What does Scripture tell us about what it means to be a man?
The first man had no culture to inform his masculinity and no clothes to distinguish his masculinity—just simply a Creator who designed him to be a man.
Man Is One Essential Portion of God’s Reflected Glory
When God created people, he made them in his image (Genesis 1:27). But God made a unique, wise, and loving choice to diversify his image bearers. He didn’t just make humans. He made two distinct kinds of humans—male and female–in order to fully reflect his image.
Were these two kinds of people identical, there would be no reason for God to explicitly distinguish them: “Male and female he created them.” Scripture then describes the different ways God formed them (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:22). Thus, a man, though a person, is something altogether different from woman, though both are created in the very image of God.
What Makes a Man a Man?
So, we wonder, what makes a man a man and not a woman?
Let’s return to creation. God made man and woman, and they were naked and unashamed (Genesis 2:24). By pure observation, male and female anatomy differ, and complement one another to create life. Naked as he was at the first, we learn that man, compared to the woman is strong, designed for hard work. Generally speaking, his frame is larger; his body built a bit tougher.
It is no wonder that God commissions the man to work the ground and keep or “guard” it. In this blessing, God made man responsible over his creation, endowing him with authority.
As the rest of the Bible unfolds, we find that God’s desire for every man is that he would temper his strength with wisdom and use it to serve others in love, especially the women God has entrusted to his care (Ephesians 5:25-33).
Although man is the stronger of the sexes, God calls him to gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). Although he is the leader of the sexes, God calls him to service (Ephesians 5:25). So, like God himself, the man embodies strength channeled in selfless service toward others, leading those under his care into safety and flourishing.
Wouldn’t this be beautiful to experience? Wouldn’t you celebrate this kind of man? But we know that this is not the vision of masculinity we often experience. Why?
Why Are Men as God Intended Them to Be So Hard to Find?
The first people rebelled against God (Genesis 3). In their rebellion, they also rebelled against their nature. The man failed to lead and protect, to love and to serve (Genesis 3:6, 12, 17). Since then, sin has darkened the human heart—both the hearts of men and women (Romans 3:23).
Sin explains every toxic manifestation of masculinity—selfishness, neglect, cowardice, passivity, laziness, harshness, and abuse, but that is not the end of the story. God redeems manhood and masculinity.
How God Redeems Men
God became a man to redeem sinful men (Galatians 4:4-5). He embodied all that God calls a man to be—courageous (Isaiah 50:7; John 18:4), gentle (Matthew 11:29), a servant leader (John 13:12-15), self-sacrificing (John 15:13), strong (Luke 2:40), humble (Matthew 21:4-6). In the person of Jesus, we discover what it means to be a godly man, and how to become a godly man. He laid down his life in loving sacrifice to pay the penalty we deserve for our rebellion against God—including the ways men fail as men.
There is redemption available to every man—for you, if you are a man. Jesus laid down his life for you out of love, that you might not experience God’s wrath for your sin, but so that you might also be brought into a loving relationship with God and be transferred into his kingdom as a new man with a new heart (Colossians 1:13-14; Ezekiel 36:26). For every man who trusts in Jesus for their salvation, God makes you a new creation, from the inside out (2 Corinthians 5:17). He comes to live in you by his Spirit to enable you to be the man God created you to be—a man like the best of all men, Jesus Christ (John 14:16-17). It is through a relationship with him that you grow to be the man God intended for you to be—a man who reflects his own glory.
How Do I Become a Godly Man?
As a man, God has hardwired you in specific ways, and shaped your soul to have particular inclinations, priorities, and longings different from women. You do not become a man; it is who you are. But to be a godly man you need to relate to God, through Jesus, you need to follow him and trust in him. The goal is not to become “more masculine,” but to understand God’s vision for how he intends for you to uniquely reflect his glory to others, and to embrace that vision in every area of your life.
As with everything else we are called to be in relationship with Jesus, living out God’s vision for manhood does not come by grit and effort, but by God’s empowering grace. As you strive to know Jesus through his Word, the Bible, God will make himself known to you (Jeremiah 29:13). Seek him, and in seeing more of who he is, you will become more like him (2 Corinthians 3:18). Saturate yourself in God’s Word to discover how he intends you to reflect his goodness and character in the world as the man he made you to be.
Submit your life to Christ, and let his Word and Spirit direct your life, that you might experience all that you were created for—life, as a man, in relationship with your Sovereign Creator.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
(Psalm 1:1-3 ESV)