INTRODUCTION TO CONCEPTS NINE TO ELEVEN
We have seen that the Creation Factor gives great value and dignity to both man and woman, and that the Sin Factor does not lesson this value and dignity. We have seen that the Incarnation Factor affirmed our physical bodies, marriage, female equality and male leadership.
Here, in the Redemption, Regeneration, Reconciliation Factor we will learn that the death of Jesus Christ, by which we are redeemed, regenerated and reconciled to God, endows the human person with enormous value in the eyes of God, even if that person has not embraced this incredible gift. For those who have received this gift the significance is immense, the endowed value magnified, and we all do well to think hard and long about this significance and value: that the man and the woman both belong to God, not only by virtue of creation, but also by virtue of the death of Christ – by virtue of salvation.
In addition to this immeasurable value bestowed by the death of Christ, the Redemption, Regeneration, Reconciliation Factor also, as we will see in this section of this paper, by demonstrating foundational life principles, establishes a well-defined boundary around our perception of the relationship between men and women and our attitudes, speech and actions towards people of the opposite gender.
We will also expand on what we began to see in the Incarnation Factor – that the devastating effects of the Sin Factor can be undone: that through the sin-bearing, curse-bearing, condemnation-bearing death of Jesus Christ we, personally and in our relationship towards others, are redeemed and being redeemed [liberated and in the process of being liberated] from those horrific aspects of death and division, curse and condemnation, that entered our relationships in Genesis Three. We will learn, and hopefully rejoice in, the implications and applications of this redemption, regeneration and reconciliation for the man/woman question.