In practically all the older systematic theology textbooks on anthropology there is little to no discussion on the differences between male and female. Even our own confession only gives a passing glance at it, ‘After God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female.’ The rest of the paragraph emphasizes mankind in God’s image and in covenant with Him. What the confession takes for granted without explanation we must take the opportunity to stop and expand on. Historically we would have spoken about the sexes, male and female; today we talk about gender, what’s the difference? Here is one attempt at definitions: ‘Sexuality refers to God’s anthropological design and pattern for the procreative relationship between male and female and to the experience of erotic desire within that design. Gender refers to biological differences in male and female embodiment and the different cultural ways in which the creational distinctions between male and female are manifested. The creational narrative of Genesis 1–2 provides the Christian with the foundational truths behind these distinctions: God created humanity, male and female, in his image for one another. To deny any part of this teaching is to subject God’s purposeful design to the desires of humanity. While much of modern culture desires to deny these distinctions and to untether gender from sexuality, the New Testament reaffirms the Old Testament’s teaching on this topic and brings the male-female distinction to its culmination in the Christ-Church relationship.’ 1 Sex tends to describe our biological realities, gender the expression of them. And we are seeing an untethering of gender from sex, so that gender is now being defined without reference to biological sex. Gender is seen as a social construct placed upon an incidental biological reality. We have seen a radical shift in how sex and...

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