I know what you’re thinking. Deep down inside, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you think that what you need more than anything is to become more like God. To be transformed into a more pure reflection of the divine.
And you’re right.
So here’s the question: what does that look like in the Biblical narrative? How do you know it, how should we talk about it?
One angle is to come at it from the angle of becoming partakers in the divine nature, the theosis lens that is being helpfully explored by many outside the Orthodox tradition these days. I think there’s a lot to that.
But of course, being all geeked out about being human, and the humanness of Jesus, and our connection to the earth God placed us on to rule on his behalf, I want to pursue the other angle.
I think that too many of us go around thinking that our problem is that we’re too human. “I’m only human” is a way to say, “Of course I made a mistake, of course I can’t do everything.” Being human is something we apologize for, an element of our story that connotes an obstacle to realizing our hoped-for end.
But I want to suggest that our real problem is that we are not human enough. And one of the most important things that comes about as the result of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is anthroposis: we enter the process of becoming truly human. And, becoming truly human is our ultimate destiny.
Humanness is not an opponent in the story of attaining to God’s purposes for us, humanness is the goal of the story, and Jesus is the helper sent to take us there.
Once upon a time, John Calvin talked about the study of God as looking in a mirror: “the human race are a bright mirror of the Creator’s works.” At the time that I was first reading that, it struck me as completely nonsensical. What could be less indicative of the nature of God than the mess that is humanity as we know it?
But then you start working with all this “humanity created in the image of God,” stuff. And you start working through the extent to which people are supposed to be participants in God’s rule over the earth. And you start digging into the ways that humanity’s disposition toward God is supposed to be connected with the flourishing of the planet that God created us to rule.
And what you discover at the end of it is that becoming more like God is tantamount to become more like the people God created us to be at the beginning.
To be a person in the image of God is to be a daughter or son of God. To be God’s child is to be an imitator of God as the parent whose image we bear.
And so the mission of Jesus is to reconstitute that image. He comes to be the true human, who is appointed God’s son through his resurrection life (Rom 1:4) and thereby becomes the firstborn brother into whose likeness we all are renewed (Rom 8:28ff.). he is like God by ruling for God, by bearing the family image, and by being faithful to the Father (even as the Firstborn Son is faithful to the Father through all eternity).
And so our destiny is… anthroposis. To be made more truly human as we come to bear the image of God afresh by being remade after the image of the second Adam, the second Man, who bears the image of the new humanity for the new creation.
Participation in the perfect image is the way by which we are conformed to that image. Now to figure out what the heck that actually means.
Good stuff here, Daniel. I was just commenting on this on Sunday to an adult ss class. I recalled then, and mentioned, the title of Murphy-O’Connor’s book on Pauline anthropology, Becoming Human Together. I think that title nicely sums up the point.
Ooh, that sounds like it hits the nail on the head. Note to self: “there’s another book worth reading out there that you haven’t touched yet.”
If I understand you correctly toy say I need to become more human. How do you figure that, knowing I am too much human already with all my sins, errors, omissions, and whatever else?
On the poritive side: very well written piece!
Ah–that’s just the point! Those things aren’t about being human, they’re about not being human enough.
Excellent article, dude. Kinda goes along with my thinking on the idea of the “image of God”. Shameless plug, here, but check out my blog in the link and the article I just posted today. Seems like we need to be less concerned about individual persons becoming like God and more about us being the humans we were intended to be where, in community, we reflect the image of God.
I love this line of thinking Daniel. Really falls in line with where I’ve come and what I hear N.T. Wright communicating quite often as of late (“After You Believe” particularly). Due to our truncated “Gospel” and plan of salvation, emphasizing what dirty rotten sinners we are in need of a Savior (what I call “hyperbolized depravity”), we’ve come to equate humanity and sin…as if they were two sides of the same coin. However, to be human is not to be sinful. Rather, to be truly and fully human is to be UNsinful. Sin distorts and diminishes our humanity. In Christ we see the ideal human who we should all strive to imitate. When we reflect God to the world and the world back to God, when we fight against injustice and feed the poor, when we live pure lives and abstain from immorality, when we strive to give people foretastes and serve as signposts for the age to come….that’s when our humanity really shines. It’s like we’re renovating an old broken down house. It’s still a house even though it’s messy and run down, but the hard work of painting, putting a new roof on, installing new carpet, taking out all the trash, and decorating results in a full, beautiful, renovated true house.
Kirk: We are supposed to become more human and rule the flourishing planet.
But, we are supposed to rule the whole creation, not just the planet. It might be too easy to get a too small picture of what being properly human might be, and what creation will be that we rule. It might be too easy to think we will be much like we are now, ruling over the earth only, itself much like the earth now – just with the things we don’t currently like made better.
Very interesting thoughts, Davey. Perhaps yours are expanding the ideas of Christ’s cosmic rule to take account of the fact that the cosmos is bigger than folks once thought?
Do we each get a planet of our own, like the Mormons?
I had the same wondering…
Ooo! Can I have Mars? What an EXCELLENT place for Mennonites to be on a planet named after the God of War! Redemption by indwelling, what?
Sorry… couldn’t resist.
The first thing I thought of was Leviticus: you will be holy for I am holy! And then I thought of Aaron’s sons being executed in front of him right before he had to perform his duties with no time to mourn. I thought of the thousands of animals killed and bled and burned. I thought of the genocide the Israelites (occasionally) wrought upon the Canaanites.
To become like God is a serious and terrifying thing!
Though perhaps that’s because of how unhuman we are now – it can only be rectified through horrible deeds.
Yeah, yet another reason to start with Jesus when we want to know what it might look like to act like / be like God.
to go with the second line …
“Deep down inside, in places you don’t talk about at parties … you want to be more human. You need to be more human. And who’s going to do it? you?”
Yes, you – and the power of Christ in you.
Great post Daniel. Here’s a question: anthroposis Biblically is a recapitulation of the first man before sin. But, scientifically, there was no “first man”. How do we hold this missional narrative together if human evolution is true?
Great question. I think that it merits a post of its own. Look for it in sometime in the next couple of days.
The short answer is: we read from back to front, and in many ways the Bible was also written from back to front. That is to say, the creation stories are written to tell us that Israel is the means to the sort of “end” that would be a putting things into the sort of order we see reflected in Genesis 1-3.
I`m sorry Daniel not writing earlier I believe your take on anthroposis is a very good starting point. However, your interpretation may be seem as limited as your anthroptic stance seems as only restoration to the state `Adam` was prior to the Fall, whoever Adam was, whether he is mythic or real. An important aspect is that of the Ascension of Jesus as now Christ does not restore the Adamic state but takes humanity into the very heart of the Living Father, Son and Spirit. The notion of theosis which has been well taken up by the work of Michael Gorman. A necessary explanation is aligned with the Assumption or Dormition of Mary, that is the mother of Jesus is taken body and Soul into the heart of the Trinity. This is the future of all Creation that is groaning to fruition that will come to be at the eschaton or that has happened in the future and is slowly working itself in the future as some understanding of the Resurrection suggest
I cannot agree more. Your thrust have a lot of parallels to my recent blog series on biblical anthropology. I think many Christians today see our humanity, our bodies, our flesh as a prison for our souls/spirits and the answer is to be liberated as much as possible from the flesh. Yet this is a concept out of Greek philosophy and one that is not shared by the biblical authors.
Rom 8.29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 12.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.