Not all Humans are Equally Human

What does it mean to be human? Biblically speaking, it means I've been created in the image of God...and a million answers have been offered to define this. We are in the God's image because like God creates, we create, we have spirits, or because like God we can reason, or because we have a real capacity to love. And something about each of these rings true, but there is a dangerous analog to this. It means that when we cease to be creative, our humanity is diminished, when we become unable to reason we've lost some of our God-likeness, when we don't pray we're reduced to glorified apes and when we no longer love, we become a mere beast. Frankly, I think this is partially true. Not all humans are equally human. We look at Jesus, the ideal human, and we see in him all that humanity was intended to be. And we're not wrong to believe that the less we resemble Jesus, the less alive we are to our humanity. But I only say "partially true" because most essentially what it means to be human is that God has looked on us in a unique way. Humanity is not defined by human potential, capacity or activity. Humanity is defined by God. We are human, very simply, because God has loved us uniquely. For us (as well as for the cosmos) God sent his Son to die. The truth is, there is not easy answer our questions about beginning and end of life, but it does give us a better frame of reference for the discussion. What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. There are passages in the New Testament that suggest that the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was intended as a model for the relationship between individual believers, the church, and Jesus.

    These relationships are fixed in some senses, but dynamic in others. I don't think we can rule out the possibility that we are becoming (both as individuals and as a church) more like Christ over time.

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