Over the past three days, we have been having a conversation about what culture is telling us about masculinity. We have been taking time to carefully critique and analyze what society is telling us men need to be, or what it claims we long to be. Today though, it is time for something different. It is time for us to realize that culture is not our final word or authority for what a man is. After all, we live in a fallen, corrupted society/culture/world. Therefore, we must go back and see the world that God intended for us to be a part of. After this, we can then respond to these snapshots of culture and speak life into what true masculinity really is.
Since true masculinity can only be found in one place, we must then understand what exactly it is we as men were created to be, otherwise we will never understand how a fallen corrupted world seeks to distract and destroy us. Our journey will start in Genesis and end with Jesus (but essentially, Genesis is about Jesus, so it starts with Jesus too) and by looking at His life, His example we can see how to respond to culture.
To do this I just want to take us to several verses in Genesis to give you an idea of who we men were created to be and how the Fall has affected us. *Note: These concepts are not entirely my own. My ideas have been shaped by Dan Allan, Mark Driscoll, Mike Erre, John Eldredge and Wild at Heart, and even my own Father.
Genesis 2:20 - Adam was given the responsibility and privilege of naming all the animals inside Eden. From the very beginning of our existence we have taken part in the work of God. We were given a job by God, and that was to use our creativity and take part in God’s creation. Inside this duty was the call to care for creation. Responsibility. Duty. Work. It is good, we were created for it. It is innate in us that we are to be creative, work, and bare responsibility. It is what Erre calls the “naming of the animals” instinct.
Genesis 3:17-19 – As we see above, work was around before the Fall. However, what our sin did was make our job, our work, our responsibility a burden. It became toilsome and we would no longer necessarily enjoy our work, as it would no longer be easy.
You see, men have it hardwired into them that we must be creative, we must work a job, we must have responsibility - it is the naming of the animals instinct. That was around before the Fall; the Fall only made it toilsome. One way to sum this up is that a man was not intended to be passive, but accept responsibility.
Genesis 3:6 - Men along with all of humanity suffers when we fail to lead and are passive. Case in point - Adam did not stop Eve from taking eating of the fruit. All this after he had received the instructions and calling from God.
Genesis 3:16 - "Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you". The Fall has set this in motion. Today we see this scene play out in the constant struggle inside male-female relationships. The fight for relationship power stems from this, thanks to the Fall.
This is typically not a place where I would leave the conversation – but due to being concise it will be left here. As the conversation pauses here, it causes a chance to breathe and contemplate as we move towards the perfect Adam, the true picture of masculinity – Jesus. Think about these as we get ready to talk about Jesus.
Where is it that God is asking you take part in His creative work? What are you animals to name? Are you running towards it? Are you letting responsibility go and instead choosing passivity? How do you lose sight of what God has intended for you? How are you like Adam? Where do you let the Fall define you? Where do you let the Fall wreck your masculinity?
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