The Non-Binary God

It is a basic Christian belief that God has eternally existed in communion with themself. This is expressed in the Trinity. By this, Christians mean that God is one essence of being, but existing in three persons—God the Father (or Parent), God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. 

For too long, the Trinity has been dominated by the maleness of God. This makes many assume that God is male in nature, leaving out the feminine. If we look at Scripture we will see that God actually has no sex or gender—other than the person of Jesus. 

What I want to do now is look at the different persons of the Trinity and explore how God is actually a non-binary God. They can’t be assigned a gender because God is Spirit. 

God the Father (God the Parent)

While in traditional Christian practice we call God, God the Father. Throughout my time in the Church I have heard time and time again that God the Father is a great representation of God because it allows us to come to God as if it was a parent-child relationship. While this is true, and I do not argue that we are all God’s children, I would push back with the use of the masculine metaphor. 

Throughout Scripture we clearly see God revealed as masculine, and referred to as Father, but the question we have to ask ourselves is why? Why does an Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) people and a 1st century community refer to God in the masculine form, assigning God the Parent masculine qualities. 

The answer is seemingly quite simple. In the ANE and 1st century women did not have status. They belonged to men as property. In my opinion, it follows that the reason that God has revealed himself in masculine terms and revered in the masculine is because it demonstrates their own strength, power and dominance amongst their people—all traits that were seen positively by the people of the day. 

When we turn to Scripture we actually catch of glimpse of the femininity of God. In both Numbers 11:12 and Deuteronomy 32:18, we see that God actually uses the birthing metaphor in relation to how He conceived his people. Numbers 11:12 also specifically says that the author is urging God to carry and nurse His people, in the same way a mother would nurse her child. This theme is repeated in Isaiah 40:11 and 66:13. God is a God who nurses His people!

Another major feminine metaphor that is used is about God protecting His people, in the same way a hen would protect her chicks. (Luke 13:34). 

While we can’t deny that the majority of the metaphors for God the Parent is masculine, there are also references to God displaying characteristics that were deemed as feminine by the culture of the time. 

We also have to remember that God is Spirit and Spirit. Not being embodied means they do not have a sex or gender. 

God the Son

Jesus (God the Son) is the only one who is assigned both sex and gender in Scripture. God the Parent sent God the Son to earth for redemption. That much is clear in Scripture. 

It is also clear in Scripture that Jesus was born as a man. This makes sense considering the specific context that Jesus was sent to. He was to speak and preach the arrival of the Kingdom of God in a culture that treated women as second class citizens. 

That being said there are several traditionally unmasculine things that Jesus did during His ministry. The first is that He went out and worked/spoke amongst women. There are numerous accounts of this, and the most prominent is when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Here Jesus fully engages and treats this woman unlike how other men would treat a woman. This is demonstrate in the story of John 4 itself when the disciples come back and are shocked (maybe appalled) at the fact that Jesus is engaging with this woman. 

The second way that Jesus was traditionally unmasculine is that He treated children with respect and allowed them to learn at His feet. In Matthew 19:14 we read that Jesus actually beckons the children to come to Him. He also says that the disciples are not to try and stop them from coming. Childrearing (and teaching) was relegated to the domestic sphere of life during the time, and this was the women’s domain. Here Jesus takes on that role and teaches children—in doing so He entered the domestic sphere of life. 

God the Spirit

If there was ever a feminine side of God, it can be seen in God the Spirit. Throughout Scripture we see the Holy Spirit as counsellor (or comforter) (John 15:26). It is also the Spirits job to convict of us sin (teaching) (John 16:8). 

When I read Scripture, I see the Spirit fulfilling many of the domestic duties that women would have been responsible for. We see that the Spirit comes to comfort, teach, and correct, in the same way a mother would do with her own children. 

Conclusion

Once again, the triune God is a God that is non-binary. While the Church has associate traditionally masculine qualities and traits to God, this has been to the neglect of the feminine. God is not a God confined by sex and gender, yet many have created God to be a god of sex and gender. This is not the God of the Bible. 

The God revealed in Scripture is far above any human categorizations or binaries. The Bible speaks in these ways because God used humans as tools to write down their words for us today. 

God has no limits, except those that we create.