What Happened to Us in Eden? - Psychology of the Fallنموونە

COMPLEMENTARY EQUALITY

The opening chapters of Genesis give us more than one account of when God created human beings—male and female. Just as He made other living creatures “according to their kind” to be fruitful and multiply, so too humanity was called to this. Yet our mission went further, as we’ll see.

If we only had the first account, we might not face so many controversies around Creation. But then comes the second account—just as magnificent, but with greater detail. These details matter for understanding not only what was created, but the nature of the Creator Himself.

• How do these two narratives fit together? Do they contradict?
• Does the second undo the complementary equality we sense in the first? Many interpreters say yes, claiming woman shares God’s image and dignity but remains under man’s authority because of creation order or naming.
• Or could it be this second account explains the why of certain things, but not in the way tradition has assumed?
• And what exactly do we mean by “complementary equality”? Am I complicating things?

This is our first key stop, because this concept is vital if men and women are to build together. It reflects in a way nothing else does, the image and likeness of the Creator when lived out.

It is not a contradiction in terms. It means we don’t have to choose:

• we are equal where we are equal,
• and different, where we are different—complementing one another in remarkable ways.

If this feels hard to picture, think of the Trinity—the God we worship who exists in three persons:

• equal where equal,
• distinct where distinct, perfectly complementary,
• mutually submitted to one another,
• and in whose image and likeness we were made.

This truth has always been there. It’s not new theology, but drawn directly from the text.

So, how does this reality—that we are made in the image and likeness of the Triune God—shape your life in practical ways today?