1 Peter 1:1–2 (English Standard Version) 

[1] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, [2] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. And I am either a fool or a prophet – you, the reader, must determine that based, not on your personal tastes, but on the Word of God. So here goes. 

Much of modern complementarian Christianity is jack-booted thuggery. Yes, I know that sounds just a tiny bit harsh, but hear me out. I’m not arguing against complementarianism, I’m saying that when the doctrine in misunderstood, it is misapplied, and many people appeal to Genesis 3 for their theology instead of Genesis 1 & 2. 

My argument begins with the above text from 1 Peter. The bible never uses the word, “Trinity.” Because of that, there are Christians who deny that God is One Being in Three Persons. I think there is sufficient evidence, however, to say that although the bible writers never use the word, they express its meaning throughout the New Testament. 

From earliest times in the Church, the creeds (statements of faith), The Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian, testified to the belief of the Church that God was One Being in Three Persons. As Christians, the mainstream of the Church in all generations has been trinitarian. We don’t claim we fully understand how a Being can be in three persons. After all, such a being does not exist in our physical world – at least not as we understand the nature of being. (That is where this blog is going – explaining how the Trinity is reflected in humanity – but I’m not there yet.) So we just testify to what the scripture says: The Word is God (John 1:1), The Spirit is God (Acts 5:3,4), and The Father is God (Matthew 5:8,9 and many other passages). 

We say it this way: There is The Father who eternally begets The Son, and The Spirit is likewise from all eternity proceeding from The Father and The Son. The Father is not The Son, is not The Spirit, but these three persons are One God. 

Within the Trinity, each person of the Godhead fulfills specific roles that complement one another. No one role is superior to the others, but each role is in support of one another. 

If I am able to digress for a moment, we read in scripture that “God is Love.” It also makes clear that God is in need of nothing. Love cannot exist without an object. How can God be complete in himself as Love? By expressing the fullness of love within the three Persons of the Trinity. God’s love is not a selfish or self-centered love. The Father loves the Son, loves the Spirit, and that love is mutual within the Trinity. God’s love is complete without being self-focused. That’s what God’s complementary love is. 

At this point you might be saying, “This is all well and good, but what does it mean for those of us who are in the flesh and living on this planet?” Yes, if this has no application in our life, then it’s just academic doodling. But God’s eternal nature lies at the very beginning of what it means to be human. Let’s turn to Genesis, chapters 1 and 2. 

Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  

Genesis 1 tells us that humanity was made in God’s image. Or to put it another way, the nature of man is similar to the nature of God. We were made to reflect what God is in his essence. 

When we read in verse 26 that God made man “in our image,” the word we translate as “man” is the Hebrew word “adam.” Adam, like the use of the word “man” in English, means both man the male and man the race. We say mankind or humanity to capture its meaning. So when God created “man in our image,” it is not “male in our image,” but “humanity in our image.” This is a big distinction! Humanity (adam) was created to be complementary from the very beginning, just as God in his being, is complementary. 

Would we ever argue that every person of the Godhead is complete in himself? I don’t think so. God is indivisible. The Persons of the Godhead are One. And this is where things get interesting.  

The man, Adam, was incomplete because humanity (adam) was incomplete without his female element to make him (humanity) One. 

Let’s take a look at Genesis 2 where we read a more detailed description of what happened in chapter 1. This is where the how God “made adam in our image” is revealed. Drill in deeply. 

God shaped the man out of the dust of the earth (we are part and parcel of the world on which we live) and breathed into him the divine lifeforce element that animates us. But as male alone, the creation of humanity was incomplete. The man was shown he was incomplete without hsi complement. Humanity is male and female, of the same material, sharing the same divine energizing force. Just as God is One in Being and Three in Person, so the human that he created is one in being while two in person. (Humanity becomes three in person when a child is conceived in the womb at the combining of the life that is in the male and the female – that original life by the way.) 

I’ve put much in that previous paragraph, so let me dig in a little deeper. Man, as male alone is fully human, but humanity is incomplete when it is male alone. Adam the man was perfect in his creation, but adam the race was incomplete in his creation. The female was needed to bring the creation to completion.  

Now note this: the woman was not created separate of the man, but out of the man. God did not shape another being out of earth’s substance to form the woman. He took her out of the man and shaped her. If you will, like the Son is the begotten of the Father and is of the same substance as the Father, so the woman is the begotten of the man. She is not of similar substance; she is of the same substance. They are one flesh with one divine breath animating them. 

Marriage and the sexual union within marriage is the continuation of the Oneness of the original humanity. As the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds forth from Father and Son, so the wife is of her husband, and their children are the fruit of their union. This is where humanity reveals and expresses the image of God.