August 3: What does the Bible say about gender identity?

We are finishing our summer sermon series, The Bible, the Birds, and the Bees—a summer series where we have analyzed what the Bible has to say around issues of gender and sexuality. And today we’re closing on a very pressing and now politicized question:

What does the Bible have to say about gender identity?

Today, I’m going to make a case for why the Bible is actually affirming of people with diverse gender identities. And I think it's important that we know why we are a church that affirms people of all identities.

Some Helpful Terms

Before we dive in, let’s take a moment to talk through a few terms you might hear—because language is ever-evolving, and it’s important to educate ourselves.

• Sex (or sex assigned at birth): This refers to someone being classified as male, female, or intersex by a midwife or doctor based on external anatomy.

• Gender: A social construct made up of norms, roles, and behaviors that vary by culture and time.

• Gender identity: One’s internal sense of their own gender.

• Transgender: A person whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. (Important: it’s “transgender,” not “transgendered.”)

• Non-binary: Describes someone whose gender identity exists outside the male/female binary.

• Intersex: The “I” in LGBTQIA+. An umbrella term for people born with differences in reproductive anatomy or chromosomal composition (e.g. someone with a vagina who also has a Y chromosome). Intersex people make up about 1.7% of the population.

• Gender expansive: An umbrella term for those with a more flexible gender identity than the male/female binary allows.

Misused Arguments: “God Created Only Two Genders”

One of the most common arguments from evangelical churches is that God only created two genders. They often cite Genesis 1:27:

“So God created humans in God’s image. In the image of God, he created them; male and female, he created them.”

They say: “See? God created male and female—case closed.”

But let’s look closer.

The creation story is not a scientific account. It’s a theological narrative about who is doing the creating. The central character is God, and God brings order to the formless void. Genesis is teaching us about God’s power to create everything—including the in-between.

In ancient storytelling, we see contrasting pairs used to represent everything in between:

• Light and dark

• Day and night

• Land and sea

• Male and female

So just as God created dusk and dawn, marshes and lagoons, amphibians and birds that barely fly, God also created every gender identity that exists beyond the binary. Genesis doesn’t limit God’s creativity—it shows how expansive it truly is.

Misused Arguments: “Trans People Shouldn’t Change What God Created”

Another argument is that transgender people are “changing” what God created, thus disrespecting God’s creation.

But in Genesis, God gives humans authority over creation. The first human names the animals and is told to “fill the earth and take charge.” Humanity is invited to be co-creators.

God didn’t just create bodies. God also created minds and spirits. Some people, using those God-given gifts, discern that their gender identity doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth. Transitioning isn’t a rejection of God’s creation—it’s a faithful step into being who God made them to be.

It allows transgender and gender expansive people to live in peace and wholeness—mind, body, and spirit.

Misused Arguments: Old Testament Laws

People love to quote obscure Old Testament laws when it comes to gender and sexuality:

• Deuteronomy 22: Prohibits crossdressing

• Deuteronomy 23:1: “No man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off can belong to the Lord’s assembly”

• Leviticus 21: Prohibits people with physical “imperfections” from temple leadership

These laws come from a very different historical and cultural context. Ancient Israel viewed disability or difference as punishment. These laws were more about keeping the Israelites distinct from neighboring Canaanite religious practices.

Today, we know these ideas are narrow and outdated. And interestingly, many of these laws refer to eunuchs—a category of people who existed outside the gender binary.

God’s Evolving Welcome: Isaiah and the Eunuchs

In Isaiah 56, we hear a radical reversal of these exclusionary laws. To a people returning from exile—many of whom had been forcibly castrated—God speaks through Isaiah:

“Don’t let the eunuch say, ‘I’m just a dry tree.’
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, choose what I desire, and remain loyal to my covenant,
I will give a monument and a name better than sons and daughters...
My house will be known as a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Better than sons and daughters. Beyond the binary.

Trans theologian Austin Harkey puts it like this: “In direct opposition to the physical and social cutting off that the eunuch had experienced, God bestows a name that can never be cut off.”

The New Testament and the Early Church

In Matthew 19, Jesus says:

“There are eunuchs who were born that way, eunuchs made so by others, and eunuchs who chose it for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus recognizes people who exist outside the binary. He doesn’t exclude them—he names them as part of the kingdom.

In Acts 8, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch. This person asks him:

“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

And the answer is: nothing.

Philip baptizes this outsider—a person of another race, another gender, another nation—and welcomes him fully into the Jesus movement.

Later, Peter affirms this truth:

“God doesn’t show partiality to one group over another.”

A God Who Welcomes and Affirms

So let’s be clear:

• People who use the Bible to discriminate against trans and gender expansive people are taking the Lord’s name in vain.

• Lawmakers who claim Christian identity while pushing discrimination are misusing our sacred texts.

• Isaiah, Jesus, Philip, Peter—they all affirm that God welcomes people who exist outside the binary.

God not only welcomes them—God blesses them with a name that will not be removed.

“My house will be known as a house of prayer for all peoples.” —Isaiah

Our Calling as the Church

At The Collective, we pray that God’s will may be done—that people of all identities, especially our trans and gender expansive siblings, may be welcomed into worship and into God's love.

And may God call us to be part of that holy and sacred work.