BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Manliness of Christ’ by Dale Partridge

“Jesus truly embodies the epitome of masculinity. He exemplifies praus, a Greek term often translated as meekness, which fails to convey the deeper meaning of "strength under control." Namely, Jesus was not weak. Rather, He is the perfect example of power and restraint. Therefore, it's time for us to shed the image of Jesus as a long-haired, feminine figure seeking humanitarian acts of kindness. Instead, we must reclaim a balanced, biblically grounded perspective that aligns with the teachings of Scripture.”

— ‘The Manliness of Christ’, Introduction by Eric Con

This question of what character Jesus had always puzzled me, and I was taught from birth that He was a meek, gentle, soft, pain-enduring, patient motherly-like father. But no real man in reality is soft or weak or gentle in the way a woman is. Men are naturally strong-willed, hard, and stoic, and most importantly, aggressive. Men are the ones who fight because their capacity for aggression and combat is vastly unlike that in women.

Men are the ones who assert, to take the burden, to protect, and to lead - and Jesus displays all of these traits. Jesus led the 12 disciples amongst myriads of others. But imagine for a second if Jesus was soft spoken, frail-bodied, tired, exhausted, meek and almost lazy in living! How could he have talked to thousands at a time with this character? No, Jesus had the character of a man: strong spirited, loud-voiced (or what is the same, a confident energetic voice as most of the people in his time had), full of vigour, strong, humourous, fearless, bold, and assertive. He was a real man, and was most certainly not dull and overly serious, for that would show a lack of humanity. No, Jesus was full of energy and life and bonded with the ones he talked to - through humour, through vulnerability and through love.

And thus Jesus, being so misunderstood by many, have feminised Jesus as a womanly character, and this had led to the huge loss of men in the church, and therefore the softness of the church. We were never taught to fight for our church, but to only endure evil by “turning the other cheek” and giving “our cloak also”. But the greatest message in the bible really is this, when it says: “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil” (Proverbs 8:13, Italics mine). As Dale writes:

“Too often, we forget that the church is not on the defensive, fighting a losing battle. We are on the offensive, always conquering through Christ. Like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of God will never shrink but will continue to expand until Christ subdues all that is His (Matt. 13:31-32; Mal. 1:11)”.

Dale revives a message most men are desperate to hear: That God is a fierce God, and establishes Himself before all, righteous and unrighteous. If we truly are men of Christ, we will fight for what is good, and be intolerant of all kinds of evil. In this day and age, evil creeps in as laziness, softness towards trials and tribulation, avoidance of responsibility and suffering, and an overall lack of respect and faith in Christ.

We live as though as we will never die, and take each moment as though another will easily come, each day after each day the same - but where at the end of things will we go? I would imagine Christ greeting all of us with a firm handshake, welcoming us back to Him, but most of us upon seeing him will groan from inside, realising how little we gave up, and much we gave into our desire for comfort and pleasure and self-gratitude.

For us to truly despise evil and find the life of Christ a worthy example to emulate, it obviously begins by believing that Christ is the Truth, that is, the fact that Christ existed as God in the form of a human, living for us and for our example, for our edification, and for our salvation. But this cannot be done just through silent prayer, but through active prayer. Every moment we have is an opportunity to reject evil, whether it be lying, offending others, provoking others, teasing, gossiping, envying, pitying, disdaining others; procrastination from hard, honest work; indulging in pleasure as avoidance from confronting reality. We can show a hatred for evil and live as Christ live by reflecting on all the things which enter our body and soul: the things we hear, see, smell, touch, and taste - all these things can either allow or repel evil. Our eyes, our ears, our tongue, our smell, our sense of touch - everything that influences these things can either lead us to good, or lead us to evil.

Christ represented the typical man in his male characteristics: he was bold, fearless, intense, and Loving to the point of sacrifice. The next time we look at the image of Christ on the cross, let us not see Him as a frail being, soft and smiling, begging us to be with him:

“Christ is not passive but active. He is not in distress, He is predominant. He is not subject, but King! Christ is not begging people to believe, He is sovereignly and mercifully saving those who are His and leaving the rest to eternal judgment (Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:28-30, 9:11, 9:22; 1 Pet. 2:7-8).”

Let us contemplate on the passage below, where Christ illuminates the intense suffering laid out ahead of him, which He chooses to pursue with resolve and fearlessness:

“And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.” (Mark 10: 32-34)