When it comes to almost all questions about God’s intentions for men and women, the answer is almost always the same: go back to the garden. When you asked Jesus about marriage (Mt 19:4?6), answered from Genesis 2. spoke of the role of women versus men (1 Timothy 2: 11-14), found his answers in Genesis 2 The New Testament sees questions of gender and relationship between men and women answered in the first chapters of the Bible: the basic teaching on creation in Genesis 1 and the account of God’s specific treatment of the first man and Genesis 2 , this is where we should look for the Bible’s most basic teaching on masculinity.
Just as we will never understand God’s rules for marriage and his call to husbands and wives without an understanding of Genesis 2, we will never understand what it means to be a man, single or married, without studying this vitally important chapter. Four essential things about man: who he is, where he is, what he is and how he should fulfill his vocation. Clearly, this is something very important, essential for an adequate understanding of our vocation as men.
- Genesis 2.
- 7 speaks of how God formed man in a special way: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and blew in his nose breath of life.
- And man became a living soul.
- “This creation of man is unique.
- In two respects.
First, God did not create any other creatures with this manual care. To create animals, God simply spoke, and His statement was sufficient. But God trained the dust man, modeling us with fatherly care.
Second, did God blow his own breath upon man?The breath of eternal life. We must realize that this means that God created man to be different, we are not one more type of creature among many others, men and women are spiritual creatures, but the Bible says that God made man in his image (Gen. 1,27). In both our mortal bodies and our immortal spirits (this breath of God’s life), we were able to know God and be called to carry His image in the created world.
God has given us a spiritual nature so that we can carry His image as His worshippers and servants. That’s who we are as men.
The following verse, Genesis 2. 8, gives us important information that is easily overlooked. After God made this man unique?After all, there was only one Adam, who could only be in one place, and throughout the creative process, God was clearly very intentional in all his actions. Certainly, man’s position would also be intentional. The answer is, “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden to the east, and put there the man he had trained. “
The Garden of Eden is described in the Bible as a small corner of the originally created world that God made rich and beautiful. Adam was placed in the garden, along with Eve, with the following commandment: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. and subdue it, dominate the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the animals that crawl through the earth?(Genesis 1. 28).
What about this garden? The garden is the place where God maintains covenant relationships with his human creature and where God leads man to relationships and covenant obligations. In terms of the biblical history of man, the garden was originally the place where all the action took place. Adam must be inserted into God’s creative work, starting with the garden, which he must cultivate and work, so that the glory of God may grow and spread, and the knowledge of God may spread throughout the cosmos. The wave of man, at least before Adam’s fall into sin (Genesis 3), is the garden: the God-created kingdom of the relationships and duties of the covenant for the glory of the Lord.
“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and someate it,” God said to Adam and Eve together (Genesis 1:28). Here we begin to see masculinity, that is, that Adam was put in the garden to be his master and Adam was to glorify God by dedicating himself to the fruit in the name of God, beginning in the garden and spreading through creation. For this reason, Adam was God’s assistant, exercising his authority over creation: “Master the fish of the sea, on the birds of heaven and above all animal that crawls on the earth?”(Gen. 1. 28).
This is the vocation of humanity as a whole, both for men and women, but especially for men. God placed Adam in a leadership role compared to Eve, referring to her as a “helper,” Adam (Genesis 2:18, 20). God created the woman for Adam, and it was Adam who appointed the woman, as he had appointed all the other creatures; because he owned the garden, serving and representing the Lord, his God, who is above all. Adam should not engage in endless processes because of his male identity; He must be the lord and guardian of the God-created kingdom, bringing glory to the Creator as he seeks to reflect God’s image as a faithful servant.
Genesis 2. 7. 8 tells us who man is, a spiritual creature made to know and glorify God; Where is man, placed by God in the heart of the garden he made?and what is man, lord, and servant of the glory created by God. Finally, by advancing some verses to Genesis 2. 15, we learn how man should respond to his call: “Then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep him. “
Cultivate and preserve: here is how of biblical masculinity, the command of Scripture for men:
Conceptually, there is some overlap between these terms and, in practice, actions of culture and protection are often mixed. It seems that God used these two complementary terms to indicate all the attitudes and behaviors that would constitute masculinity as he wanted it to work. So it’s worth seeing? And
Based on the teaching of Genesis 2, men must enter the world that God created as the men He made us be, lords, and servants under His authority, so that we may fulfill our mandate: cultivate and keep.
God has something much more exciting for you and me; Because it is in obedience to the scriptures that the adventure of a man’s life really begins, God calls us to carry his image in the real world, in this garden that has been corrupted by sin, but which is redeemed by the power of God’s grace. He calls us to do this as leaders and servants in the ultimate cause of reflecting God’s glory and growing God’s love in real relationships. This is the male mandate: that we be spiritual men placed in God-defined relationships in reality. world, as lords and servants under God, to bear the fruit of God by serving and directing.
In this book, Richard D. Phillips cuts the smokescreen of cultural confusion and highlights God’s mandate for men. Beginning in the Garden of Eden, the author brings fundamental teachings that cover all areas of life and encourages men to follow a path of repentance and renewal. towards biblical masculinity.