"Human"

"Human"           

   

    It could be said that only one truly human being has ever lived, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased… He that sent Me is with Me, the Father hath not left Me alone, I do always those things that please Him" (Matthew 3:17; John 8:29).

   Only the Lord Jesus fulfilled the standard for humanity established by the God whose way is perfect (II Samuel 22:31).  All others fall short of being human according to the only definition that matters.  Before the flood of God's judgment, for example, the Lord pronounced that humanity had failed to reach its intended being and purpose: "The LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3).  Rather than being spiritually natured as originally intended, Adam and his offspring fell into the fleshliness of being governed by earthly rather than Heavenly substance.  "The first man is of the earth, earthy" (I Corinthians 15:47).  Thus, we are not truly human, again, as God defines humanity.

    The Lord Jesus Christ began a new race of beings, of truly human beings whose nature and substance is rightly composed of Heavenly spirituality.

    "The angel answered and said unto Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

    "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:5-6).

    Spiritual substance and being constituted the person of the Lord Jesus.  He lived (and lives) as a Heavenly being dwelling in an earthly personality and body.  "The second man is the Lord from heaven" (I Corinthians 15:47).  This is humanity as God created and intends it to be.  Moreover, in all who believe, the same glorious reality reconstitutes our being and substance.  "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, of so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you… That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Romans 8:9; John 3:6).  We actually become human when we trust in the Lord Jesus, that is, we are born into humanity in accordance with God's eternal purpose for our being and behavior.  No longer are we flesh - "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (emphasis added).  We have flesh, but we are spiritual in our innermost being, person, and selfhood, as united to the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This is human as God defines humanity, and as the Lord Jesus perfectly embodies and illustrates - "the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5).

    Thus, the Christian's great calling involves acting in accordance with our being - "if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).  God calls us to be human in the sense of realizing our spiritual substance in Christ, and of trusting Him to energize and actualize the "fearfully and wonderfully made" human capacities He created in us (Psalm 139:14).  Our mental, emotional, volitional, and physical capabilities possess incredible potential when empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  They exist for such infusion of Heavenly motivation and enabling: "Yield… your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13).  As we recognize and affirm our high calling to serve as earthly expressions of Heavenly reality, our humanity springs to life in accordance with "the hope of glory, which is Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27).  We become human as our Lord is human, that is, of serving as "the habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).  The Lord Jesus paved the path of true humanity for us, and by Him we become in both being and behavior that which God made and redeemed us to be, that is, human.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

(Philippians 4:13)

Weekly Memory Verse 

   Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

(Colossians 2:8)