Timothy Stewart

BHT 523, Human Anthropology paper, OL01

December 7, 2019
Word Count:3236

Introduction
The human journey is one of reunification and deification. Ever since the Garden of

Eden, God has been working out his plan to reestablish relationship between humanity and God

and to teach them how to be like him (Gen. 1,3). Unique in creation, humanity has been created

in the image of God or the imago Dei, for the sake of relationship with God (Gen. 1,2). In this

paper, I will show how Jesus Christ is central to a Christian understanding of what it means to be

human. Both the Old and New Testaments reveal truth about being human that will be explored.

Historically, the church has expressed different views about what it means to be created in, and

redeemed to live as, the imago Dei, all of which will need exploring. Finally, the implications of

all of this as it relates to our daily lives needs to be addressed if we are to call ourselves

Christian.

Jesus: our model for what it means to be human

During Jesus’ last meal with his disciples before his execution, he took time to give them

a final example of how he expected them to live. Stripping himself of his robe and wrapping a

towel around his waist, he washed the feet of his disciples. “After he had washed their feet, had

put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to

you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord

and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set

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you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you’” (John 13:12-15 NRSV). Jesus

made it very clear, he saw himself as a model for his disciples.

In order for us to understand how Jesus was able to be the example humanity needs, Jean

Vanier says, “To understand how Jesus lived and acted, to understand his compassion and anger,

we must understand that there were no barriers around his heart, like in us, barriers that prevent

us from being truly compassionate, barriers that block the flow of love, barriers that separate us

from God and from reality, barriers that protect us from pain.”1 Vanier makes the point that Jesus

lived openly and fully, not from a guarded position doing everything possible to avoid pain, but

rather was able to live a fully human life because he did not allow any obstacles between him

and his mission to live a compassionate, love- filled, and God-embracing life for all to see. “It is

in this communion of love that the divine and the human intermingled in Him, the eternal word

of love flowing through His finite flesh.”2 And why was he able to do this? “The Son proceeds

eternally from the Father and finds his being, his personhood, in the total and absolute gift of his

being to the Father.”3 Jesus is eternally connected to the Father and it is Jesus’ mission to help us

all eternally connect with God once again.

Vanier goes on to show that the Trinity and Jesus’ role within it demonstrates how we are

all to relate to each other in a myriad of relationships. “The Love of the three divine persons, one

for the other, one in the other, contains all the shades of love and friendships that exist between

human beings; gentleness, kindness, burning passion, total trust, humility and tenderness,

stillness and resting one in another.”4 Is there a human relationship existent that would not
1
Jean Vanier, Jesus the Gift of Love (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 1994), 65.

2
Ibid, 71.

3
Ibid, 77.
4
Ibid, 78.

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benefit from gentleness, kindness, passion, trust, humility, tenderness, stillness, and resting

properly expressed? And Jesus was able to relate to everyone he met in the proper fashion

because of his integrity. “But people were touched not only by what he said but even more by the

way he lived, by the radiance and the love that flowed from him. In him there was no hypocrisy,

no double messages. There was no separation between what he said and what he lived. His words

flowed from his life, not just his head.”5

Integrity by definition gives strength. To be one throughout strengthens an individual as

they proceed forward in their mission. Jesus’ mission took him into the pit. “Jesus is pushed into

the pit of weakness and humiliation, failure and abandonment, encircled by darkness. His

friends, his chosen ones, those he had sought, to form and transform as they walked the paths of

Galilee together and sailed on the lake, are confused, terrified; they break down, run away,

abandon Jesus to his fate.”6

But Why? Why would Jesus choose to suffer so much? Jesus was still modeling for us,

and in this case he was teaching us his greatest lesson. He was teaching us how to love. “The

logic of love is to love to the very end, even when there is rejection. To love is to give oneself. Is

it really love if one turns away when love is refused? If one loves, one continues to knock at the

locked door accepting to give one’s life for the loved one. Jesus accepted to enter that pit of

rejection. By becoming the damned one, cut off from the religious people, he brought the loving

presence of God into that very pit.”7 Vanier goes further, "The God of love did not eliminate pain

nor explain it; God became one with pain to reveal His presence to all people who are in pain at

5
Ibid, 106.

6
Ibid, 137.
7
Ibid, 172.

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all times."8 To love is to endure pain in order to connect. The writer of Hebrews writes, “Looking

to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him

endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of

God (Heb. 12:2 NRSV).

Jesus, the very definition of integrity, used his strength to endure pain and death for the

sake of modeling love. Vanier states, “to be fully human is the development of the heart and the

head and then we can become one . . . when we are one, we can let go of the Ego and embrace

the beauty in everyone and we can work for peace together.”9 In the end, it appears that Jesus

was showing us how to live lives filled with integrity and love. Living with integrity will qualify

us for relationship with God as we are honest with him about our standing before him, and living

with love will allow us to relate properly to God and all humanity.

Scriptural revelation about the truth of being human

At the beginning of the Old Testament, we read in Genesis, “Let us make humankind in

our image, according to our likeness . . . So God created humankind in his image, in the image of

God he created them; male and female he created them (Gen. 1:26a-27 NRSV). The pinnacle of

God’s creation, humanity is created for relationship with God. And yet, three chapters into

Genesis this relationship is mortally wounded. Sin enters the human paradigm and influences

everything. In his curse on the earth God declares, “I will greatly increase your pangs in

childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.” And to the man he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of

your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’

8
Ibid, 173.

9
Jean Vanier, “What does it mean to be fully human? Jean Vanier, Templeton Prize 2015,” March 11, 2015, video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWrru31ZPzo.

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cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and

thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your

face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are

dust, and to dust you shall return”(Gen.3:16-19 NRSV).

Created for relationship with God and yet broken, the book of Psalms gives us some

insights into our complicated nature. “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me

together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful

are your works; that I know very well” (Psalm 139:13-14 NRSV). “You turn us back to dust, and

say, “Turn back, you mortals . . . For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to

an end like a sigh. The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;

even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away”(Psalm 90:3,9-

10 NRSV). Humanity’s identity is delicate in that it is both “fearfully and wonderfully made”

(Psalm 139:14 NRSV) and “dust” (Psalm 90:3 NRSV). How are we to wrestle with this balance?

The Book of Ecclesiastes offers some assistance. The teacher in Ecclesiastes uses the

word hevel many times to describe life. “Most English Bibles translate this word, hevel, as

“meaningless,” but that doesn’t quite capture the entire idea. In Hebrew, hevel literally refers to

“vapor” or “smoke.” The teacher uses this word thirty-eight times throughout the book as a

metaphor to describe how life is temporary and fleeting, like a wisp of smoke, but also how life

is an enigma or paradox.”10 With so much of life being uncontrollable and difficult to discern, we

are offered this wisdom. “The teacher discovers that the key to truly enjoying life is accepting

hevel, acknowledging that everything in your life is totally out of your control. About six

10
Tim Mackie, “Overview: Ecclesiastes,” The Bible Project, June 10, 2016, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lrsQ1tc-2wk.

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different times, at the bleakest moments in his dialogue, the teacher suddenly talks about “the

gift of God,” which is the enjoyment of the simple, good things in life such as friendship, family,

a good meal, or a sunny day. You and I can’t control the most important things in our lives.

Nothing is guaranteed, and strangely, that’s the beauty of it. When I adopt a posture of complete

trust in God, it frees me to simply enjoy life as I actually experience it, and not as I think it ought

to be.”11

The New Testament builds on this fundamental truth about being human. In John 3,

where we see the Gospel most clearly articulated, we read, “And this is the judgment, that the

light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds

were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may

not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen

that their deeds have been done in God” (John 3:19-21 NRSV). We as broken humans have evil

deeds that we never want exposed as well as good deeds that stand up to scrutiny. As Jesus lays

us bare, we will have the opportunity to allow either our evil side or our good side to dictate how

we will respond to Christ’s love. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one

another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know

that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 NRSV). Jesus gave

this command just before he was crucified, giving us the ultimate example of love for others.

To be human is to be created in the image of God, and yet broken and fragile.

Complexity defines the human condition. We are loved by God and yet we run from him. Jesus

models for us a life of integrity and love and we struggle to follow. The author of Ecclesiastes

offers this advice, “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of

11
Ibid.

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everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether

good or evil” (Ecc. 12:13-14 NRSV). Despite the brokenness and difficulty of this life, we look

to God’s judgment knowing that in the end all will be made right and love with integrity will

prevail.

Historical views

In antiquity, Basil the Great (329 – 379 A.D.) made a distinction between the divine

image of God and the divine likeness of God. He argued that humanity possessed the image of

God as well as a measure of freedom in order to pursue the likeness of God.12

Basil explains: “Let us make the human being according to our image and
according to our likeness” [Gen. 1:26]. By our creation we have the first, and by
our free choice we build the second. In our initial structure co-originates and
exists our coming into being according to the image of God. By free choice we
are conformed to that which is according to the likeness of God. ... Now he has
made us with the power to become like God. And in giving us the power to
become like God, he let us be artisans of the likeness of God, so that the reward
for the work would be ours. ... For I have that which is according to the image in
being a rational being, but I become according to the likeness in becoming
Christian.13
In the eyes of Basil, being created in the image of God was to serve a higher purpose, to

help us conform to the likeness of God. Being created in the image of God was worthless unless

someone chose to take that uniquely human gift and use it for its intended purpose.

A story is told in medieval times of St. Francis (1181 – 1226 A.D.) speaking to a wolf

that had been terrorizing a village. After speaking to the wolf and promising to make peace

between the wolf and the villagers, St. Francis takes the wolf into the village and shows the

12
Nonna Verna Harrison, God’s Many-Splendored Image: Theological Anthropology for Christian Formation (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 13.

13
Ibid.

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people that they have nothing to fear anymore in the wolf, but they need to feed him the rest of

his life. The people and the wolf are reconciled. Harrison writes:

“In this story, Francis enacts the mediation that is his task as one made in the
image of God. First, in order to mediate between God and the natural world,
represented by the wolf, he has to understand and accept his intrinsic connection
with the creation around him. So for the outset, he regards the wolf as his brother
and treats him with heartfelt love. Francis is also connected with God. He prays
and makes the sign of the cross, but clearly he lives his whole life in communion
with God. This is why he is able to act as God’s image to the wolf by speaking
God’s words with God’s authority.”14
St. Francis who has embraced the image of God for the sake of pursuing the likeness of

God is able to reconcile humanity with nature and in doing so performs the miraculous. The

lesson being that as we embrace our standing with God and pursue him in relationship and begin

to see the world through his eyes, unimaginable things become possible.

In modern times, Tara Owens has explored the relationship between our bodies and our

ability to function as one created in the image of God. “The belief that giving in to our desires

leads to destruction is so well patterned in us that a day of rest brings with it a host of voices

declaring that we’re lazy, indolent, unable to take anything seriously. While these aren’t physical

pathogens, they are mental and emotional ones, tearing at our self-worth, our image of God and

our ability to care for others.” Being created in the image of God obviously has theological

ramifications, but Owen’s work make it equally clear that our thinking about being created in the

image of God can have physical and emotional ramification as well.15

Joel Green also brings forward some excellent ideas of what it means to be human and

created in the image of God. “Genesis does not define humanity in essentialist terms but in

14
Harrison, 125.
15
Tara Owens, Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh and Bone (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2015), 148.

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relational, as Yahweh’s partner, and with emphasis on the communal, intersexual character of

personhood, the quality of care the human family is to exercise with regard to creation as God’s

representative, the importance of the human modeling of the personal character of God, and the

unassailable vocation of humans to reflect among themselves God’s own character.”16 Green’s

point is that our identity as created in the image of God isn’t so much tied up in our essence, but

rather in whom we’re in relationship with. Like a marriage where two become one unit, our

identity is tied up in our unique relationship with God to the extent that we cannot understand

ourselves apart from our relationship with God and other Christ followers.

Implication for Christian living

For any of this to be transferable and able to change the way I live on a daily basis, I

think it needs to be as reduced and simplified as possible so as to be able to be brought to mind

in a moment’s notice. When Jesus was asked, “‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the

greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all

your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is

like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law

and the prophets’” (Mt. 22:36-40 NRSV). God is love and we are created in his image, but we

are also fragile, broken by sin and looking forward to God’s judgement and restoration of

creation (Rev. 21). Until that time, we are to pursue the likeness of God. Doing so will make us

men and women of integrity. Paying attention to our physical bodies, our aches, pains, and

tensions, will be very important to living lives fully submitted to Christ. And when we do submit

ourselves fully to Christ, we should look with expectation for opportunities God has created us to

step into in order to display his glory, power, and love.

16
Joel Green, Body, Soul and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2008), 65.

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 Ultimately, we are who we are, not because of who we are but because of who he is and

who the body of Christ is the world over. This should be a source of great encouragement, a

knowledge that can be used to stave off thoughts of depression and despair in a world that from

face value seems broken beyond repair. Final judgement is coming, and as we embrace our

identity in Christ with integrity and love, we have everything to look forward to in Christ, both

now and then.

Bibliography

Vanier, Jean. Jesus the Gift of Love. New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 1994.

Vanier, Jean. What does it mean to be fully human? Jean Vanier, Templeton Prize 2015. March
11, 2015. video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWrru31ZPzo.

Mackie, Tim. Overview: Ecclesiastes. The Bible Project, June 10, 2016, video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrsQ1tc-2wk.

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Harrison, Nonna Verna. God’s Many-Splendored Image: Theological Anthropology for
Christian Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Owens, Tara. Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh and Bone. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2015.

Green, Joel. Body, Soul and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible. Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

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