On Being Human

June, 2004

by: Jeff Jones

A song I recall from my childhood contained the lyric “I'm only human, born to make mistakes.” For obvious reasons, I, even as a kid, identified with that song, for I agreed that to be a human was to be imperfect, accident prone, or “born to make mistakes.” Lately, however, I have come to realize my past thinking about all this has been somewhat off the mark. Most of us (I think), understand the essence of humanity from a “post–Fall” perspective (i.e., we are sinful, imperfect, etc.), rather than understanding the essence of humanity as originally designed by the Creator.

Genesis 1:26 says that humans were created in the image and likeness of God, which, by the way, did not go away entirely after the Fall (cf. Gen 9:6; Jas 3:9). Being in God's image is what makes us distinct from the animals, in fact, being in God's image is what being human is all about. The words “image” and “likeness” simply denote that humans, in some way, are patterned after their Creator. God is the original; man is the copy (note: man is not God “reproduced,” but God “imitated”).

I could spend a great deal of space discussing exactly how humans correspond to God (e.g., the ability to reason, relate, or rule), but for this article it will suffice to emphasize one basic thing: the essence of being human is corresponding to (and/or resembling) God. Or in other words, we are most truly human, not when we sin or misrepresent God (or make mistakes for that matter), but rather when we reflect God and correspond to God. It is entirely appropriate to say that humans have not “evolved” since the Fall, but “devolved.”

Thankfully, God has provided a way for His image to be perfectly restored in us through His Son Jesus (cf. Col 1:15), in whose image we are being conformed (cf. Rom 8:28-30).