Sex change – Is it biblical to get one?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

The Bible teaches that God intentionally created humans as male and female, giving each gender a unique and purposeful role in His design. While our fallen world introduces brokenness and confusion, including gender struggles, altering one’s sex to subvert God’s creation is unbiblical. The Bible upholds the distinction of male and female in both appearance and identity, emphasizing that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. Taking on the appearance of the opposite gender or attempting to redefine one’s sex goes against God’s intent. Some individuals experience medical conditions, such as being intersex, where surgical intervention may be warranted and biblically permissible. However, seeking a sex change for reasons other than these medical or biological anomalies is not aligned with God’s design. True wholeness and identity are found in trusting God, who restores and heals our whole being, offering purpose and dignity beyond cultural trends or personal desires.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." There is something important to God about both genders. He purposely created them to be distinct and yet to be unified through marriage. Both male and female reflect God individually and together. The Bible presents sex and gender as God-given and inseparable aspects of human identity, affirming that every person is created intentionally as either male or female, with no variations in that.
• Our current culture is obsessed with sexuality and entrenched in a desperate post-modern search for meaning where everyone does what feels right. Part of the search for meaning has included questioning gender and its validity. But gender issues are nothing new. Gender relations and human identity broke down with the Fall in Genesis 3. Changing one's sex as a way of subverting God's original design is wrong.
• God intentionally made us male or female. Psalm 139:13-16 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."
• As the Bible was written before most surgeries were even possible, it does not mention getting a sex change. It does, however, speak of people taking on the appearance of someone in the opposite gender. Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God."

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• One way we can tell if an Old Testament law is valid in the church age is to see if the law was repeated in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 11:14-15, Paul explains that men and women should not wear their hair in such a way that their gender is indistinguishable. It is unbiblical to dress as someone of the opposite gender.
• First Corinthians 6:9 in the New American Standard Bible says that those who are effeminate will not inherit the kingdom of God—they will not experience God's sovereignty, blessing, and power in this life. "Effeminate" is the Greek malakos. It refers to a boy kept for homosexual relations with a man, as was common in Greece and Rome. One of the primary purposes of a man getting a sex change operation is to be physically altered to do just this.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

It should be noted that some seekers of a sex change surgery have a condition known in the psychological world as Gender Dysphoria. This is characterized by an embedded sense that one's physical sex does not match his or her experienced gender. While the sex organs are not ambiguous in such individuals, it is possible that there is something physically different in their brains. Some of these people seek a surgical change because they feel their only other option is to die. However, other seekers of sex changes may be confused about their sexuality due to childhood trauma, cultural influence, desire to be sexually deviant, or something else.

Some have Gender Dysphoria because of an intersex condition (having a mixture of male and female sexual characteristics) or some other surgically-reparable birth defect, it would seem that it could be biblically acceptable to seek surgical intervention. However, for those seeking a sex change for some other reason, it is clearly unbiblical.

Our creation is specific and meaningful. The creation of each person is specific and meaningful. God has a plan for our lives. Some may experience a sort of birth defect due to the general results of sin in our world. Others may experience distress at the hand of someone else's sin or due to cultural noise. God is sovereign and faithful in all of it. A sex change is not the answer. Only God provides true wholeness and healing.

UNDERSTAND

• God created humans as male and female, and changing sex goes against His design.
• Altering one’s gender for non-medical reasons is unbiblical.
• True wholeness and identity are found in trusting God, not in a sex change.

REFLECT

• How do you personally understand and embrace the gender God gave you?
• Where might you be tempted to look to cultural trends instead of God for your identity?
• How can you trust God for wholeness and healing in areas where you feel broken or insecure about your body or identity?

ENGAGE

• How can we show compassion and understanding to those struggling with gender identity while holding firmly to biblical truth?
• What does it mean practically to find our identity in Christ rather than in changing our physical appearance or conforming to societal pressures?
• How can we support and guide individuals with intersex conditions or gender dysphoria in ways that align with Scripture?