The Manly and Masculine Christ

It is time to get back to the biblical Jesus:

Throughout much of the West, we have forgotten what it is to be a man. Or worse yet, we have demonised men and manliness. We have condemned men and masculinity. This is proving to be a recipe for disaster. And the Christian church should have no part in this. We need to get back to the Bible here.

The fact that the Bible overwhelmingly portrays God in terms of maleness, be it in his attributes, actions and designations, does not mean there are no feminine terms ever used about him. Sometimes we hear things like this: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah: 66:13).

But in the vast majority of cases, we find God being called Father, and we see masculine names and masculine pronouns used about him. See more on this topic here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/10/29/god-and-gender/

The same with Jesus. He was born a male, and lived as a man, and is always designated as God’s son. We never read in Scripture that Jesus is the daughter of God, or that God is his mother. But we live in an age where there is mass confusion – much of it deliberate – over things like sex and gender. And there has been a massive feminisation of culture in the West. See here for example: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/03/04/the-demasculisation-of-society-and-church/  

In that piece I looked at various aspects of the war on men and masculinity. The whole attempt to push the “toxic masculinity” narrative has caused all sort of trouble. And the church has not been immune from feeling the impact of this. Too many folks now think that Jesus was some wimpy soy boy who would never hurt a fly, or was some androgynous character who needed to get in touch with his feminine side.

No one actually reading the gospel accounts could ever come away with that sort of nonsense. In the second article I linked to above I mentioned a recent volume on these matters: The Manliness of Christ: How the Masculinity of Jesus Eradicates Effeminate Christianity by Dale Partridge (Relearn Press, 2023).

That short book is worth revisiting here. Indeed, Chapter 2 is on “The Maleness of Christ” and Chapter 3 is on “The Masculinity of Christ”. Both are worth quoting from. As to the former, Partridge says this:

[I]f you hate masculinity, you will despise the biblical Jesus. He wasn’t interested in “getting to know His feminine side” nor was He the macho and chauvinistic domineer that some failing men have become. Jesus was the epitome of manhood—a stalwart in mission, bold, obedient to the point of death, fearless in His proclamation of truth, sacrificial in His acts of love, and resolved to do His Father’s will. Jesus had force, authority, and control in a way that marked Him as virile and robust. Yes, it is true that our Lord also exemplified gentler traits, but these marks are not effeminate in nature they are, in proper placement, the completion of true masculinity. (p. 21)

In the next chapter he looks at how the masculinity of Christ is manifest in five primary ways: his boldness, his fearlessness, his intensity, his sacrificial love, and his resolve. I will focus on the first, third and fifth points. As to his boldness:

“The opposite of boldness is ambiguity. Many Christians today dance around hard issues using fuzzy language to communicate clear positions in Scripture. In short, we have an affection for improper prudery and apprehension. This was not true of Jesus.” (p. 30)

Consider his intensity. This is especially seen in his hatred of evil. Says Partridge:

For many decades, emotionalism has crept into the church, taking weak-minded Christians captive. They believe that the love of Christ is not seen in the hatred of evil. However, they are unaware of Proverbs 8:13, which specifically says, “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.” My friend Kangmin Lee recently took notice of this reality when he wrote, “Americanized Christianity has convinced millions of professing Christians that ‘love your enemies’ means ‘have no enemies.’ This has resulted in the church becoming apathetic toward, and tolerant of, unbridled evil.”

 

Again, our model is not some modernized caricature of Christ, but the biblical Christ. So the question becomes, how did Jesus respond to those who upheld evil, taught false doctrine, deceived children, willfully stood against the Kingdom of God, and perverted or distorted the worship as of His father? Did he quietly respond with, “Excuse me, what you’re doing is incorrect,” or “Are you aware that you are sinning?” No. Instead, he invokes intense, aggressive, and cutting language to publicly shame, convict and even condemn those who stand against God. He calls them (to their face) hypocrites and liars (Matt. 23:13, John 8:55). He calls them a brood of vipers (Matt. 23:33). He calls them children of Satan (John 8:44), sons of hell (Matt. 23:15), a wicked and adulterous generation (Matt 16:4), whitewashed tombs (Matt. 23:27-28), fools (Luke 24:25; Matt. 23:17), and blind guides (Matt. 15:14). Ultimately, there is another side of the compassionate Jesus – an intense, angry, mocking, and even satirical side of our Savior. (pp. 34-35)

And the actions of Jesus matched his words. Partridge discusses the time Jesus flipped over tables in the temple and says this:

Jesus, while kind and gentle to His sheep, was fierce toward those who perpetrated evil, false religion, and deception. John Calvin understood this when he wrote, “The pastor ought to have two voices; one for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.” (p. 36)

He continues:

Now, Jesus was a perfect man. Namely, in these moments of intensity, he exemplified the ability to run to the edge of anger without sinning. He also demonstrated how to walk the line of compassion without enabling transgression. But what men must learn from him is that, in a world where evil has been permitted to flourish by the silence of the church, we must stand aggressively, boldly, truthfully, and lovingly against evil. We must be willing to open our mouths against those who sustain and preserve cultural evils like false religion, abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, feminism, and pornography. Evil must know that there is a wall of righteousness, and it will not be penetrated. (pp. 36-37)

And finally, consider the resolve of Christ:

Resolve, by definition, refers to firmly deciding on a course of action. When we consider the cross, it becomes evident that it was not a mere event in time; rather, it was a deliberate and divine choice. Namely, the divine Trinity was not obligated to select this course of redemptive action. There were no grounds to justify such a choice. Yet, in His sovereign wisdom, God chose this path, and Jesus was born for the purpose of fulfilling it. In a very real sense, His mission was not life, but death! John Stott in his renowned work The Cross of Christ said, “What dominated his mind was not the living but the giving of His life.” Christ chose the cross! In the truest sense, He ran to it. (p. 40)

The reason that millions of young men are resonating with the sorts of things that people like Jordan Peterson are saying is that they are crying out to once again hear that it is OK to be male, to be a man, to be manly, and to be masculine. They want to be who they were meant to be.

And Jesus Christ is certainly our perfect example and role model here in this regard. We need to reclaim the biblical Jesus, and fully reject the worldly, effeminate and emasculated Jesus.

[1284 words]