Who taught you how to tie your shoes? Who taught you how to ride a bike? Who taught you how to drive a car? Who taught you how to be a man?

Isn't it just like life? The lessons and the questions get progressively more difficult. Maybe you know who taught you to do all of those things, but focus on the nature of those questions. The first question comes with a set of assumptions. The implication is that you actually have shoes and that you indeed know how to tie them. Skip ahead. Knowing who taught you how to be a man means that you rightly understand what it actually means to be a man. The problem is that so many of our definitions of manhood come with a few thousand years worth of distortions.

What does it mean to be a man? Is it merely gender? Is it linked to legal age status? Does it come with registering to vote or driving a car? Is it about power and authority, or status and significance?

It's not a question you can answer just by reading a book, listening to a sermon, or doing a Bible study. It takes a real encounter with the gospel.

Manhood was murdered. Adam fell, sin moved in, and death was born. When our connection to the One who created manhood was broken, so was our ability to be the men God called us to be. Fast forward a few thousand years and history records all the ways man has tried to reclaim manhood apart from God.

It's only in the gospel that we discover what it really means to be a man. It's only in Christ that we can truly be the men God created us to be. It's only when we abandon all the false ideas of manhood and embrace Jesus as the picture of perfect manhood that we even stand a chance.

This article is excerpted from Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole.

Eric Mason is the founder and lead pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia. He is also the founder of Thriving, an urban ministry organization committed to training city leaders for ministry. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Yvette, and his sons, Immanuel and Nehemiah.