What Gender is God???

This morning, I watched intently as my daughter participated in a hands-on wild life exhibit at the resort we are staying at. At one point in the presentation, the person who was handling the presentation stated "we should treat all animals with respect, because God created all animals for a purpose. And she would be upset if we did not treat her creation with respect".

The presenters (who happened to be female) comments opened a door to a natural and often asked question: What gender is God? How do we know if God is male or female? And does it matter what gender God is?

Fortunately, God Himself answers this question for us in the pages of the Bible. Jesus, in a famous conversation with a woman at a well revealed the following about God in John 4:24:

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Yet while God is Spirit, Jesus often referred to God as His Heavenly Father. Just look at some of Jesus many comments about God:

But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:17-18

Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'" John 8:54

But not only is the first person of the Triune God, while Spirit, referred to in male terms, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Triune God is also male. This is significant when it comes to the question of the gender of God because of what the writer of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Hebrews states:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. Hebrews 1:1-3

The writer of the gospel of John also spoke of Jesus and His role as the unique Son Of God:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Jesus Christ is "God in a Bod": Jesus Christ is God who entered into humanity to reveal and explain God to us. He is the visible representation of the invisible God. And Jesus Christ was a man's man.

But not only are the first two persons of the Triune God referred to as being male; the third person of the Triune God, The Holy Spirit, is also referred to as He:

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. John 14:16-17

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. John 16:13

And while the Bible clearly indicates that God is not a "she"; it is not because it was written by male chauvinist pigs that lived in a male dominated culture, as many will claim in their attempt to justify their position. All three persons of the Triune God are described as being male because that is who they are.

And the fact that God is described in male terms in no way diminishes the value and worth that women have in God's sight, as we see in the beginning of God's story, which is recorded for us in the Book of Genesis:

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26-27

Men and women were created in God's relational image: All of humanity was created for relationships. We were created for a relationship with God and we were created for relationships with one another. And men and women are equally valuable in God's sight.

So, what is your reaction to what the Bible states about the gender of God? How does the reality of God's "gender" impact your relationship with Him and how you relate to Him?