From Eden to Eternity - Part 2

God's desire and design for women throughout scripture

*This is Part 2 of a three-part series for Mother's Day. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 3.

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Active Redemption:

Matthew 5 & 6 — The Sermon on the Mount and living in right relationship to God and others

After sin breaks this beautiful mutuality in the Garden, the rest of scripture details God‘s constant provision and protection over His people in active redemption. Not just for men, but for all of humanity. 

This redemption peaks with Jesus—His life, death, resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit—and will one day be completely fulfilled at His second coming.

Throughout the entire bible women are active parts of God's story as prophets and parents and judges and spouses and fallen humans, just like men. And women are not excluded from Jesus’ life. That the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew includes women is our first sign that women would support Him in His ministry and play key roles as His followers throughout His life. Jesus would include women, support women, and even depend on women.

It is very difficult in our current cultural context to grasp just how radical Jesus’ life and teachings and the way He interacted with women actually were. It was highly unusual during that time, in a culture dominated by men and written about by men, for women’s voices and experiences to be elevated or put into written documents, but in Scripture, women are there.

For instance, the longest recorded personal conversation Jesus has in scripture is with the Samaritan woman. Jesus also has some of his most theologically full and weighty conversations with women in the Gospels. 

A prime example of this is the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus comes to visit his friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Martha is doing the “typically” feminine things of that time (and of ours)—hosting, cleaning and preparing the meal for Jesus and the disciples. But Mary is not. Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning and soaking in all that Jesus is teaching and saying. She is being a disciple. And Jesus actually gently rebukes Martha, saying that Mary is doing the better thing.

Now, is Jesus saying that hosting and cleaning and cooking aren’t good things or aren’t image bearing things? No, not all. What He’s saying is that our first priority as image bearers and women is to know Him so that we may live through Him. 

Luke 10 says: 

“Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Jesus and asked him, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” Jesus answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus was showing Martha what it looked like to have a right relationship with Him, not by doing first, but by following Him. And Jesus’ core message, the sermon on the Mount, shows us just how we can live through Him to have right relationships with others and a right relationship with God. 

Now, are we the ones who determine what’s right? Does society or culture or politics or laws? Sometimes they might overlap, but the foundational depiction of what is right comes from God and His word.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus breaks down what right looks like in our relationships with others and with God. He is concerned with right behavior, but, crucially, when paired with the right heart attitude.

What is your heart toward others? 

What is your heart toward women? 

What is your heart toward children? 

What is your heart toward someone of an opposing political party? 

What is your heart toward a difficult co-worker?

What is your heart toward someone who looks, sounds or lives differently than you?

What is the position of your heart? Is it right? Is it good? Is it complete? Is it holy? 

All of those things are a call-back to creation as God intended it, and this is what Jesus points us to in the Sermon on the Mount. And because that is such a high, impossible standard to meet, we know Jesus is actually calling us to Himself, the ultimate fully human, fully divine image bearer of God.

That is the only way we can begin to truly live into fullness as image bearers ourselves, through Jesus changing our hearts toward others, ourselves and God. And through the work of His Holy Spirit.

Is it work? Yes, it is hard work that will take our whole lives. It is active, not passive. But we aren’t called to strive to do it in our own strength from a place of needing to be accepted or to accept ourselves.  

Instead, we work from an overflow of our salvation in Jesus. We work out of a place of thankfulness and gratitude and love for Jesus and what he’s done for us on the cross. That leads us to want to seek His kingdom and His righteousness and to actively pursue the things He pursues.

Jesus shows us the mindset we need in order to live as image bearers of God. 

He also shows how to live to restore and repair relationships after sin broke them. This is the righteousness that followers of Christ seek—right relationship with God and right relationship with others. Made possible through Jesus.

In Sister Grace Remington's illustration of Mary and Eve, it’s not the first thing that comes to mind, but Jesus is there, too. Sister Grace says of Jesus, “He is, in fact, at the very center. If it was just a picture of an un-pregnant Mary with Eve, it might be lovely, but the presence of Jesus in that picture is what gives it real meaning.”

Head to Part 3 | Go Back to Part 1

—Whitney

*This post is adapted from a 2025 Mother's Day sermon I preached at Restore Church in Brookland, Ark.