Man Up With Rev. Jeff Hemmer

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And welcome to another edition of engaging truth. I'm your host John Kane broadcasting from Nacodoches Texas today with us on the program, we have the Reverend Jeffrey Hemmer. He is assistant to the president of the Lutheran church, Missouri Senate. He is a doctoral candidate himself, and he is the author of the book man, up the quest for masculinity. Welcome to the program. Jeff,

It's great to be with you.

So let's, uh, tell our listeners what is biblical masculinity?

So there's a lot of cultural understandings about what masculinity is, and there's probably a little bit of truth in, in most of them, but in the beginning, God creates man and woman and distinguishes one from another and gives unique roles to each. And so we, we celebrate the ways in which they are like one another, but also the ways in which they are unlike one another. So God God gives Adam particular things to do. He makes him the, the head, uh, of creation, places him at the, at the pinnacle of creation in order that he might attend to creations, flourishing puts him there to work. He makes him the, the bearer of God's word to creation. If we think about when, when the serpent comes to Eve and entices her into sin, she knows what God has said because her preacher, her husband, Adam has proclaimed the word to her, presumably.

So Adam fulfills a prophetic role. He's, he's a prophet, he's the king of creation. Um, and he is also, he, he fulfills a priestly role that is, he takes the needs of his family, the needs of creation, and he brings those to, to God. So he, he carries out these, these three roles, but then we see very quickly how all of that goes sideways. When we mentioned just a second ago, when the serpent comes to Eve, he doesn't come to Adam. He comes to Eve, you Serbs Adam's authority in that way. And then LUS Eve into questioning the word itself has God really said. And so what happens? Well, Eve sees that the, the fruit is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And she eats, and she gives some to her husband who was with her. So just by the time you get to Genesis chapter three God's design for masculinity has gone completely awry.

God intended Adam to be protecting his bride, his family creation, but you have instead, an Adam who is self preserving, he won't, he won't put his life on the line. He won't risk his, he won't, he won't stick his neck out for the good of his bride when she is being attacked by, by the devil being lured into sin. He's he's self preserving, as soon as they sin the, their eyes inclined towards themselves. And so he should have been outwardly focused, focused on, on the good of everyone around him, but, but sin rebellion against God does this to Adam and to all of Adam's descendants, that is we become focused on ourselves, fixated on ourselves selfish. So Adam becomes the exact opposite of what he was intended to be. God made man to be giving and loving and sacrificial for the good of others around him. But he, but sin, perverts, all that distorts all that, and it becomes selfish. So it's kind of a long roundabout way to get to an answer to the question, what is biblical masculinity? Because we find the solution to Adam's disordered masculinity, Adam's selfishness. We find the solution for that in the second Adam, when, when the second person of the eternal triune, God takes it upon himself to save humanity, to be the savior of sinners he does. So in a, in a very fleshly kind of way, God becomes, man, the word becomes flesh.

The, the son of God becomes the son of Mary. So in the second ATO in Jesus, we see the truest picture of masculinity of available. Real biblical masculinity is displayed in Christ. And if you, if you distill everything Jesus said and did down to its purest essence, the one thing that Jesus was always about is the cross. He's always on a mission to the cross. And then after his crucifixion and resurrection, his church is always about the cross, always proclaiming crucified to use the language of, of St. Paul, we preach Christ crucified. And what is the cross? Well, the cross is sacrifice. So the, the purest essence of what masculinity is means sacrifice. It means the giving of oneself for the good of others. Those whom a man has been given that he might serve. He uses his life as an instrument for them, for their good. So masculinity, biblical masculinity is about sacrifice.

So you're saying that Jesus as fully human, fully divine, eternal God who has, uh, uh, taken human flesh into the Trinity. He is perfect. What about Adam was Adam perfect.

Well, before his fall into sin, Adam was perfect. He's he's created in the image of God. He possesses a likeness of Christ. He also possesses, uh, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness, no sin at all. God looks at all of his creation at the end of the sixth day of creation. And he calls it very good. Everything he has made is good. It's functioning according to his design. And so Adam is unspoiled uncorrupted by sin for a, a fleeting moment in creation. Adam, Adam is, uh, the perfect man as well, but

Then, but he lost it. Yeah,

He loses it. And, and all of his children are born with this, with this selfish perversion we're not born with, with Adam's perfect masculinity. Our, our daughters are not born with Eve's perfect femininity. We no longer possess the, the goodness that was in God's creation when he called it very good. Now we all have this distortion that, that manifests itself in a variety of ways, but sin ultimately is always a kind of selfishness. So that's, we inherit from all of our parents all the way back to Adam and Eve. We inherit that, that selfishness, and that is, that is antithetical to masculinity. So we're, we're born losing, we're born not knowing how to be good and godly men. And, and we're born unable to fix this perversion within us. So before we have an example of what masculinity is, all men and all women need to be, need to be rescued from, from this perversion, the, this distortion out of which we, we cannot free ourselves. So before Jesus is an example, he's, he's our savior and his, his perfect sacrifice for us on the cross completely apart from, from our ability to live as godly men, his sacrifice for us makes us good again.

So Adam and E were the Handbuilt prototypes. Handbuilt by God. Uh, they rebelled and they broke everything for the rest of us. So then when we look for the holy example, the best example of, of what masculinity is, we, we look to Jesus. What, how has God given us this, um, pattern, describe that for us. How, how do we function then as, as people who seek to pattern our own lives after, after Christ?

Yeah, well, the, the image of masculinity that we get in Christ restores all the things that that Adam was called to do, should have been doing, but, but since the fall into sin is now unable to do so, a man will he'll live as these three things that Christ did. He will be prophet priest and king to his family anew. Um, he'll exercise, loving dominion, reign like a king, um, not a, not a kind of selfish reign where everyone, uh, just does what, what the king demands for the good of the king, but a loving kind of dominion for the good of everyone, entrusted to his care. A man will be the prophet, the steward of the word of God. Um, he will catechize and, and teach and instruct his family in the word of God. Um, he'll be the priest, the one to, to gather the, the needs and the prayers and the petitions of the people that he's called to serve.

And to bring those before the, the throne of God, the father. So he carries out those things. Um, he, he loves with a similar kind of Christlike love, again, a love. That's not, not perverted, not distorted by selfishness, but a love that's, that's purely and perfectly selfless in, in the way that Paul describes love in first Corinthians, that love is patient and kind, it's not self interested. Um, this is the kind of love that we only find in Christ. He models that kind of love perfectly. And so what you say of love in first Corinthians, you could say about, about Christ that he is patient and kind he does not envy. He does not boast he's, he's the one perfect, selfless love, but then in him, that's how a man loves as well. It's a, a courageous, a sacrificial kind of love a man gives of himself.

Christ gives of himself completely. He says, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. So there's a sense in which a man is not a, not a victim, so to speak. Um, he's not being put upon by being called to give of himself for the good of others, but he gives of himself gladly and freely for, for them, for their good, for their flourishing. And then Jesus has strength to be sure. Um, but he, he uses it always for the good of his bride for the good of the church, for the good of the world, that all people might receive, the salvation that he wins for them on the cross.

So the church of Christ is known as his bride. Um, we were also told by Jesus to pray to God as our heavenly father. So what would you say to someone who's, um, uh, had issues with a broken earthly father? Um, let's strengthen this notion of how God is our father and, and what, what that means to us.

Yeah. So that's a great question. And I think it would be a helpful place to start to say that every single one of us has, has been raised by a father. Who's a failure, especially when compared with God, the father, not one of our earthly fathers, not, not a single one of them has done a perfect job of being a father. And when compared with God, the father, it really levels out the playing field for the rest of us, even the most egregious evil father. Um, when compared with, with the best human father, we can think of they're, they're only different by, by very slim margins when you compare them to the, the perfect goodness of God, the father. So this is what St. Paul says, uh, in, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, um, I, I bow my knee before the father from whom all fatherhood is named.

So the first person of the, of the Trinity calls himself father, because he always has a son. There's never a time when the father God, the father exists and God, the son does not exist. He's always father, the son, the church fathers confess is eternally begotten. There's never a time when he's not the son and this father's son relationship within the Trinity sets the pattern for all of our earthly. The, for, for all men who are called fathers, it's not the other way around. It's not that we can understand a little bit what God is like because we have earthly fathers and God is kind of like a father. It's, it's exactly the opposite. It is God is eternally father. And he calls men who have been given a role similar to his. He calls them by the same title by which he is eternally known.

That is father. So all of us have wanted something from our earthly fathers that we haven't gotten, even if it's just minor disappointments, or maybe, maybe we have very deep, significant wounds from, from the men who raised us, but we'll never find that kind of love that we, that we need from an earthly father. We'll only find that in, in our perfect heavenly father. So there's, there's a goodness to his fatherhood that all earthly fathers are called to embody his, his patriarchy, which a word that just means a father's rule. Um, his patriarchy is so good that that all other fathers are called to emulate that pattern. So we all, we all have experienced failings from a father one way or another. Um, and, and that just shows us how good and how perfect and how necessary having God as our father truly is.

So use the term pattern. Is there a portion of this that the psychologist would say is, uh, nurture versus nature or, or how much of this is, you know, in our DNA or given to us so much that it's just a part of our identity?

I think it's probably both left to our own devices. We we'd never figure it out completely, but, but I do think there is, there is some sort of lingering memory within all of us, um, that, that hearkens back to the good old days when we weren't there, we were, we were in the mind of God at creation. Um, but we weren't there, but our, our ancestors are there. And so at some level, we all long for Adam to be masculine and Eve to be feminine and to live according to the design of God's creation, but we can't, we can't go backwards. And so our hope and our comfort is that the one who became man for us re restores creation to the way that he intends it to be now, but we don't see it yet. And so what we're longing for, what we're hoping for, what we, um, know will be every time we pray come, Lord Jesus is the day of his return.

When everything is made, as he intend everything is renewed restored to how he intended it to be. So there's kind of, it's both right. We're, we're sort of remembering what we should have had even though we never actually experienced it. And we're, and we're longing looking forward to, um, the, the restoration of the way things would've been had sin not knocked everything off course. So we wouldn't, we wouldn't ever really get there being men, but we do sort of know there's something, um, something visceral, something innate still within us that that knows this is what we should do. And even when, right. Even when we, when we read stories of sacrifice and, and it sort of stirs up something within us, I think that's why, um, because, because the cross is so true, um, and, and men are called to this kind of sacrifice in, in, in such a true way that, that pervades all the rest of our stories and it, it causes us to sort of harken back to what we know things should be.

Well, I mentioned at the outset that you are the author of a book, tell us a little bit about that book and where we, uh, might get a copy for ourselves.

Yeah. So the book is called man up the quest for masculinity, um, and it's available, it's published by Concordia publishing house. You can get it from their website, which is cph.org. Um, it's also on Amazon, um, available at, uh, another of, uh, almost any other online book seller. Um, or you can, uh, talk to your pastor if he doesn't have a copy, you should probably, uh, get one for him. Um, <laugh> gives, gives him out to the men in your congregation, um, because it's not a book about me. Uh, and it's not, it's not a, everybody should, should be manly like this hammer guy. It's, it's a book completely about Jesus. So dispel any, any notions that, uh, that masculinity is about any one of us emulating any other man, because even though we encourage one another in this endeavor to be good godly, man, um, we, we find the, the only perfect example in the good man, Jesus.

So it's, it's a book about Jesus. Um, but I think there's a lot of there. We wrestle with a lot of the, the texts, uh, from scripture, we, we dig into the accounts of creation. Um, I talk a lot about, uh, Ephesians five and, and what it means that Jesus is, is the perfect husband. And then because every guy likes the, the practical stuff you gotta slog through, you know, the first two thirds of the book to get to the practical stuff at the end. But the, the practical stuff only makes sense. Once we've really sort of built this foundation of masculinity on Jesus himself,

God's original intent for us will be fulfilled someday that day. We all look forward to we'll come back to our guest in just a moment. First, I wanted to tell our listeners that you can visit our programs website, Elm houston.org. And there, you can read more about us. You can find shortcuts to our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. You can donate to our, uh, support through that, uh, webpage from our Facebook page. You can also find podcasts of our past programming. All of our on the air hosts are volunteers. So, um, I'd like you to know your donation will truly go far to help us purchase radio airtime. We strive to have a wide variety of interviews with people who are creatively sharing the good news of Jesus Christ at this place. We call the intersection of where faith meets life. You may also write us at Elm Houston PO box 5 68, Cypress, Texas, 77 4 1. Oh. Now back to Reverend Hemer. Jeff, tell us a little bit about what fathers should do.

So the first thing, the most important thing a father can do is, is not to be a good father. It's to be a good example of repentance. So a father should model what to do when he's wrong. He should acknowledge his shortcomings. He should, he should confess them to the, to the people whom he has hurt his wife, his children, people in his community, whoever, and he should model. What, what someone who is, uh, repentant, contr broken over his sin should do with his sin, and that is receive the Lord's forgiveness. So this, this is the first thing a father should do. Model repentance and forgiveness, honest acknowledgement ownership of one's sin and finding forgiveness full and complete payment for our sins given to us freely for the sake of Jesus. That's what a father should do. He should model repentance and forgiveness. He should, he should be not just taking his family to church, but he should be leading his family in worship at church.

He should be participating in the service, singing the hymns, helping, helping his family follow along the service. And then, uh, living from that, that Sunday morning service, he should be gathering his family together daily in the word and, and privately, he should be praying for his wife and his children and his community. So he has sort of the, the public act of presiding over his family, continuing to be, um, the, the profit for them, the, the pastor to his family and, and privately he's, he's also interceding for them collecting their, their needs and bringing them to God, the father, knowing that he can't do everything his family needs, but entrusting them just like he entrusts himself to his heavenly father's provision and trusts his family to his heavenly father's provision. And then he should be diligently catechizing teaching his family, the truths to the word of God, pointing them to the, the savior of sinners Jesus on the cross.

Well, I think our listeners will, um, agree that, uh, when we look at the world around us, we see just nothing but brokenness and political posturing and, uh, violence. And, uh, self-centeredness so the way of Christ is, uh, the one way that offers us hope. And I think it's, it's the only way that will stand the test of time, because time itself is, uh, is one of God's invention. So how wonderful it is that, uh, we have the encouragement of our Lord. Do you have one final thought for our listeners?

Yeah. You, you mentioned all the, the, uh, sort of problems culturally, that, that surround us and in the culture, uh, masculinity is often criticized as toxic, but it's not, it's biblical masculinity can never be toxic because Jesus isn't toxic. Masculinity is always for the good of those. A man has been entrusted with, with the responsibility of loving and serving. It's always good for those around a man, and it is a positive force in our culture for good. And, and it's not a kind of, uh, excuse for selfishness. It's always a call to sacrifice and that's never toxic.

Very good. Thank you for those words. Join us again real soon for another addition of engaging truth. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to this broadcast of engaging truth. Be sure to join us each week at this time, to help support our ministry, contact evangelical life ministries, post office box 5 6 8, Cypress, Texas 77 400, or visit our website@elmhouston.org, or find us on Facebook at evangelical life ministries. Thank you.