Male and female roles and the Gospel

Matthew Roberts, of Trinity Church, York (woo York!) has a great article in Evangelicals Now about women in leadership:

His first point is something very helpful pastorally:

All God’s commands, though they sound like bad news when non-Christians first hear them, are really good

His second point is very helpful in showing why the issue matters:

in [one] sense, this is an issue which goes right to the heart of the gospel. Why? Because the entire ‘equality’ agenda assumes that unless women can do the same things as men they have less value. That is why opposing the idea that women and men should have the same roles is considered such an insult to women.

Now this is how non-Christian society always thinks. It cannot help connecting achievement and value. If it is true that unless we have the same role we do not have the same significance, it follows that our significance is determined by the role we have...

But this link between role and value is decisively severed by the gospel. Indeed, it is the severing of that link which is the heart of the gospel. This is what justification is. Through Christ, our value before God is not defined by what we do. Rather, it is defined by what Jesus has done for us.

Much more could be said of course...