God Has No Gender

God has no gender per se. Yet, in revelation, using the constraints of human language, God shows who He is by using gendered language demonstrating that He isn’t just a “cosmic force,” but a person. And so, He uses masculine language as well as images like “King” and “Father” and less frequently feminine images like “God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:18) or God as a “woman in labor” (Isaiah 42:14) to reveal His relationship to us.

One might speak of these as analogies that are meant to help us appreciate divine qualities. Of course, language will always fall short of expressing the fullness of who God is. Nonetheless, inadequate does not mean erroneous.

Because human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, we should appreciate both the masculine and feminine gender images when speaking of the divine lest we reduce the fullness of the Lord’s mystery.