This blog is an excerpt from Responding to Transgenderism in Light of God’s Word by Scott Stiegemeyer.
Theological anthropology is one of the most important theological and moral concerns of today. The Christian doctrine of anthropology refers to what Scripture teaches about human beings. There is much more to this doctrinal topic than mere discussions of sin and free will. Many of the most prominent problems we face—everything from abortion to same-sex marriage to genetic engineering to transgenderism—emerge from a distorted understanding of human nature. The church must learn to express with greater clarity what God says about human nature, embodiment, male and female, creation, and the resurrection.
Many unspoken assumptions people hold about what it means to be human have allowed transgenderism to advance rapidly in the last couple of decades. So what are two major assumptions made in our society that have contributed to this transgender moment?
First Assumption: The Real You
The first major cultural assumption that undermines Christian anthropology is the belief that the human body is ultimately inconsequential to one’s personal identity. This view holds that the body is not a meaningful part of what makes you you. The real you, in this scheme, is your mind or soul, and the body is little more than a rough habitation for the true self. … This assumption implies that your soul will live forever with God, with little thought given to the eternal state of your body. In contemporary church life, this seeps out in the funeral service that speaks of the soul leaving the body to go to heaven and ends with that. It is true that the soul of the believer goes to be with the Lord upon death, and this is very good news indeed. But this is only part of the Good Word we have for the grieving. Biblically speaking, the separation of soul and body is temporary. The fullness of Christian hope comes with the resurrection of our bodies to live united, body and soul, in the new heaven and the new earth. We must not unintentionally imply that a spiritual heaven is our final home.
Second Assumption: My Body Is My Own
The second major cultural assumption debasing human nature today is that your body is your property and that as long as you do not harm anyone else, you can do with it what you please. … The impulse that we own our bodies is deeply ingrained. We have all heard the statement “My Body, My Choice.” This is driven by the underlying assumption that my body is my property, and I can do with it as I choose.
In contrast to this, the church confesses that our bodies belong to God. Paul is clear: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Our physical bodies are not mere things that we own and may use however we wish. We are not fully autonomous beings. We are oriented toward and dependent upon our gracious Creator, and we are His. This means that we are not, in fact, free to do whatever we want to ourselves. One must see the body as a divine gift that glorifies God. As it says, “The body is … for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13).
Seeing Our Bodies and Spirits as One
The degradation of the body has been, in one form or another, a constant in the history of philosophy and religion. Gnosticism is an obstinate heresy that the church never seems to completely shake. In its classic form, one of the claims of Gnosticism is that the physical world is unreal or inherently incompatible with the spirit. Gnostics believe that our bodies, as such, are impediments to the spiritual life, and salvation comes from becoming liberated from them into a realm of pure spirit.
This claim is inconsistent with biblical Christian doctrine. We confess that the supreme divine Being of the universe is the same divine Being who created the material world. And He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son, who became flesh and dwelt among us. For Christians, the question of whether the body is good was settled conclusively by the incarnation of the Logos (John 1:1, 14). And it was confirmed by His bodily resurrection from the dead, which is the precursor to our own resurrection on the Last Day (1 Corinthians 15:20).
In our time, during this transgender moment, people do not literally renounce physical matter altogether. They are not Gnostic in that sense. No, but they might consider the material flesh as comparatively unimportant to their personal identities and as their own property to treat according to their own desires.
If the only true aspect that defines you is your mind or soul, then you can see why radical alterations of the flesh, including mutilation of healthy sex organs in order to shape the material self to fit a new identity, would be considered permissible. This objectifies the human body. It depersonalizes it. Since the concept that the body is inconsequential to your personal identity is a denial of Christian anthropology, the church must stand against this error and affirm the beauty and goodness of our natural physical nature that God has given us.
Scripture: ESV®.
Read more about the Christian viewpoint surrounding transgenderism, including non-combative ways to faithfully discuss the topic with others, in Responding to Transgenderism in Light of God’s Word.
