On Being Human

Have you heard this? Maybe you’ve said this?

“Human!”

It’s a response to being called out for error, forgetfulness, and even wrong doing.

Sam came home with the groceries but bought the wrong kind of gluten free flour. His wife, Sue, had listed the exact one she needed for the dessert she was making to take to the family reunion for those members with dietary restrictions. Sam made an error. Sue was irritated.

“Human!” Sam defended himself.

Sam and Sue drove eighty miles to get to this family reunion. They remembered their lawn chairs, cooler filled with food and drinks, gifts for the grandparents, but they forgot the rare, old newspaper articles! Everyone was to contribute old family photos and newspaper clippings about Grandpa and Grandma from decades ago which cousin Martha was going to have digitalized to make into a family book. Sue was the only one in the family who had possession of the newspaper articles about Grandpa as a local baseball champion in his youth. Her cousin was counting on her. The articles were still where she placed them on her kitchen table. Sigh.

“Human!” Sue was mad at herself.

Cousin Martha lied. She’d been lying about it for years! Lying to herself, lying to her family and friends. Why? She did not want to face her financial reality. She did not want to change her lifestyle, so she borrowed and borrowed and borrowed money. Now, she was losing her house. She had to move. Martha unloaded her burden on Sue as they sat away from the rest of the family, near the old weeping willow tree they once played under as girls.  The tree wept with them. There was so much to say, so much to face, so much to do, but what should Martha do?

“Human!” claimed Martha. “So true!” consoled Sue.

But really? Is it really human nature to make errors, to forget, and to do wrong? Can we sort this out?

  What is human nature?

Human nature is the divinely designed innate, inner make-up of human beings, constituting the soul’s propensities and capacities.

Created in the image of God in a state of maturity and perfection, Adam and Eve were in a state of harmony with God, within themselves, and with each other. Princeton Seminary professor, Charles Hodge insightfully describes the harmony and equilibrium that composed the original nature of humanity. Man’s (male and female)  “reason was subject to God; his will was subject to his reason; his affections and appetites to his will; the body was the obedient organ of the soul. There was neither rebellion on the sensuous part of his nature against the rational, nor was there any disproportion between them needing to be controlled or balanced by ab extra [from outside] gifts or influence.”1 Read this again slowly.

An image is not the same as what it images, but it reflects some essential reality, moving in harmony with the original — God.

Can you image this as your own experience? Every thought you have is a clear but finite version of an infinite reality. Every interpretation you make is true and beautiful. Every desire, longing, and love your heart expresses aligns smoothly with God’s goodness. Your body responds ably and agreeably. Your feelings don’t clash with your logic. Your muscles don’t strain to dance with your thoughts. No inner conflict arises. All within you and between you and your Creator is shalom-filled affability. All truly is well.

This is human nature. This profiles what it really means to be “human.” “Human!” And creation smiles.

Our story of Sam and Sue and their family reunion shows a different kind of “human” nature. This is the human of the “fallen nature.”  We are such humans. We should not claim or blame our human nature for our errors, forgetfulness, or wrong doing. Instead, we should face our fallen nature and respond: “Fallen!”

“Fallen!” I erred. I forgot. I cheated. (Note my caveat in footnote #3 below.)

In my fallen nature, my reason is not subject to God; my will disagrees with my reason; my loves and appetites crave what my mind, conscience, and will warn against (until I am so calloused or confused that I do not hear their warnings), and pitifully, my body is incapable of living up to the requests of my soul. In every way (mind, emotions, and will), I am out of harmony with God. In every direction (between thoughts, feelings, and choices), I am in conflict with myself. And with others. I am broken. In the Fall, I broke. But all the pieces are still there. I need an influence, a force outside of myself, a God-Man Savior — to save me from my sinful self, to put me back together again and heal me, to make me whole.

“Human!” “Fallen!” “Redeemed!”

“My first-born mind was not subject to God;

My first-born will did not desire His Will;

My first-born affections and appetites were but idol-makers, and

My first-born body is subject to corruption.

Sigh.

But then I was given

A new heart – a new mind, will, and affection!

Follow your twice-born heart,

Tuned by God’s Spirit and Word,

Goaded by suffering and wooed by joy,

And your path leads to the place where

“The LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:6c).

Humbled and relieved, in this fresh beginning I begin anew,

Knowing that nothing in all creation can separate me

From the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans  8:38-39).”2

Redeemed Human!

God created Adam as the first Adam. Christ, the second Adam (I Corinthians 15: 45-49) is God made flesh (John 1:14) — human in perfection. Thoroughly human, without flaw or sin. Jesus “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature…” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is both the radiance of God as the Son and the perfect image of God as the human image bearer was designed to be.

So, to say, “Human!” when we err, forget, or do wrong is not true.3  Imperfection and sin are not innate to human nature; they are innate to the fallen nature. This we all have, except for Christ, the God-Man: truly God and perfectly human.

God is recovering His beautiful image in humanity (Colossians 3:10): Christ in me and you, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27; feed on all the given Scriptures and their contexts!).

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).

“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Selah!

Human. Fallen human. Redeemed human. Beloved in Christ.

***

1. Charles Hodge (1797-1878), Systematic Theology, Vol. II, 92. Also quoted in my book: 9, 12,186, and 200.
2. Karen Thomas Olsen, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy, 188.
3. Yes, error, forgetfulness, and wrong-doing are not moral equivalents. All are flaws; wrong-doing is sin. So, you may want to divide this differently than I have. However, in Jesus we find no error, forgetfulness, or sin; only perfect harmony and divine beauty.