Do Women Need a Woman Savior?
Does Jesus Really Get Us?
Can women learn from Jesus what it means to be godly women? Or do they need a holy Virgin Mary? Does Jesus’s male-ness lack something essential that women need in order to have Jesus as their perfect example?
What I mean is, are women so different from men, that a perfect man isn’t enough to show women how to be godly women? Are women’s souls so uniquely different from men's that women sin too differently, think too differently, feel too differently, and glorify God too differently to find all the help they need in Jesus? Women need women to show them.
I don’t think so.
I think that Christ’s example was for men and women alike. I don’t think women need a woman savior to show them how to be women. Here’s why.
If we say that because Jesus didn’t know what it was like to be a woman, he can’t sympathize with women or show women how to resist women’s temptations, we run into all sorts of trouble. By this line of reasoning, men may say the same of Jesus. Jesus never went into a physical battle. He was never tempted to own too many cars or check his iPhone every minute. He never got into a car accident or invested money in the stock market. He didn’t have a spouse! He didn’t struggle with a mental illness or ADD or an alcoholic parent (actually, maybe he did, but I doubt it). Does this mean that he can’t sympathize with these weaknesses either? No.
We have a high priest who was tempted in all things. This means that all human struggles—regardless of location, time period, technology, race, or gender—are essentially the same. Yes, men and women choose to act differently under the influence of sin, just like different people act differently under the influence of alcohol, but essentially the struggle against sin is the same. It is all the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. Or if you prefer to categorize them more clearly, it is all gluttony, fear, greed, envy, deceit, pride, wrath, apathy, or lust.
More men than women may choose to murder out of anger, but that doesn’t mean that women don’t struggle with anger. It just means women deal with their anger differently.
Just look at how the temptations in Genesis mirror the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. The temptations are the same. The devil tempted Eve (and Adam too) the same way he tempted Jesus. Jesus just resisted. Thus, by his example, women can too.
I think it is a scheme of the devil to tell us that men and women are too different to learn or guide one another. They are too different to be taught by one another. They can’t understand one another. They don’t feel the same feelings. They don’t have the same make-up. They are too different to be united as coheirs and coworkers in the same cause.
It is the spirit of division and envy and pride that says, “That’s a nice thought, but I can’t take the truth from you because you don’t know what it’s like to be me.”
Yes, men and women are different. They have different procreating equipment and brain chemicals. But essentially, when it comes to the sin that is crouching at our doors, both men and women were meant to unite against it and rule over it. Just like God told Cain in Genesis 4: “…sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Interestingly enough, this language echoes Eve’s curse in Genesis 3: “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
From God’s own mouth, we have the battle plans laid out. Sin is coming. It wants what is not good for us. It wants to divide men and women through disagreements and dominations. But by Christ’s example and with his spirit in us, we may rule over it.
This is what it means to be a godly woman. It means we are rulers with Christ and our fellow Christian men over that sin. And with the Holy Spirit’s help, we will beat it.