Does Christ give women a special grace?
It all started with Eve. When God created Adam, Adam found no one like him (Gen. 2:20). Therefore, God put Adam into a deep sleep and made a woman from one of his ribs (Gen. 2:22). Now that we have a fuller perspective from the entire canon of Scripture, we know that a man and woman, a husband and wife, represent Christ and His Church (Eph. 5:31-32).
From this, we know that there is none like God, and therefore He set out to create a people for Christ, a Church, a Bride, who would wear His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21) and be like Him (1 John 3:2). With this picture in our heads of how a woman represents the Church of our Lord Jesus, certain texts of Scripture take on a wealth of meaning, from the queen in gold of Ophir in Psalm 45, to the Proverbs 31 woman, to the spouse in Song of Solomon.
God speaks many times in His Word about taking care of widows. Women in the Gospels were loved greatly by our Lord. We see Christ conversing with a Samaritan woman (John 4:7), a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22), and a woman considered unclean (Luke 7:37-39). Over and over again, he gives grace where others judged harshly. Rather than giving a general grace, it would seem He gave a certain measure only to women. So many women were healed, touched, and defended by the Son of God, such as the prostitute about to be stoned (John 8:3-7), the woman with the issue of blood (Matt. 9:20-22), the little girl He raised from the dead (Matt. 9:23-25), and the infirmed woman hunched over for eighteen long years (Luke 13:10-13).
Women did not flee from the foot of the cross and it was to a woman the risen Christ first revealed Himself. These are remarkable graces He gives to His daughters. Even Mary of Bethany was allowed a closer intimacy than any of His disciples, by physically touching Him and anointing Him as a bride might do for her bridegroom.
The words Jesus spoke regarding divorce (Matt. 19:4-6) were not meant to keep one in lifelong bondage, rather, they were meant to keep men from so easily casting women aside.
Many feminists and modern women often bristle at the Apostle Paul and perhaps the Apostle Peter as well, for not allowing a woman to teach or have authority over a man (1 Tim. 2:12), or that the woman is the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7). But I believe these things are precisely why our Lord is so very close with women.
Paul hearkens his argument back to the Garden of Eden, that the woman was deceived first. This alludes that women, perhaps, are more susceptible to be deceived by the enemy, which would be devastating to a congregation of the Lord's sheep. If one does a casual study of women ministers and pastors, their churches teach to overlook sin in the name of "love", to name-it-and-claim-it with the heretical prosperity gospel, or they're members of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), of which John MacArthur touts, "It's not new, it's not apostolic, and it's not a reformation." All of these are dangerous doctrines.
Peter seems to imply a woman's physical strength is weaker, but perhaps also their emotional strength. Women are very nurturing and empathetic where men seem to be more critical and methodical. In 1 Peter 3:7, Peter says for husbands to "show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel."
I believe this is what Christ did, and still does, with women who believe in Him.
Consider Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Christ's strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul said he would therefore GLORY in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest upon him. If we take Paul's words and answer my original question posed: "Does Christ give a special grace to women?" I would have to say yes.
Christ, as an example for men, gives us honor as the weaker vessel, which also supplies us with a measure of His strength, something the strong in faith, in body, in emotions, does not need.
When a woman is godly, she becomes unshakable in her faith. She has a quiet, gentle spirit, which is very precious in the eyes of God (1 Peter 3:4). She is like a rock in a storm, when her mind is staid upon Christ, held in perfect peace which passes all understanding (Isaiah 26:3, Phil. 4:7). She becomes the backbone of her family as she more and more resembles the woman in Proverbs 31. She is the crown of her husband (Prov. 12:4), and her worth is far more than rubies (Prov. 31:10).
Every godly woman, therefore, who is being conformed into the image of Christ, can also be shown by her life and her example, that she is herself a picture and a type of the Church of Christ as a whole.
My dear sisters in Christ, let us go and enjoy our tender Savior, who gives us such beautiful graces as the daughters of the King of Heaven, both His honor and His strength, and let us not bristle as the weaker vessel, but let us rejoice that His power might rest more fully upon us. We are not second class or second rate, rather we are deeply loved and very precious to God. The strength of Christ is ours as women. Let us give Him glory as we glory in our weakness, which is itself the very glory of godly womanhood.
Amen.
