Jonathan Parnell - Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice

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DESIGNED
FOR JOY

How the Gospel Impacts
Men and Women,
Identity and Practice

EDITED BY
JONATHAN PARNELL
AND OWEN STRACHAN

FOREWORD BY
JOHN PIPER

Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice

Copyright 2015 by Desiring God

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studio

Cover image: Shutterstock

First printing 2015

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the authors or editors.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4925-0
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4928-1
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4926-7
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4927-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Designed for joy: how the gospel impacts men and women, identity and practice / edited by Jonathan Parnell and Owen Strachan; foreword by John Piper.

1 online resource

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4926-7 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-4927-4 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-4928-1 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-4925-0 (print)

1. Sex roleReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Sex roleBiblical teaching. 3. Men (Christian theology) 4. WomenReligious aspectsChristianity. 5. Men (Christian theology)Biblical teaching. 6. WomenBiblical teaching. I. Parnell, Jonathan, 1985 II. Strachan, Owen.

BT708

233'.5dc23 2015011182

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To John Piper and Wayne Grudem

I asked to write this foreword. I had hoped to endorse this book and help spread the word through Twitter. But then I took a PDF on the plane to Brazil and could not put it down. So I told Marshall Segal, one of the authors, who told the editors, If youll take me, Id like to write the foreword.

The reason for my eagerness is partly nostalgia, partly thankfulness, partly amazement, partly admiration, and partly hope.

The editors and most of the authors of this book were not yet teenagers when Wayne Grudem and I were editing the big blue book called Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood from 1988 to 1991. So to see this project emerge twenty-five years later with a shared and refined vision is like seeing our baby graduate from college. But of course, my nostalgia is no reason for you to read the book. So lets turn to what matters more.

Rising in me, as I read, was a high sense of thankfulness to God for the insight, wisdom, giftedness, biblical faithfulness, and courage of these younger authors. The vision of manhood and womanhood they are trumpeting is biblical, beautiful, and sadly obnoxious to many in society. That is, it fits with faith in Christ and infuriates those who love the atmosphere of self-actualizing autonomywhat editor Owen Strachan calls narcissistic optimistic deism. So I am thankful for the valor of these men and women, who are willing to swim against unbiblical currents.

My amazement is that decades into this struggle, there is such a widespread and robust embrace of the beautiful biblical vision of complementary manhood and womanhood. This may strike you as an evidence of small faith on my part. Perhaps it is. But if you had tasted the vitriol of our audiences in the 1970s and 1980s, you might understand.

In the late seventies, we were called obscene for suggesting that Gods Word taught distinct, complementary roles for men and women based on manhood and womanhood, not just competency. Therefore, the breadth and maturity and creativity and joyfulness of the complementarian crowd today triggers happy amazement in me.

Then, when I turned to these actual chapters, I read in admiration. These folks are not only good thinkers and faithful interpreters of the Bible; they are also gifted writers. The reading was not just informative and inspiring; it was a pleasure. I love to think of what these men and women will be writing in thirty years. If its this good now, what will it be then?

Finally, I come away with hope. I am pushing to the end of my seventh decade. So I think a lot these days about what is in place for the advance of Gods saving purposes on the earth in the decades to come. Reading these voices gives me hope that God is wonderfully at work to exalt his great name long after I am gone.

I commend this book to you and pray that the beauty of the vision, and the courage to speak it, will spreadfor the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

John Piper
Founder and Teacher
desiringGod.org

The lips of the young woman quivered. Tears rolled down her face. Her angry father stared at her. I thought you were the kind of girl who didnt get into this sort of trouble, he said. She looked back at him, confused and adrift: I guess I dont really know what kind of girl I am.

This exchange came in Juno, a poignant film made a few years ago. Its a quick scene, but it has stuck with me ever since. In this young womans reply, I heard the confusion of an entire generation. So many young men and young women dont know who they are. Theyve never been taught what a man or a woman is. They may have seen terrible pain in their home, and they may have grown up without a father, or less commonly, without a mother. Or they might have had a father and a mother, but their home was compromised by sin in some way. The family didnt eat together. The parents werent happy together. The children grew up without discipleship or investment.

This is 2015. Families are struggling. As one would expect, many young men and young women lack a road mapa scriptfor their lives. When youre in this confusing and confused state, you dont have answers to the most basic questions about your life. This is true of your fundamental identity, which includes your manhood or womanhood. What do I mean by this?