One of the many hot-button topics that is affecting our culture today is the idea that one’s gender may or may not depend on one’s physical expression of the genetic gender of that individual. For example, a person may be genetically and biologically male, but feel like his gender identity, who he really is on the inside, is that of a female. Thus, he/she questions which gender should be expressed. To express his male outside would seem to force him to attempt to express his male nature by practicing social norms that other males exhibit. However, inside “he” feels like this is an act. He is not being true to herself, because she really feels like a female. Which gender should be accepted?

Thus we have a faint introduction into transgenderism. While it seems like such a straight-forward issue for many, it is a real struggle for some. Despite many people using this issue to draw attention to themselves and seek a popularity that they may not otherwise have had without identifying as transgender, I do believe it is a legitimate issue for some. Therefore, I wish to discuss it here in depth to help those who are truly seeking to find themselves. I anticipate that I will offend both sides of the argument, but I seek to understand the truth, not merely take a side.

What Does It Mean to Be Transgender?

This is a question for the ages and it depends on who you ask and who you talk to within this group/movement of people. For some it is simply that one believes they are truly the opposite sex than what is expressed genetically/physically. For others their sexuality is more “fluid” or rather their gender/sexuality is beyond defining by mere male or female, hence the trans in “transgender.” Back in 2014, Russell Goldman of ABC posted an article listing 58 of the possible genders one could choose for their Facebook profile. I don’t currently have a Facebook account myself, but I’m sure that number has increased since then.

In a Times special edition entitled The Science of Gender, Katy Steinmetz wrote the article “Infinite Identities,” in which she had interviewed different young people who are within this movement. She explains that even those who are within the movement have trouble keeping up with what certain labels mean. Here she quotes Nick Teich, a transgender man who started the first summer camp for transgender youth in America in 2009:

“We have a growing number of kids who identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, gender-variant. People put ‘demigirl,’ ‘genderless,’ ‘no gender,’ ‘all genders,’ ‘pangender.’ We get things all the time, and I’m like, ‘What is this? I have to look this up.’ “

Since Transgenderism is so hard to define, I believe that for me to attempt to do so here would do a disservice to those involved. Perhaps a better question would be to ask: “Is it invalid to classify a person based on their biological sex?”

Yet, even that has its complications, as I will discuss further when I cover genetic abnormalities of the sex chromosomes. Today, however, I wanted to discuss more along the spiritual aspects of Transgenderism and how it relates to Christianity if at all.

Who Am I on the Inside?

This seems to be the question at the core of Transgenderism as if one’s “inside” doesn’t match the outside, then there is a feeling that in order to be genuine and real, one must take up the attempt at making the outside match the inside. But, where does this “inside” reside? If genetically and physically a person is a male, but feels on the inside that he is really a female, what is meant by “inside”?

Once we have gone beyond the physical and genetic realms of being, we approach the realms of the mind, soul, and spirit, which for the sake of argument will blend together as a “soul” issue. In this sense, Transgenderism can at its initial phase seem more spiritual than Christianity, because it is the attempt at making the natural fit the supernatural.

But, that begs the question as to whether a soul has a gender/sex identification with it at all. Some religions (even facets of Christianity) promote heaven as a place where all your sensual desires will be met. However, this may not be the case if in fact the soul/spirit has no gender at all. Let’s see what the Bible has to say about this.

A Gendered Soul?

A group of Jews called the Sadducees posed a question to Jesus about marriage and the resurrection. According to their customs if a man was married and had a brother and the man died, then his brother would marry the widow to continue his brother’s line. The question was: if a man had seven brothers and each died in his turn and married the same woman, whose wife would she be at the resurrection?

Jesus answered by saying that they didn’t know the scriptures or the power of God. “At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven” (Matt 22:30 NABRE), he said.

“Well,” you might say, “there may not be marriage in heaven, but open sexual intercourse may be allowed.”

While I hate to disappoint you (and perhaps myself) in this matter, I believe that God equates marriage and sex. For there are laws in the Old Testament regarding sex and marriage. Namely if a man seduces a virgin, he must pay the bride price and make her his wife. If there is a refusal to marry by one party or the other, he must still pay the bride price (Exodus 22: 15-17). While this is similar to our system of child support, it seems to me that by establishing this law for the Jews God made sex equal to marriage. This is a concept that may be foreign to our modern ears as there have been major strides in our culture to separate sex and marriage as two distinct things, especially since the 1960s.

Regardless, sex and marriage are part of our physical experience. If indeed our souls, our spiritual selves, are like the angels and the angels are genderless, then it would follow that our souls, too are genderless.

This seems to work as this is how we are all equal in God’s sight, despite the fact that we all have different heritages, sizes, strengths and weaknesses and even different genders in our physical selves.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Physical Descriptions Are Valid, But Limited

Back to my original question: “Is it invalid to classify a person based on their biological sex?”

The answer, I believe, is “no.” If our souls are not gendered then it is perfectly valid to classify ourselves as male or female in the physical sense. We are only describing our physical bodies.

However, sex/gender isn’t the only thing that defines us, nor is our worth/value merely limited to the physical aspects of ourselves. Our soul has an infinitude of depth to it that cannot be completely defined by physical definitions. I blame our over sexual culture for instigating the idea that we can somehow define ourselves with sex and gender. We are simply not limited to this.

We are so much more.

However, we should not be surprised that people are acting “lost” as they try to define themselves. The only way to be found is to go to Jesus and accept him as savior.

The only definition you will need to know then is that you will have become God’s child. The rest (male, female, cis-male, a-gendered, all-gendered, … whatever) doesn’t really matter as much.