God’s Beautiful Design of Womanhood

When Eve, the first woman, was brought to the first man Adam, Adam gazed upon Eve and proclaimed, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” This exchange is a beautiful picture of the woman’s distinctiveness from the man as well as her likeness to the man as a fellow image bearer of God.

While both the woman and the man are made in the likeness of their Creator, the image of God is uniquely stamped into the woman in a way that is different than how it is stamped into the man. This is the beautiful design that makes each unique.

When a woman speaks, when she cooks, when she works, when she laughs, when she cries, or whatever she does, she does so distinctly as a woman. Yes, a man may do all these things as well, but when he does them, it is not as a woman, it is distinctly as a man.

Created to Be Different

God saw fit to create a woman from a different substance than man. The woman was fashioned from man’s rib, not as man’s inferior, but as an equal image bearer of the Creator and because God for the first time in his creation declared something was not good in its incompleteness.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

And so God made the woman—as a human made in his image, from man, and for her husband. A woman being a helper can mean many things. When a woman is a helper, it does not connote inferiority or subordination, because the same word is applied to God himself in describing his relationship with Israel.1 The woman is a helper, made to join Adam in their mission to subdue and fill the earth. Her function is distinct and complementary to Adam’s, but no less critical.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1 Corinthians 11:8–9)

Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. (1 Corinthians 11:11–12)

God defines what a woman is and what she was made for.

Womanhood cannot be detached from God’s created order. This is a critical concept to understand in order to define what a woman is. God made woman. Therefore, God defines what a woman is and what she was made for. God’s design intertwines man and woman in a relationship of mutual interdependence. Every man starts out as a baby boy in his mother’s womb, initially completely dependent on her to sustain him.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

But there is rebellion against God’s created order for a woman. A rebellion that started with Satan tempting Eve in the garden of Eden.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the relationship between God and man was now marred by sin. This also caused disharmony in the relationship between woman and man. Women would now face pain in childbearing and a desire contrary to her husband.

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)

This disharmony was rooted in the garden of Eden but has been watered to grow into a modern distortion of womanhood. The cultural serpent of our day deceives women into believing such lies as motherhood or marriage should be forsaken for a career, that a woman is no different from a man, or that a woman can even become a man. But God made men and women distinctly and with different roles especially seen in the home and church (Genesis 2:18; 1 Timothy 2:11–13).

Women must learn to recognize, trust, and obey God’s beautiful design for a woman.

Therefore, women must not listen to the deceptive voice of the serpent. Women must learn to recognize, trust, and obey God’s beautiful design for a woman. God eloquently lays out in his Word what his design and intentions are for woman.

Under God’s Authority

All women are first and foremost placed under the authority of God and are to submit to God’s design.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

Not all women will be called to marriage, but women are designed by God to be helpers and, if they are married, to be submissive to their own husbands. The relationship that was distorted by sin is redeemed by the wife voluntarily submitting and the husband loving his wife with a self-sacrificial love.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22–24)

Women are designed to be mothers. Whether God allows them to bear children biologically or to care for children that aren’t their own, women are still called to extend a nurturing hand for those in need.

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 113:9)

Women are called to work, whether in the home or not. God gave dominion to both men and women. Women are also to prioritize the home regardless of marital status.

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.” (Genesis 1:26)

She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. (Proverbs 31:13–16)

Women are to exemplify an inward beauty that models Christ rather than an external appearance that brings attention to the self.

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3-4)

A woman is to remain steadfast and bold in her witness for Christ. This means a woman does not cower from doing hard things.

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. (Proverbs 31:17)

The women in Scripture model this boldness for the modern woman. When Abigail’s husband acted foolishly, Abigail sought to take action to save her household (1 Samuel 25:14–35). Esther forsook her own life in order to obtain an audience with the king to plead on behalf of her people.

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:15–16)

The virtues of a woman described in God’s Word will be lived out differently in the day to day of each woman. No two women are the same. But nevertheless, God calls each woman to live out their God designed femininity for his glory. This means rejecting the cultural standards for a woman and submitting to the standards laid out by God in his Word.

Womanhood in the Fallen World

There are many injustices that a woman may experience living in our cursed world. But dissatisfaction with or rebellion against God’s created order for womanhood is not a result of the injustices of the world. It is because of sin. Sin is what tempted Eve in the garden. Sin is what tempts the modern woman to rebel against God’s created order today.

God’s design is best. It is through God’s design that he also chose to use the seed of a woman in his plan to restore us to himself.

God’s design is best. It is through God’s design that he also chose to use the seed of a woman in his plan to restore us to himself.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

God brought earthly life through the seed of a woman in Eve’s offspring with the first man Adam, as well as eternal life through the last Adam, Jesus Christ.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45–47)

There is glory in God’s creation of a woman, but it is not woman’s glory—it is God’s. So women are to give God glory for their womanhood and reflect God’s glory through their daily obedience to Jesus Christ.