Wonderfully Human

My buddy Daniel Kirk at sibboleth posted some of his initial reactions to the unfortunate idea of being "only human," as if one's humanity were, from a Biblical perspective, something to be regretted. He touches on what I think is a very important theme in the whole Biblical narrative. God is not working to negate humanity. Indeed, according to the very sobering introduction to the story of the Great Flood in Genesis 6, he contemplated that once and decided against it. Instead, God is working to restore humanity to his original creative intentions, and he's doing it in Jesus.

That seems to me to be the idea at work in Romans 5, where Paul describes Jesus as a second Adam, and in Romans 8, where Paul takes the next step to say that God intends for those who are in Christ to be "conformed to the image of His Son." Having once created human beings in his own image and having seen them damage that image in sinful rebellion, God now works through the Messiah (the only perfect human being) to restore all who are in Him to full humanity in his image.