculinity in all these ways.
--And if someone thinks that this is a statement of inferiority, just consider the sort of love displayed for a bride by a groom, the awe and wonder and devotion of the groom watching her walk down the aisle. Then consider the wonder and love displayed by God in making us, making Himself known to us, and in sending Jesus to die for us when we needed it.
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