Introduction
Let us begin with a truth that was once considered both obvious and self-evident. Scripture teaches us that trees bear fruit in accordance with their nature. And according to the Lord, human nature comes in two forms—good and bad. There are other variables in our nature also, but for each individual, it is all one complex nature. The variables include sex, ethnicity, height, frame, and love for Christ or not. But for each person, there is one nature. And the only lawful transformation is the one offered in the gospel, where the heart of stone is taken away and a heart of flesh replaces it (Eze. 11:19).
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matt. 7:17–19).
“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit” (Matt. 12:33).
So if I might indicate where I am going with this, if there is no such thing as an unregenerate nature in man, and following on by the grace of God, a regenerate nature in the converted, then neither can there be an assigned sexual identity and nature. And if there is no divinely assigned sexual identity, we are the unregenderate nation, and can do whatever we damn well please with our sexual organs, our hormone injections, our lipstick and wigs. But if there is such thing as human nature, whether unconverted or converted, then our nation has a standing responsibility to turn back to Jesus in a humiliated repentance and a contrite faith.
Our Fountainhead of Confusion
Now given the rampant confusions that surround us on every hand, it is not surprising that the confusions began with the nature of nature. There are two places where this is most in evidence.
First, we are confused about three things—the nature of man in his role as creature, and then the nature of man in his capacity as rebel, and last his nature when ushered into the new creation. We cannot understand the first thing about the creation, or the fall, or the redemption accomplished by Christ, until we first grasp the fixed immensity that is nature.
If we deny the Creator, then we will look at the entire material order as so much Play-Doh, able to be arranged and rearranged into any number of forms. For the evolutionist, the little yellow canary is a blood cousin to the camel, and this being the case, it would seem that absolutely anything can be turned into anything else. The pagan frame of mind is that the world around us in infinitely malleable. And so what could possibly be wrong with it if a man decides to self-identify as a woman?
On the other hand, if we accept what the Scriptures teach us, then we see that the Creator gave us a created order with natural and fixed divisions. The sun is not the moon. The land is not the sea. The evening is not the morning. The fish of the sea are not the beasts of the field. And the man is not the woman. When we fight with nature, when we blur or confuse any of these distinctions, we are challenging God.
More Than Cheating at Blackjack
As we noted above, when men are unregenerate, they bear fruit in accordance with that ungodly nature. Because our imagination has been captured and constrained by the gospel, it usually does not dawn on us just how high an unregenerate Icarus wants to fly. We think that unregenerate men are the ones who behave badly in a normal world—they cheat at blackjack, or have mistresses, or lie in political campaigns. But around them, the world is basically allowed to continue on being normal.
But at the heart, the rebellion of man against God is a rivalry. Unregenerate men, at the apex of their rebellion, do not just want to ignore God’s stipulations for their behavior while continuing to let Him govern the natural world. They want two things. First, they want to disobey God. But ultimately, they always want to replace Him. The aboriginal temptation held out just a part of this lure.
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5, ESV).
And consider what Isaiah says about Lucifer:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Is. 14:12–15).
And remember how when God speaks to Pharaoh, He uses the disastrous example of the Assyrian. He was lifted up such that even the trees in the Garden of Eden envied him (Eze. 31:8-9). But . . .
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness” (Eze. 31:10–11).
The aboriginal sin is not sexual, but is rather pride and insolence. Sex gets involved soon enough, but the sexual issues are just the battlefield. The conflict is over mastery.
Now it is true that we have some records of judgment that appear simply as God’s intention to judge, punish, and stop the orgies. Sodom and Gomorrah appear to fall under this head.
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7).
But other great judgments appear to be aimed at the insolence of man and his attempts at what we would call perverse gene-mixing, genetic engineering,
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:2–4).
God put a fixed limit on this striving for immortality through perverse sexual unions with “the sons of God,” and that was His purpose in the Flood.
And He judged a similar rebellion after the Flood at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4). That tower was likely a ziggurat, not an attempt at a literal ladder, and the tops of such ziggurats were the trysting places.
The First and Only Transexual Operation
When God created Adam, He fashioned him out of the dust of the ground. In other words, God created organic life out of inorganic matter. First He shaped him, and then the Scripture tells us He breathed the breath of life into him (Gen. 2:7). When it came time for God to fashion the woman, He put Adam into a deep sleep, and took a rib from his side for his raw material, and from this He built the first woman.
“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Gen. 2:22).
One striking thing about it is this—the material out of which He fashioned the first woman was a bloody rib, every cell of which contained XY chromosomes. From this heterogametic rib, the Lord fashioned a woman, every cell of whom contained XX chromosomes. God, in other words, changed the sex of the raw material. There were many changes involved, certainly, but one of them was in fact a sex change.
The issue therefore is not whether male tissue can ever be changed into female tissue. Of course it can. If nothing can be transformed into cosmos, and dust into man, then a man’s rib can be fashioned into a woman. By God. So the fundamental issue is this: who is God? What are the prerogatives of Deity? And the basic Christian answer to our leaders, and scientists, and politicians, and writers, and poets, and philosophers has to be this. Who is God? Not you. Who has the prerogatives of Deity? Not you.
Jesus the only way to Heaven, and we worship Him as the only way to the Father. But He is also the one who assigned us our chromosomes. And the duty of every human being is to look at those chromosomes, and then obey them. Further instructions on how to obey your chromosomes are available in the Scriptures— but don’t forget to consult with nature (1 Cor. 11:14).
Conclusion
At the end of the day we must come to the realization that is Christ or nothing, Christ or chaos, Christ or the abyss. And if we believe in Christ, if we come to Him in faith, then we will realize that Scripture is in His right hand, and the entire natural order is in His left. We cannot be reconciled to Christ without also be reconciled to His works. And if we are reconciled to His works, we will be reconciled to the fixed boundaries within nature that are His signature handiwork.
It is the sole prerogative of Deity to speak matter and energy into existence out of nothing. This was done by the word of Christ, and no creature could ever speak such a word.
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2).
Attempts on our part to create ex nihilo are simply expressions of high rebellion.
In a similar way, the singular work of God in the creation established the human race as male and female, together constituting the image of God Himself.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27).
Attempts to undertake what is euphemistically called “sex reassignment” surgery is in reality a high revolt. It is an attempted coup, an attempt to assassinate the God of Heaven. We can see this in two aspects. First, it attempts to take a prerogative of Deity in hand—only God can transform XY chromosomes into XX. And secondly, when God did this, the result was something that bore His image, the image of God. When He did it, the result was glorious beauty. When we do it, it will come out as some kind of mingle mangle of Frankenstein, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and The Book of Enoch. It cannot end well, unless you count fire from Heaven as ending well.When He did it, the result was glorious beauty. When we do it, it will come out as some kind of mingle mangle of Frankenstein, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and The Book of Enoch. It cannot end well, unless you count fire from Heaven as ending well.
So will our travesties and mangled creations bear the image of the jitney god of some contemporary fashion, and that is why they will necessarily be such monsters. And because we will always bear fruit according to our nature, this is why an unregenerate nation will necessarily careen toward the damnation of being an unregenderate nation.
So America, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the gospel. But be aware—that gospel is behind you. The Lord Jesus is behind you. You will have to turn around.