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What is a Woman Spiritually (Part 3)

In our last blog post, we examined what a woman is physically and how her differences from her male counterpart reveal the glory of God. But today, in our defense of biblical womanhood, we will look at a vital way in which men and women are the same.

So, what is a woman spiritually?

A woman SPIRITUALLY is a sinner in need of salvation which is fully available to her through faith in Christ.

Every precious little girl is created in the image of God. She is beautiful and worthy of respect. But she is also lost and under the curse of sin like every other person who has ever been born. Every human being, male or female, enters this world separated from God in his or her sin and in need of a Savior.

But here is the extraordinarily good news of the gospel. In a world filled with religious hierarchy, where people have wrongly used the Bible to be chauvinistic and discriminatory against women, the gospel does not differentiate in its application to men or women. We see this truth in the book of Galatians, where the apostle Paul declares, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Paul is not erasing gender. He is saying the gospel gives no grounds for discrimination. When we celebrate our oneness in Christ, there is no spiritual hierarchy based on gender—meaning men do not hold greater spiritual significance than women.

Theologian Wayne Grudem fleshes this truth out for us in the following list:

The Holy Spirit is given equally to both men and women. (Acts 2:17-18)

Women, upon salvation, are baptized into the body of Christ. (Acts 2:41)

Both men and women received gifts from the Spirit for use in the life of the church. (1 Corinthians 12:7,11 & 1 Peter 4:10)1

Every woman is invited to the same Savior, filled with the same Spirit, can read the same Bible, and can be a part of the same church. There is no separate church for women. There is no better version of Jesus for men. And while there are differences in the roles that men and women play in the home and in the church, there is no differentiation in the giftedness and the ability women have to be a blessing. But at the core of this conversation is the truth that every woman needs Christ. Every woman can have Christ upon faith and repentance, and every woman is called and gifted to be used by God in mighty ways.

It is heartbreaking to sit with a woman and listen as she expresses a low view of herself or shares her doubts about her ability to be used by God, perhaps because of a history of abuse, the lack of affirmation of men or women in her upbringing, or simply a lack of understanding of how God’s Word defines her. But it is wonderful when she recognizes that no matter where she has been, no matter what she has done, no matter who her parents are, no matter what she has struggled with or how she may have been treated, the sinful world does not have the final say on her identity.

When we come to faith in Jesus, we are all fully forgiven, fully filled with His Spirit, fully gifted, and fully expected to be used by God in a special way—words that are true for every man and every woman. So for the ladies reading this post, let me end with this reminder and encouragement. If you have not given your life to Christ as a woman, you will never fulfill your full purpose as a woman of God. Not only do you need the Lord, but His church also needs you to walk in the fullness of what He gives.

1Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (InterVarsity Press: Leicester, England, and Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, MI, 1994).