WHO IS HUMAN?
What is humanity that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:4-8.
Many of our struggles in life originate in inaccurate and sometimes erroneous beliefs regarding God’s true nature and character. But unfortunately, there is also a wrong belief regarding man’s true identity and value.
Psalms 8:3-4 Put it this way, “When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?”
When deeply involved in a legalistic, performance-based religion, they invariably have little or no sense of identity or self-worth. Performance-based religion destroys man’s identity, dignity, and worth!
We will not be able to experience God meaningfully if we aren’t taught a proper biblical sense of identity based on the truth of the Gospel.
Many believe that being a model Christian or a truly “spiritual believer” is about becoming something other than a human being. We’ve been taught that humans are evil, weak, or deeply unspiritual.
In many ways, spirituality is believed to be about denying, disowning, and escaping our humanity through religious legalism and moral discipline. Christians have been encouraged to disown and reject their humanness and do everything to leave their human emotions, passions, and instincts.
A wise man said, “We do not become more spiritual by becoming less human!”
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6.
In legalistic, performance-based religion, our worth is earned by rule-keeping, good works, moral disciplines, and “so-called” holy living. According to this kind of religion, holiness means to deny almost everything to do with being human—staying away from everything that could be fun and having as little as possible to do with people in the world around us!
God seems disconnected and contrary to our human desires and dreams in this religion. As a result, we struggle to make the connection between who God is and who we are as human beings!
In the minds of so many believers, being human and enjoying life cannot possibly go hand in hand with being spiritual and having a relationship with a holy God!
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ Luke 7:33-34.
For many, it is unthinkable that a Holy God would have any connection to our most profound human passions and dreams of enjoying everyday life! Yet, we don’t realize that our love for living and enjoying life is only fully realized when we see humans’ intimate connection with a holy God, sharing in His (Zoë) life. In our union with God, the joy of living and the significance of being human is fulfilled!
Unfortunately, because of our religiosity and legalism, we’ve become confused and disconnected from knowing and relating to God based on our human identities. Therefore, we go through life trying to be or become something we’re not.
If we correctly interpret Scripture, especially the New Testament, God’s whole purpose for creating us is to be HUMAN. In God’s eyes and economy, the fact that we are HUMAN defines our true identity and worth to God!
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:6-13.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an emphatic declaration that GOD NOT ONLY LIKES “HUMAN,” HE LOVES “HUMAN” SO MUCH THAT HE BECAME ONE!!
GOD’S LOVE FOR HUMANS IS CONSTANT
Who then can ever keep Christ’s love from us? When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because he doesn’t love us anymore? And if we are hungry or penniless or in danger or threatened with death, has God deserted us?…despite all this, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us. For I’m convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love Romans 8:35, 37, 38.
Satan will always try one way or the other to make you think God doesn’t love you as much as you believe He does. He tries to use one experience or another that you might have had to prove that God is mad at you. Refuse to buy into his lies. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Never let the devil get you thinking that something has gone wrong with your relationship with God or that He doesn’t love you anymore. God’s love for you is eternal and unconditional.
Jeremiah 31:3, the Lord says, “…Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
God didn’t start loving you today. He loved you when you were most unlovable and yet a sinner: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8. If He loved you, then how much more now that you’re born of Him! People talk about God being a God of love, not just a God of love. He is Love! The Bible says: “God is love…” 1 John 4:8, and He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. John 3:16. The Bible didn’t just say, “God loved the world”; instead, it said, “He so loved the world,”; the world of men.
God’s love for you is beyond what your natural mind can imagine. He loved you so much, and He gave something so priceless— His precious Son—to have you. He would never have paid the price of His Son’s blood for your salvation if you weren’t worth that much to Him. Therefore, remember that no matter who you are, where you are, or what you’re going through, God loves you anyway. His arms of love are ever outstretched to embrace you, and His love for you is unconditional and eternal.
“Relationship with God [Christianity] is not about how much we work extremely hard to please God; it is about knowing who He is and experiencing Him.”
