What does it mean to be human? A question I have seen posed in books, magazine articles and blogs, TV shows and movies. There are so many different answers. So, what does it mean?

Jesus came for one purpose, so many say. But I think there is more to the story. Jesus came to offer himself up on the cross, Jesus came to forgive sins, Jesus came to heal, Jesus came to be the light and the life for all, and much more. Jesus also came to show us what it meant to be human, and this was very necessary. 

Adam was a human being. Had Adam continued under God's direction and instruction, Adam would have been the human we all should have been. Instead, Romans 5 tells us, Adam chose his own road, we might say the road of humanity but I am not so sure. Maybe Adam chose a road that was not truly human. Maybe Adam chose a road that lead away from humanity and we have been on that alternate road for so long that we do not even know what the right road looks like. 

God tried to remind humanity of what it meant to be human many times. The offer was always there. God tried through individuals, God tried through a nation. God did not fail, humanity did, and continues to fail. We always chose our own way. Part of being human is the ability to choose. The first human chose and sent all the rest down the same road. It is the road that you sometimes look up from and realize that you are going the wrong way. At times when you realize you are going the wrong direction you might try to redirect or recalculate (like Google maps does, recalculating...). The problem is that we all recalculate with Adam's faulty directions. It is very hard, very difficult as seen in Romans 7. We forget, every day, that the realest human being already gave us directions. This man even narrowed it down to the simplest possible way. 

Jonathan Mitchell gives us an excellent view of John 1:4.
​"And the life was continuing being, and began progressively existing as, the Light of mankind (or: Furthermore, the Light progressively came to be the life known as "humanity," and was for human beings; or: Then the life was existing being the light from the humans)."

I have always loved that translation. Jesus came as a human being (Philippians 2:5-11) and not only that, but he progressively became human thereby showing us what it means to be human. Jesus became the perfection that Adam should have been. Jesus shows us, yesterday, today, and in the future, what the right choice was and is. He gives us the answer to the question, what does it mean to be human?

Being human is not undesirable. Any thought of a future escape from humanity is, in my opinion, the wrong answer. Just because we may be looking forward to, as Paul did in Romans 7, relief from the flesh, does not mean we will not be human. Jesus as a man in absolute perfection sits next to our Father in heaven. The flesh does not make us human, it is only part of our current existence. When God made man, God declared it was very good. The hosts of heaven shouted for joy. 

God knows what it means to be human, and God wants us to know as well. A written record has been provided, the map of the correct road.  

I have been offering a short series at our church based on a single chapter from the book Reversed Thunder, by Eugene Peterson. The main idea that I have been trying to convey is God as our head,  God as our leader, God over us in all things, God is our king. I do not mean king as in a kingdom or governmental system as we might think. God has, as Mr. Peterson says, the last word on politics, the last word on everything. So, in essence, the world system, in it's various forms, has nothing over God, it has nothing that is of God, it's interests are solely rooted in and of itself. 

I have come to believe the best way to describe this system is found in Romans 5:12-21. Adam, and we can here insert humanity, attempted (attempts) to over-throw God. The result was, and is, death. God offers life. We offer death. The world systems that we all live under ultimately offer death. The apostle John wrote, "But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.", John 20:31. In the NRSV the word life appears 39 time in John, look them up and find that the only life worth anything, the only true opposite of death, is Jesus. In chapter 12 verse 25 tells us that life of this world is hopeless,  and to find hope you must hate your life in this world. Humanity's system will never be able to give you the life that was intended for you to live, never. The world's systems do not deserve our support. There is not one world system that has ever been Godly, not one ever in the past, not one now, and certainly there will never be such a world system. 

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 
Col 3:1-3 NRSV

According to Ephesians, I, as a follower of Christ, have been raised and seated with him in the far above. Paul tells us in Romans that we have been baptized into Christ's cross-work, in its entirety. So we are hid in Christ, in God, away from this world and all that it stands for, and this means that everything about you should scream 'I am of God'! It should ooze from our pours so that it is unmistakable to those around us. This is what Paul is telling us. He continues to say that everything about us that is earthly (fleshly, worldly) should be put to death. That examples he gives are not definitive, they are rather a starting point, you can fill in the rest. Everything of the world, without exception. Jesus said we can only serve one master. One, and let the one be he who is seated far above all rulers, principalities, and authorities.

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