The New Eve - Lewis Robert [33]
But character is what makes Mary stand so tall in Scripture and among women. She exuded exemplary virtue and bold, extraordinary faith. Indeed, she lived the life the first Eve forsook. But even more important for our purposes, Mary's life, when coupled with that of Eve's, helps us to fashion a biblical definition of authentic womanhood.
Making the Comparison
When Mary's life is placed next to Eve's, I believe three significant issues stand out that serve as building blocks for constructing a vision of authentic womanhood.
What They Embraced
Both Mary and Eve were offered the chance to accept or reject God's word. In Eve's case God's commands could not have been clearer: be fruitful and multiply, subdue and rule, leave and cleave, and do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die (Gen. 2:17, 24). With those core callings and a single restriction, Eve was free to enter all the goodness God had put before her and Adam. And Eden, the most idyllic paradise on earth, was just the beginning of that goodness. In truth, it was merely a launching pad for adventures yet to be revealed.
But this goodness soon was challenged. As we observed in the previous chapter, Eve heard from the serpent that there were better things beyond God's will for her—things she thought would be much more satisfying. God had been holding these things back and lying about them too. “You surely will not die!” the serpent scoffed while holding up the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:4). Satan was telling Eve, the only thing that will die is your limitations. To eat is to become like God, to live life without restraint, to make your own rules, to decide for yourself what's right and what's wrong.
So Eve listened. And she responded by choosing to believe the deceiver's offer rather than embracing God's callings and the goodness she already enjoyed from Him. “There must be more,” she concluded.
Mary's crossroads were even more daunting than Eve's. Seriously. Remember how it began? The angel Gabriel invaded Mary's home with his awesome presence (Luke 1:26–30). He seemed more threatening than inviting. The universal reaction to angelic visitation in the Bible is fear. Angels scared people stiff.
Take the priest Zacharias, for instance. He was in the temple of God when an angel visited him. Did he clasp the angel's hand and trade banter? No, Zacharias froze in his tracks (Luke 1:12). It is a fearful thing to stand in the presence of holiness.
And so here was Mary, a young girl alone at home, betrothed to a good man, minding her own business, and suddenly she was confronted with a supernatural encounter that might have ruined her life. God had made her pregnant before marriage! But He gave her His promise that this pregnancy of bearing the Son of God would make her life special too. It was an awkward, overwhelming moment. It sounded wonderful, but it also could have been a catastrophe. There was a real world out there that frowned on unmarried, pregnant teenage girls. After this encounter Mary could have easily panicked and submitted to an abortion (they were available in her day and popular among the Romans) or to a secret divorce (Joseph was willing to do so; Matt. 1:19), or she could have beat a trail out of town, leaving God's calling far behind. But Mary instead showed remarkable faith. She stood her ground, trembling and yet bold, and chose to embrace God's calling on her life. Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, summed up Mary's choice this way: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). As in Eve's case, this was Mary's life-defining moment. But whereas Eve shunned God's word, Mary embraced it.
What They Did
Action flows from belief. What you do reflects what you believe about yourself, the world, and God—your worldview as we discussed in chapter 2. We've seen what Mary and Eve chose to believe. Now what did they do?
In Eve's case it can be summarized