What Does the Bible Say about Transgenders?

  Does Jesus Christ accept transgenders? Does the Bible have an opinion about this? What do you think about transgender?

Before I answer, let me first start out by saying the Bible claims to have more authority than just opinion. It claims to be the revealed written word of God. If that is true (and there’s good reason to believe it is), then what it says is not opinion, but truth. More than that, God is the final authority on any such questions. His Word is final. If you don’t hold to that, then there’s really no point in asking about what the Bible says, since it claims to be the very written word of God. Having said that…..

….the Bible does not contain a specific command such as “thou shalt not be transgender.” We have to look a little deeper than that. The Bible does, however, give us information about the creation of humanity.

    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 1:26–27)

Whatever else this passage teaches, it teaches at least two things:

    God created humanity in His image. At the most basic level, every human is an image-bearer of God. This is our most fundamental identity.
    Part of being an image-bearer is being either male or female. God created two distinct genders and sexes. Implicit in this statement is the fact that a man best represents God when he does so in his manhood, and a woman best represents God when she does so in her womanhood.

So, when God created Adam and Eve, we can safely say that gender aligns with biological sex. Again, this was by design. Adam was a male and knew he was a male. Eve was a woman and knew she was a woman.

Now, we have to ask the question, “If God created male and female and gender corresponds with birth sex, how is it that today many feel that their sense of personal identity and gender is different than their birth sex?” This is a valid question, and needs an answer. There are really only two possibilities:

    Either God made a mistake in creation, or
    Something else is going on.

Since God is perfect, it’s impossible for Him to make mistakes. Therefore, when one is created as either a biological male or biological female, that is the gender God intended them to have and display. Therefore we are left with the other option. And that option is, in a word, sin.

Now, I don’t mean the thought itself. I’m referring first to the fact that each and every human has been born into sin and lives in a fallen world. When Adam and Eve fell (Genesis 3), the whole of creation was stained and corrupted by sin.

Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:20–22, NLT)

When we say that everything was affected and tarnished by sin, we mean everything. Nothing works perfectly as it was intended to. The effect of the fall on human nature was drastic. Scripture further tells us,

    None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. . . . All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10–18, 23)

The truth is that fallen humanity has one core desire—to find life apart from God. That is the root of all sin, to make life work for us on our terms. And it’s not just the mind that is affected. Every part of fallen humanity works together to meet that desire. At the risk of oversimplifying things, the idea of, “I believe I’m really a woman in a genetically male body” is simply another strategy of the fallen mind to live life apart from God.

The LBGTQ+ community is right to see the discussion as an issue of identity. However, we do not determine our identity; our Creator does (as we just saw). Furthermore, we don’t determine our identity based on how we feel (especially on a given day, as seems to be the case with those claiming gender-fluidity). If God determines our identity, then there are two major implications:

    When we attempt to claim an identity that He has not given us, then we are rebelling against Him. We are taking His place, making ourselves god (which is what sin always does).
    Not only that, but we are living in an illusion created by sin. Identity is an objective fact, based on our creation by God. It is not something that we can change, A person may change his/her appearance, and may even undergo surgery in an attempt to make the body align with what the fallen mind thinks. But that does not change the fundamental identity that God has already given.

We must also remember that since God has attributes of both male and female, it is natural that each of us have some attributes and personality traits that might be more common in the opposite sex. A man might naturally be more nurturing, for example. A woman might naturally be more logical and/or analytical. That is natural and normal. But those things are not at the level of identity.

If my most basic identity is as an image-bearer of God, then my second-most basic identity is that I am a man who bears God’s image. Gender is part of identity, and God determines our identity. Those who would mix the genders (or erase the concept of gender) are thus attempting to erase a part of individual identity. The regulations given in the Old Testament about not wearing clothes of mixed clothes, not wearing clothes meant for the opposite sex, and not engaging in homosexual activity are meant to enforce this idea. Men are men, and women are women. For His own purposes, God created male and female. He didn’t have to do it that way, but He did.

Accepting Transgenders

Part of the question is, “Does Jesus Christ accept transgenders?” It depends on what one means by “accept.” Jesus certainly associated with people the Scriptures describe as “sinners.”

    And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10–13)

The Bible does not support the idea of discriminating against people who are guilty of sin. Otherwise, we’d all be in the same place, wouldn’t we? People should not lose their jobs, their housing, etc. because they are gay or transgender. That is unjust. Jesus’ treatment of “sinners and tax collectors” supports this idea.

At the same time, we need to look at the rest of the passage. Jesus associated with such people because they were the people who needed Him the most. Those enslaved to sin have a great need for Jesus’ love–even if they do not realize it. His love, however, always calls and causes people to leave behind their old life of sin (John 8:11). He does not condemn them, but rather invites them to join Him so that they may be transformed.

There is much more that can be said about these issues--and many more questions out there that are harder still to answer. For example, how does a person live if he has had gender reassignment surgery and then is saved? Those are difficult questions. There are few “easy” answers. But the answers are there in the Bible through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.