The text from scripture we want to focus on today is from Paul’s letter to the Romans: 11:33-36 (ESV)

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.

The title of my presentation today begs the question, what is it that every woman needs to know?

When I was growing up, I was introduced to a wide variety of churches, denominations, and even some cults. All of them wanted me to believe like them, but few of them cared that I actually understood what I believed. There is a lot in that period of my life that I don’t remember, but I do remember not being easily deceived—some things they just couldn’t get me to budge on, like Jesus being God and whether someone outside of a cult could be saved. When I was in my mid-twenties, I began to seriously walk with the Lord and took responsibility for what I believed in. I developed a love for theology that even today is both quenched and unquenched all at the same time. I just can’t get enough of knowing God!
  
We want to know what we believe and why, especially as it relates to our passage today.  Through the first 11 chapters, Paul writes about our condition as sinners, why we need a Redeemer, and how it is that we are justified by faith alone. When we get to chapter 11:33-36, Paul concludes this dramatic account of sin and redemption with a hymn of praise to God, savoring the plan of salvation that only a God with authority over the whole universe could ordain.

He begins in 11:33 by proclaiming the awesomeness of God.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

And without pause, he appeals to what scripture has already said about God’s nature in Isaiah and in Job.

For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

In our finiteness we can’t possibly know the mind of God or know fully why God acts and intercedes in our lives the way he does—we can’t answer anything beyond scripture. And even when it seems God is far away, he is acting in ways we can’t even contemplate. By virtue of God being God, it makes no sense that he would need our input or advice on anything. Paul is leading up to a very important conclusion in all of this, that based on what we do know about God, that his judgments are unsearchable (beyond our capacity to fathom) and his ways inscrutable (incapable of being understood even through investigation), what possible justification is there for us to live in any way other than a God-centered life?

What is God trying to teach us through “Who has been his counselor?” Believe it or not, and opposite of what we  usually say, we often live as if God needs to hear from us, that he doesn’t have a clue about our circumstances and he doesn’t understand our suffering. We certainly know that isn’t true. The problem is, when we elevate our experience over the wisdom of God revealed to us in Scripture, we are in every way telling God we know better. He is our counselor, or he isn’t God.

What does God want us to see about him and ourselves with the question, “who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” God is not dependent on his creation for anything, and everything we have is already his! Not only our salvation, but everything in the universe—it is all from him, through him and to him. No human has the mind of God, can give God advice or can give God something that is not already his. We are entirely dependent on him, this is an important distinction between the Creator and the creation, but not intended to make us feel as if we don’t matter, because in fact, we do! That God doesn’t need us, yet he loves us and has a plan for us is proof of his love.  God loves all of his creation, but humankind is his crowning glory because he created us in his image.

So our response to all of this is to be as Paul’s: a response of praise. He writes,

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.”

So what are we to do with the knowledge that God is Sovereign, that he has ultimate authority and power, that all things are from him, sustained by him, and belong to him.?

That God IS sovereign is the WHAT that I believe every woman needs to know, but not simply know where to find it in the bible or contain it intellectually I our minds, but to really understand it and then live it!

There is nothing to rejoice in or take comfort in or worship if God is limited by any human activities, or if somehow we can make God do what we want him to do. If there is some way in which God does not know all things or if he is not the bearer of all wisdom, what hope is there for any one of us, let alone the entire universe?

And so as we believe this truth about God, we need to stop living in a way that suggests God is far away, impersonal, and powerless. Our lives need to be a testimony to God’s sovereignty, giving glory to him in all areas of our life grounding or beliefs and actions in scripture. This is what is known as a Christian worldview. But without a true understanding, there is no testimony to this truth and there is no love. John Piper said,  

Good theology is the foundation of great doxology. Knowledge is utterly crucial. But it is not an end in itself. It serves faith and love. And if it doesn't, it only puffs up...Where education does not produce heartfelt exultation in God, it degenerates into proud intellectualism. And where exultation is not sustained and shaped by solid Biblical education, it degenerates into proud emotionalism.

Ladies, it ultimately does not matter that we have a solid understanding of the sovereignty of God if it does not move us to action, to cause us to live a God-centered life, if it does not move us to Christ-like love. Likewise, we can’t live a life that truly honors God if there is no content to our theology. Our external worship­­—the life we live—must flow out of our knowledge of God and his love. And this is what Paul insists in the verses immediately following our text today. Romans 12:1-2…

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So we’ve established what every woman needs to know….that God is sovereign and this knowledge should lead to a life of true worship, a God-centered life. So what in the world does all of this have to do with Biblical Womanhood?

Biblical womanhood is essentially the view that honors God and his design for men and women in their designated roles and relationships. God-centeredness, rooted in the sovereignty of God, is where Biblical womanhood finds its foundation, which is why today we have begun the discussion with this brief look at sovereignty. But this God-center worldview is in a battle with what is best described as women-centered feminist worldview, a way of thinking that the church is not entirely immune to.

What many of you probably know as the women’s liberation movement of the 60’s and 70’s, feminism to this day continues to have great appeal to all women because of it’s message of so-called liberation. But at the root of feminism is a philosophy that rejects absolute truth, defines God according to whatever standard seems good at the time, and seeks to escape the boundaries of femininity. Feminism is a worldview that seeks to dismantle God’s design for church, family, and all of society through what is ultimately a loathing of femininity that manifests predominately in the rejection of the gift of procreation, a denial of maternal nurturing, and a redefining of human life.

If you have not yet heard, March is International Women’s Month and this week, President Obama created the President’s Council on Women and Girls. This summer, young women are preparing to flock to Washington D.C. to hear the false gospel of reproductive rights and freedom from male tyranny in the workplace and the church. A couple thousand women and girls will attend this event. As feminism continues to be the most dominant voice for women in society—and in many church denominations, such initiatives will demand not only an example by Christian women who seek to be God-centered, living in accordance to the revealed word of God, but we also need to be prepared with an answer for our hope in Christ and to express a gospel-driven alternative to those who are being swayed by the lie that began in the garden.

It was Eve’s actions in the garden that I believe were the first outworking of this feminist philosophy—though it was not first equality with Adam that she was seeking, it was independence from God. Eve desired freedom from all constraints: free to make her own choices, freedom from accountability in relationships, and the freedom to decide her own morality. Eve abandoned her knowledge of God, his revelation of himself to her and Adam, and replaced it with her own worldview of independence which amounted to nothing less than viewing herself as god. Elimination of distinction between herself and Adam was the consequence of the eliminated distinction between herself and God. We see this in God’s words to them in the Garden as God confronts Adam and Eve in their sin:

Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you (Gen 3:16)

One commentator wrote

These words from the Lord indicate that there will be an ongoing struggle between the woman and the man for leadership in the marriage relationship. The leadership role of the husband and the complementary relationship between husband and wife that were ordained by God before the fall have now been deeply damaged and distorted by sin. (1)

For feminism, truth about womanhood is not found within biblical Christianity, it is found in experience. And even when feminism will consider scripture, it is interpreted through this framework or grid of experience, which is where feminist theology as a dominant academic discipline begins. This framework dictates that truth is found within the wants and desires of women, therefore truth is not viewed to reside outside of the self—with God. Remember Eve—her truth had little to do with God’s revealed truth, it had to do with her own desires. Let’s not give the serpent all the credit.
The feminist ideals of the world appeal to the desire of self-gratification and do not support a God-centered view of life.

Biblical womanhood is the view that starts with God and depends on God, accepting the scripture as our normative, authoritative source for matters of faith and living, that God has design all things including what it means to be a woman—married, single, or widowed. What every woman needs to know is that because he is the sovereign Lord from whom everything came into being, he is not only trustworthy, but worthy of our obedience and praise. For from him and through him and to him are all things.