What is a Woman?: A Christian Perspective

“What is a Woman?” seems to be the current culture question of the day since the release of the Daily Wire’s documentary, What Is a Woman? by Matt Walsh. In this film, experts are interviewed to answer this single question, and repeatedly the “gender-affirming” doctors, therapists, and activists fail to define womanhood. Why?

Truth has been so maligned that women argue that men can get pregnant, “some women have penises, and some men have vaginas,” and Santa Claus is real because he is real to children. The Christian response to these confused statements should not be mockery or hateful disgust. Rather we can speak the truth in love and point people to the hope found in Jesus Christ, who can heal the brokenness of gender confusion.

Let’s engage in this current conversation and be prepared to define what a woman is by what we know to be true in the Word of God.

When Christians consider a definition of womanhood, we may go to the beginning of the Bible to see what our Creator God intended when He made humans. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

Some people would argue that God’s creation exists in spectrums between opposite pairs – male and female, day and night, flying birds and swimming fish – so “affirming” Christians propose a theological view that all expressions of gender are a part of God’s design for diversity within the created order of the extremes.

“Non-affirming” Christians take a different theological view that gender variances are either sinful or morally neutral as a kind of disorder, mental illness, or other brokenness. Regardless of the view, God created humans with specific genders: male and female. Therefore biologically, what is a woman?

Rebekah Merkle attempts to answer this question in her book, Eve in Exile. She contributes to the definition of womanhood by unpacking what women are designed to do. She suggests that the woman’s vocation is to fill and help, among other honorable roles of womanhood. “Feminine glory is fruitful,” Merkle argues. “It produces. It builds. It creates…it’s pointed at something outside of ourselves.”

According to Genesis 3:16, a woman gives birth to children, and thus the earth is filled with humans. Only the female body has a uterus, which houses a growing child. Psalm-writer, David, acknowledges this about God, our Creator in Psalm 139.

“For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” – Psalm 139:13-14

In current culture, when the word “mother” gets erased from health agency communications in favor of “birthing person,” we need to speak the truth in love. Christians who believe that God designed men and women with intentionality cannot be silent when gender realities are muddled to the point of meaninglessness.

The beautiful and painful experience of childbirth belongs to women exclusively, and women have been bringing forth babies to fill the earth since the time of Eve, the woman whom God made to help Adam.

In Genesis 2, we see what the Lord God says about why He made women.

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” – Genesis 2:18

This Hebrew word for “helper” elevates the woman as the completion of creation itself, and this word describes God’s relationship to humanity in the person of Jesus. In Him salvation is found, and the LORD is described as our “shield and helper” in Deuteronomy 33:29.

As the woman helps and completes the man, Jesus Christ has come to earth to help us complete our relationship with God our Creator through salvation. The woman and the man, bride and groom, are a picture to the world of this complimentary relationship between the church and Christ.

As we engage in conversations about biological sex and gender identification, let us cling to the truth that only the gospel holds the power of true transformation of minds and hearts. We are on mission at Orchard Hill Church to help people find and follow Jesus.

Knowing Him and His plan for His creation will lead people to wisdom about these subjects. (Proverbs 1:7) We must point people to Jesus for hope and healing, and as we speak the truth of creation boldly, however unpopular a Biblical truth can seem in current culture, let us speak and listen with love.