Submission, P3: The Other End of the Argument

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3: 28-29, NIV)

For the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing what Paul really means when he tells wives to be submissive to their husbands in Ephesians. It is my deep desire that, if  you’ve been reading along, you have found peace surrounding the subject and that the Lord’s character has shone through.

This week, I want to further delve into the subject by taking the key verse through which the other side of the argument stakes its claim to validity. And I’m not talking about those that just flat out renounce God and the Bible. I’m talking about Christians; those that believe that wives being submissive to husbands is an “antiquated cultural ideal” that died off with tunics and the Roman Empire. The thought process on that end of the spectrum is that there should be no submission between genders when God has declared us all as one. 

But you see, if you read Galatians 3 under that view, then you’re implying that the Bible, particularly the New Testament, is contradictory. Paul is the author of both Ephesians and Galatians. Furthermore, he is also the author of 1 Corinthians and Colossians, two more letters where Paul mentions the same idea. So it just doesn’t make sense that Paul would push this idea of wives honoring their husbands over and over, only to completely undermine it by two verses in a different letter.

What we see in Galatians is a classic example of people being fallible. As people, we like to argue our ideas, and some of us are veterans of searching for the perfect source to validate our own ideals and moral compasses. I mean, they teach us to write, speak, and think persuasively in school. We are taught to take a stance, research the stance, and then debate it to try and swing people’s minds to our side.

It’s our human nature to be combative. It’s our educational foundation to be even more so. And that permeates into every subject and topic in our lives, including faith. But the thing is, faith is not up for debate. It is literally written out for us in black and white. There are no discussion prompts at the end of each book and chapter. Jesus is not subjective. He is Truth, inerrant and objective.

So the very fact that there is debate at all around certain things proves that our human nature is inevitably uncomfortable when it means that the Truth calls us to transform. The simple fact is, you cannot warp and mold scripture to suit our worldview. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. Scripture should ultimately mutate our worldview into God’s. 

But let’s break it down and take a deeper look. On the surface, Galatians 3:28-29 seems to say that there are no distinctions to God. There are no differences. God doesn’t see race, gender, Jew or Gentile. If we believe in Jesus, we are all the same, and therefore we are all heirs to the promise. And some people stretch this scripture far beyond what Paul means, claiming that God doesn’t see race, gender, social class, or religion, and so we are exempt from all other obligations regarding those things.

But within the context of the rest of the chapter, that’s not what Paul was saying. Even just switching up the translation of this verse sheds more light on what Paul means: “There is [now no distinction in regard to salvation] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus [no one can claim a spiritual superiority]. And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.” (AMP)

Paul is not making a sweeping statement that God doesn’t see any of the items that make us individuals and exempt us from the order He has set in place for us. The fact is, Paul isn’t even talking about marriage or gender relations in this passage. He’s talking about salvation. In short, Paul is saying that there is no distinction between those things when it comes to redemption through Jesus, and that the finished work of the cross allows anyone regardless of race, gender, and social class, to be a recipient of the promise God made Abraham; a promise previously only reserved to the Jews.

And that’s why that verse can’t negate everything else Paul teaches about husbands and wives. Despite being one through Christ as the Church and being heirs to God’s covenant with Abraham, there still needs to be a Godly order in which we serve Him. If gender didn’t matter to God, then God wouldn’t have distinguished man and woman before the fall.

The truth is this, friends. God loves that creation is male and female. If it weren’t so, He wouldn’t have created us that way. But ultimately, God saw Adam, man made in God’s image, in the garden and saw that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone. He put Adam into a deep sleep, removed one of Adam’s ribs from his body and used that to create a woman. 

Not another man. A woman.

And the fact of the matter is that intrinsically, male and female have their own characteristics that God celebrates within us. Males are strong, protective, and tend to be more logical, whereas their female counterparts are nurturing, resilient, and in touch with their emotions.

Does that mean a man can’t be emotional? No. Does that mean a woman can’t be strong? Absolutely not. But it is to say that God created each gender to embody a different aspect of His character and both are celebrated. There is something within both that praise God differently, and all the more beautiful when both are represented. Which is why God left us a model in which male and female could come together in a beautifully harmonious and truly spiritual way: marriage.

Again, another wonderful testament to the two becoming one. Each part being equally important, when fit together just right, and Paul is not diminishing one over the other by reminding one to submit to the other. Instead, he is helping us to realize the most Godly way the unit can honor God, worshipping Him and honoring Him in our equally different parts.