If God Made Man And Woman Equal, Why Do They Have Different Roles?

This is a very good question which is not easy to answer briefly! If this question is seeking to know how men and women can be equal in personhood and value before God, yet different with respect to roles, it is crucial that we look to the Trinity as the supreme example of both equality and distinction. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one and are equal in nature/essence, yet they are distinct persons and have different roles in creation and in salvation. First, each person in the Godhead was involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth, yet each person was involved in a different way (Gen 1:1-2; Psalm 33:6; John 1:1-3; Col 1:15-16; Heb 1:1-3).

It is clear from these texts that God the Father created the world by his Word, his Son Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3), and that the Holy Spirit was intimately involved. Second, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles in planning, accomplishing, and applying salvation (for a wonderful picture of this Trinitarian work, see Eph 1:3-14). God the Father, as the head, planned salvation according to his perfect will and has chosen a people, his church, from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:3-6). God the Son, Jesus Christ, who was sent by his Father (John 3:16-17, 6:38, 8:42; Gal 4:4-5), has accomplished this great salvation through his sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection. This was done in accordance with the Father’s supreme will for his glory (Eph 1:6, 12, 14). God the Father forgives, redeems, and adopts his children through the person and work of his Son (Eph 1:4, 5, 7) to the praise of his glorious grace. Finally, God the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to the believer and he/she is sealed with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of his/her inheritance. Those who have the Spirit are children of God. These and many other passages throughout Scripture clearly teach that God is one and that his whole and undivided essence belongs equally, fully, simultaneously, and eternally to each of the three distinct persons of the Godhead –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and they each work in harmony with one another to fulfill the Father’s perfect will.1

If, on the other hand, this question is seeking to give an answer as to what was going on in the mind of God when he made men and women equal yet different, the Bible does not give an exact answer. However, Eph 5:31-32 says that God's original intent was to display the relationship of Christ and the church through marriage. Marriage was intended from the beginning to serve as a picture of Christ and the church, and the apostle Paul gives commands to husbands and wives which are intended to display this (Eph 5:22-25, 28). This is followed by a citation from Gen 2:24: “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Eph 5:31). Yet Paul goes on to say that this is ultimately not a statement about husbands and wives but about Christ and the church: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). Paul does not say that the relationship between Christ and his church is like a marriage. Rather, he claims that marriage is really a picture of a much more profound reality—the uniting of the Son of God to his bride. Thus, the relationship between man and woman in the beginning was patterned after the relationship between Christ and the church—a relationship in which each has a distinct role, with Christ serving as the head.2

Dr. Randy Stinson