Missing the Mark, or is It?

What can a woman accomplish in life? Well, the answer is anything she wants to, obviously! Does she want to be a pilot? Bring it on! How about a soldier fighting to defend freedom? Yup, sign her up! An engineer? The possibilities are endless. After all, women can do everything that a man can do, and probably better and in a more complete fashion. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if men would just stay at home where they would cause the least amount of trouble and women could run the world because then there would be peace, honesty, and a greater sense of security among us. I mean, haven't they messed up the world enough?

Say what??!?!?!?!

Replace all men with the women. Let me think about this one for a moment. Wow, that action would violate a couple of Commandments at the very least. At the most, it seeks to replace God. Yup, you heard me right, replace God. With what, you might wonder? With the glorious sophistication of the individual. Same old sin in new packaging. Good old Adam (Eve) rearing his ugly head. Not sure how I jumped to that conclusion? Follow me for a bit. . .

Men mess up all the time. It's true. I married one, I know! Of course, it's also true that I mess up all the time. That is by definition our condition. We are sinners. You can dress it up, wrap it up, and put all the makeup on it you want and you still have a decayed, dead, worthless person conceived in sin and dead in sin. However, God doesn't leave us this way. He sent His only begotten Son into our flesh to bear our sin and be our Saviour through His dying on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Unlike coupons, this sacrifice will never expire. It will never be worthless. It will never cease to be relevant. God made us worthy of Him when He clothed us in Christ and attribute's Christ's sacrifice to us. This promise is as sure now as it will be at the end of our lives and the end of time. This means, that the sins, the slights and mishaps, the muck that is your sinful life is forgiven. The debt is paid through Christ.

Still with me so far? Good. Now, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray that God would forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Well, we know how God forgives us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did His atoning work without any merit or worthiness in us to be the receivers of this work. Well, the men that are in charge will sin and we should forgive them, not because they merited it by words or deeds, but because Christ first forgave us.

The men who are fulfilling their vocations in this life are doing this by God's plan. They were put in those positions by God without any merit on their behalf but as a gift of God. Just as God's Word sprang forth the world, so God's Word creates men to be the head of the family. By saying that men should be put out of their place and replaced with women because men have messed it up is to say that one knows better than God what is good and right for the world, thus making ones own self god and telling the true God to take a back seat.

Whether it is becoming a female pastor or demanding "equality" in a relationship instead of recognizing the head of the house and the congregation as being the sole vocation of the men as they have been gifted by God, it is important to recognize the order of creation as exactly that. It is a gift.