How to respond to Bruce Jenner and transgenderism

Monday's unveiling of Bruce Jenner with a new appearance raised the transgender issue to a previously unknown level of cultural consciousness. There are a number of questions Christians face on how to respond to this growing phenomenon, but we must first get the basics right.

Last summer, I preached a sermon series titled "Gender, Sexuality, and the Purpose and Power of God." I addressed the transgender issue in that series' first sermon, which was on Genesis 1:26-27. In that text, the Bible says, "God created man" -- which is the word for human being -- "in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

Here are excerpts from that sermon's manuscript that relate to transgenderism:

Man, as used in these two verses, consists of both male and female. Both are made in God’s image. Both have a responsibility to rule over creation.

Yet, they are different. And there are only two kinds of them – male and female. There is purposefulness in this distinction, a purposefulness by God that is fleshed out in the verses that follow. . . .

God has not changed His pattern from creation. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates a revision in this truth – human beings are male and female. There is a distinction between the two. Each of us is whom God made us to be. And a vital part of who we are is our gender. We are either male or female. That is a reality to be embraced by each of us. A male should embrace the fact he is a male. A female should embrace the fact she is a female. It is God’s purposeful design in our lives. . . .

[H]ow should we respond? With truth and grace. In addition to embracing our gender and thanking God for making us exactly the way He has:

(1) We should not be shocked that such misguided thinking as that of transgender people is found in human beings. They, and we, live in a fallen world where the sin nature blinds us and causes us to believe lies. But we also should not surrender on this reality of Scripture and creation: God has made us male and female.

(2) We should not see those who have what is described as a gender identity disorder as monsters, mutants or freaks. They, like all other human beings, are made in the image of God.

(3) We should love, care for, serve, evangelize – and hopefully – disciple them. They, like all other sinners, need the gospel. And once they have received the gospel of Jesus, we should help them see that part of repenting and following Jesus is not rebelling against their Creator but accepting the gender they were given by God.