Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 06:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Innate Differences Between Men And Women, Sexuality, And Christian Ethics
Author: J. Alan Branch

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 112

Innate Differences Between Men And Women, Sexuality, And Christian Ethics

J. Alan Branch

Dr. J. Alan Branch serves as Professor of Christian Ethics at Midwestern Seminary where he has served since 2001. He is the author of Born This Way? Homosexuality, Science, and Scripture, Affirming God’s Image, and 50 Ethical Questions.

Defining male and a female has become difficult for educated people. On March 23, 2022, the United States Senate was holding confirmation hearings for President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Jackson. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn asked Judge Jackson, “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’”? To which Jackson said, “Can I provide a definition? No.” She added, “I’m not a biologist.”1 Many have noted that a good follow-up question would have been, “Judge Jackson, are you a woman?” Jackson was confirmed by the Senate and is now a Supreme Court Justice. She has both her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard, and yet she still does not know how to define “woman.” Contrary to Justice Jackson, the gender binary is clearly defined by innate differences between males and females, and these differences point to the profound importance of Christian sexual ethics.

Males and females are identified by innate differences. Males have one X and one Y sex chromosome, while females have two X sex chromosomes. Males have genitalia and external reproductive organs consistent with males, while females have genitalia and internal reproductive organs consistent with females. During puberty, males and females develop separate secondary sex characteristics.2

These innate differences between males and females were created by God for the purpose of glorifying himself through all people. Genesis 1:27 declares, “God created man in his own image, in the image of

Eikon 6.2 (Fall 2024) p. 113

God he created him; male and female he created them.” The threefold repetition of the verb “create” amplifies God’s activity in designing the sexual binary. Some suggest Genesis 1:27 is possibly an embedded poem within the creation account, with lines one and two in chiastic arrangement and the last line as an explication.3 Such an arrangement accentuates the importance of sexual differentiation and identity for God’s image bearers. Oliver O’Donovan explains, “One can express the Christian perspective like this: the either-or of biological maleness and femaleness to which t...