Amanda Peacock: Complementarity, Marriage, and the Gospel of Christ

I first heard about Amanda Peacock from Dr. Owen Strachan, one of our other speakers for Answers for Women 2019. Dr. Strachan coauthored a book with Amanda’s husband Gavin and he felt she would be a good fit for the topic of complementarity within marriage.

I can tell from speaking with Amanda that she has a sweet spirit and a heart to help women embrace God’s design for marriage in the morally “upside down” world we live in. Here’s what Amanda had to say about her presentation for next year’s conference.

“The greatest need for women today is to return to a supreme confidence in the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God . . . . In doing so, we will discover that rich and robust theological truths underpin our roles in marriage, and these are liberating.”

Cultural Confusion

Amanda Peacock

Today, words like “headship” and “submission,” “leader” and “helper” are imbued with negative connotations. Our culture is inherently suspicious of authority and increasingly women are positioning themselves as an oppressed group who must have equality with men without difference. So, many Christian women are asking the same question as Satan in the Garden, “Did God actually say . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1). And, as daughters of Eve try to find ways around what God says, because it all seems “so unfair,” we should remember that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The greatest need for women today is to return to a supreme confidence in the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God.

In doing so, we will discover that rich and robust theological truths underpin our roles in marriage, and these are liberating, and far more fulfilling than the candyfloss the world offers.

Creation Foundations

The cultural concept of marriage may be rapidly changing and the prevailing winds of cultural doctrine may seem to have people floundering, but God defines marriage and this has not changed since the beginning.

Jesus Himself shows us this: when answering one of the Pharisees’ questions regarding marriage, He responded (Matthew 19:3–6) with some of the first verses in the Bible affirming the authority of the Old Testament as the Word of God. Jesus’ foundation for manhood and womanhood, and marriage, was the word of the Creator at Creation. Likewise, we must turn to find answers in Genesis.

In the beginning, God created marriage between one man and one woman for life, for the purpose of human flourishing, and to spread his glorious image throughout the earth (Genesis 1:27–28)

Christ and the Church

Fast-forward to the New Testament and we find Paul explaining to the people of Ephesus that marriage at creation is a picture of God’s love in redemption. But it is not marriage in general that pictures the gospel: it is marriage with the Christ-like loving headship of a husband and the church-like willing submission of a wife that pictures this glorious truth. Marriage of this specific kind is the means he chooses to be a walking, talking parable of the love of Christ, the Bridegroom, for his for his Bride, the Church.

So the Bible begins with a marriage, and the Bible centers around a marriage. But that’s not all. The Bible ends with a marriage—the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6–10).

As we await that day and the consummation of all things, the roles of husband and wife in marriage have an inestimable part to play in displaying the truth of the gospel, to children in the home and to a watching world beyond the bounds of the church walls. In fact, part of Apostle Peter’s first letter (1 Peter 3:1–6) to the suffering church testifies to the powerful witness of a wife’s submissive and respectful attitude to her unbelieving husband. You could say that submission is mission—it has evangelistic purposes. There is more at stake here than we can imagine.

A wife’s role is about more than personal rights, more than marital compatibility even: it’s about Christ, his church, and the glory of God; it’s about displaying self-sacrifice for the sake of God’s glory—a self-giving that displays the very heart of Jesus. For women there is a great need to rediscover and re-embrace a biblical view of their role in our day and rejoice in the purposes for which God made us.

As a married woman, I can testify to the very real struggle of living out my biblically designed role in marriage. Yet, it has so much importance as a witness in our topsy-turvy culture to an even profounder mystery, that of Christ and the church. I’m looking forward to hearing what Amanda has to share about how married women can accomplish this in a very practical way.

Register today to take advantage of the early bird special (ends February 1, 2019) and receive a complete video download of one of our previous women’s conferences, Embrace.

Keep fighting the good fight of the faith!