The Fittingness of Christ as Male

We are either male or female; there is no neuter human being; so if God is going to become one of us He has to become either male or female, because that is how He created us: "male and female He created them," (Gen. 1).

We are essentially sexual beings, not some de-sexed persons. Maleness is important for being human, just as femaleness is. Humans are animal persons who are either male or female as to gender. That is why we are not angels. Since being male or female is essential to being human, in becoming human God the Son must become a definite man or woman, and He became a definite man. And coming as a definite man, He reveals Who God is and who we are simultaneously. We are not amoebas who multiply by simple division, but are sexual beings (which biologically introduces a differentiation, as opposed to uniformity) who are individual persons. For God to become one of us He by definition has to become either a definite man or a definite woman. He became a definite man.

Nothing prevents a man from representing all mankind; in fact it is common for a man to represent a whole people. But man can also represent God as Creator and Absolute Origin of life. And this a woman can not represent. Why? For the simple reason that she is not the absolute origin in human generation but the collaborating and contributing cause, as it is the man who impregnates. Thus it is most fitting that God in becoming a human being became a male rather than a female.

Moreover, there is a different sort of love than the man's love toward his offspring which a mother has towards the new life conceived within her by male impregnation. The necessary physical intimacy with the newly conceived person is absent for the man during the pregnancy and after. Related to this, the normal mother has an almost instinctive love for the child conceived within her, so that the newborn is "automatically" loved by her and nourished by her own body (until the contemporary era) and this is a psychic as well as physical necessity practically speaking.

That means that the mother's love has the symbolism of necessary love. With the father this is not at all so certain. There is more an element of a choice about his loving his child, and the sort of love he has manifests the freedom of choice more than the mother's love does. So there is a second symbolism, that of free choice, in the fittingness of God becoming a definite male revealing God the Creator's love as non-necessitated love but one of pure free choice in His decision to create us. He did not have to create us.

The fact that God is completely distinct from His Creation, which He freely decides to bring in to being because of a free choice love combined with the absolute origin, makes it most fitting that He come as a definite man, so as simultaneously to represent God and all mankind. The woman can not symbolize this by her very being. She can not symbolize both God and human, can not symbolize by her mere existence as a female absolute origin and free choice love. She rather symbolizes by her very existence as a female cooperating, receptive cause of life and necessary, i.e., spontaneous love towards creation as material being. In short, she aptly symbolizes creation, nature, not the Creator or First Cause of creation as completely non-necessitated or obliged to create or love us creatures. To sum up from the viewpoint of Creation, it is most fitting that God become a male to reveal being Creator.

But there is a second set of symbols, related to the first, concerning redemption. The New and Eternal Covenant in His Blood is a Wedding Covenant. God in seeking out the lost sheep (fallen mankind) has freely chosen to seek her out as a groom does a bride, and desired to have us spent eternity with Him in a Wedding Feast without end. Christ as Redeemer, then, is a Groom, i.e., a Spouse. This a woman can not symbolize by her sexual nature as a woman, i.e., in her very being. Thus from the viewpoint of Redemption as well as Creation it is impossible for a woman to symbolize by her existence God the Creator or Redeemer. It is therefore most fitting that God become a definite male in Christ, fitting to Who He is and what He intends to do.

by Padro