What We Can’t Say About Birth

I don’t make a point of calling people out when I don’t agree with them. Keep scrolling is my internet motto usually. But when Phylicia and I were researching for a podcast episode, I happened upon this article on The Gospel Coalition’s website written by Gloria Furman.

Let me say first that I like some stuff that the Gospel Coalition is doing. I have read some by Gloria Furman and I enjoy her writing. I am truly not trying to hate on either. But I do not agree with a lot of this article and I hate that this is the information on the internet about birth and Christians.

Overall themes in the Bible

We can’t take one verse and build our whole theology on it. We can make the Bible say literally anything we want that way. I can read this verse (Genesis 3:16) and definitely see why we think that God is punishing/judging/whatever-word-you-want-to-use woman with pain while they are giving birth. But there are major theological arguments with that viewpoint when we look at the whole narrative of the Bible. (Also, Phylicia and I talk a little about the context of that passage in the podcast episode.)

There is no curse on women. (Furman didn’t say that but a lot of Christian sources do.) God destroys what He curses; instead He offers redemption to man and woman. He specifically says that He cursed the enemy and the ground and they will both be destroyed. Read the story about Achan and Jericho; cursed things were set apart to the Lord for destruction. (Please don’t take my word on this; study it out for yourself. Do a Bible search on curses and read them. It won’t take you that long).

I have several issues with calling pain in childbearing judgment for sin. If we mean punishment for the fact that we are born sinners, then we are destroying our salvation narrative. We have to stop telling women that Jesus paid the penalty for their sin if we mean that Jesus paid the penalty for their sin except for when they are giving birth. There is no birth exclusion clause on anything in the Bible. And if it’s punishment for sin, (first, which sin? because again, we’re messing with our salvation narrative) then we have to fix our story. I’ll give Gloria Furman this: at least she genuinely seems to believe that every women should feel judged by God while she’s giving birth. Most people say that it’s punishment but no one specifically should feel punished. We never see God punish sin where no one feels punished.

But if it’s punishment, we contradict the model for punishment in the Bible. Punishment is so the person being punished will stop/not repeat the behavior that dishonors God and anyone who sees the punishment will choose a different path. What are women supposed to stop doing?

Punishment is also never presented as a blessing, as children are. Over and over in the Bible, God blesses women with children. And all children are birthed. Birth and babies go together. Is God blessing women with judgment? That clearly makes no sense. I once heard a pastor say that God gave Job ten more children to punish his wife for telling Job to curse God and die. I hope your mouth dropped open a little because God punishing women with babies is not a Bible narrative; but if we believe that birth is judgment, then we can say that.

We also never see God put a punishment/judgment in the way of someone doing the will of God. And if a woman is pregnant, it’s God’s will that she give birth to that child. Could there be suffering in doing God’s will? Yes. Affliction? Sure. Persecution from others? Definitely. But punishment from God? I can’t find that scenario. God never acts that way and God never changes.

God is also portrayed as a laboring woman (Isaiah 42:14-16, among others). Is he judging Himself or a doing a work that brings change?

We spend our time as Christians calling people from the judgment or punishment of God. We tell them they can avoid that by trusting in Jesus. Do we mean except in birth? Then we encourage women to have babies. We are encouraging them to give birth, which would mean we are encouraging them to be judged by God. That’s a very inconsistent story.

Back specifically to the article.

Childbirth is certainly evidence of God’s mercy. (So is every breath we take- in a way. We have to keep in mind that the alternative is going to be with Jesus.) But it’s also His plan. These are His children that He’s entrusting to us. This is His battle with Satan that’s playing out and we are only part of that story. We are not the story. It’s not that we want to have babies and God lets us keep doing so and penalizes us on the way.

If we are calling labor “judgment” for sin (and she does say “the judgment of birth pain” under point 5), then what are we doing with this verse? John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word, and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” And there are many other verses that say this same thing. In John 3 we are told that if we are not believers we are under condemnation; not for being in labor, but for not believing “in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Women lose none of their status in Christ while they are giving birth. They are still adopted heirs of God (Galatians 4:5-7), inhabited by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 6:19). They still have bold and confident access to the Father (Ephesians 3:12, Hebrews 4:16) and Jesus still reconciled them to God and killed the hostility on the cross (Ephesians 2:16). Hebrews 13:20-21 is still in the Bible and there are no “birth exclusion clauses” on any of the promises of God.

She also states “the pain we experience in childbearing is a call to repentance and faith.” Now I looked up repentance and there were a few verses about repentance leading to the forgiveness of sin, and the baptism of repentance, and the fruits of repentance (you know, a changed life) and then Romans 2:4 that says “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” There is nothing about repentance being connected to birth. Repentance leads us to change. Pain in childbearing leading to repentance could only mean that we quit giving birth.

As for pain in childbearing leading to faith? Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Pain in childbearing has nothing to do with saving faith. Does it increase our faith in God to be our rescue, our deliverance, the God who promises to be our help? Absolutely, as should every other situation in life.

There are several more things I could say about her points but those are the big ones (and we’re close to 1500 words here). Those are salvation issues. Those are character of God issues.

And please, let’s not forget. This message that God is judging women in birth comes from the same group of people that tries to tell women that God has blessed them with a child and He will provide all they need if they will just choose to give that child life. No wonder the Christian pro-life movement is often accused of not being very pro-woman.

I’m not saying that God winks at sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually (which isn’t even mentioned in Genesis 3). Every person who has been born is spiritually dead (Romans 6:23). We are separated from a holy God by our sin, unable in any way to make up the difference. That’s why we don’t believe in penance to earn God’s favor or salvation by works. We can’t bridge the gap between us and a holy God. Our sin separates us from His very presence; yet He died for His enemies (Romans 5:8-11). That’s where we see the cross. Jesus bore the punishment for our sin. He bought our peace with God. He canceled the record of our debt, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). That’s a level playing field: man, woman, one child, no children, twelve children, easy labors, or a lot of complications.

I’m far from an expert. There’s a lot we will never know about the Fall and what happened because God didn’t tell us. I’ve heard a lot of people say things about this passage that this passage doesn’t say. And even if we think we read the meaning of something, we can’t make it mean something that contradicts large portions of scripture. We certainly can’t say it means something that contradicts the main tenet of our faith.