This may be shocking and may sound strange, but the truth is that no one is fully human. None of us has yet reached the level of virtue and perfection that characterizes a true human being.
Human beings are perfect. In fact, to say “There’s a perfect human” is like saying, “There’s some wet water” or “There’s some cold ice” or “There’s some hot fire.”
Human beings are perfect. That’s how God designed them.
Adam and Eve knew what it meant to be human, at least for a short while. Before their disobedience and fall away from God into sin, Adam and Eve knew what it felt like and looked like and sounded like to be human.
They were perfect, moral creatures in every way.
But, as you know, they fell away from God in their disobedience. And so they lost their humanity, at least a large part of it.
And ever since Adam and Eve, our human representatives, human beings are born guilty, and have chosen the same sinful path.
There is no human being alive on earth today. None of us is perfect. None of us is human.
We are fallen human beings.
God Reconciles Fallen Human Beings through Christ
So, how do we get our humanness back? How do we fix this problem of sin that has destroyed our ability to be what God has created us to be?
The answer, of course, begins with reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” – Romans 5:6-10
So, by grace through faith in Christ, God declares us right, no longer guilty because Jesus suffered and died in our place.
This declaration has reconciled us to God. We are at peace with God and no longer face punishment and eternal death.
But that’s not where the story ends. Once we’re declared right and reconciled to God, then God immediately begins to restore us by making us human again.
God Recreates Human Beings through Union with Christ and the Power of His Spirit
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
By our union with Christ through faith, we become new creatures. In other words, we become human again for the first time!
As I’ve said before, faith in Jesus Christ isn’t merely about avoiding God’s punishment. Faith in Jesus Christ is also then about becoming what God has declared us to be.
That is, human.
But although we have become human again, we still need to learn how to behave that way.
Learning to Be Human Again
Have you seen the movie Sully?
It’s about a pilot, Chesley Sullenberger III, who on Jan. 15, 2009, after a flock of geese had caused engine failure, landed an Airbus A320 on the Hudson River, saving 155 passengers.
You could call it the power of right habits. You might say it was the result of many years of right training and experience.
There’s little doubt that over the course of his flying career Sully had made 1,000 small choices that had required disciplined concentration. And then, on the 1,001 time, when it really mattered most, he found that he did what was required “automatically.”
Becoming human again by God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit doesn’t come automatically or by accident. It comes by the grace of God through the self-discipline required to do anything in life really well (Gal. 6:6-10).
Learning to be human again is like learning a new language, or playing a musical instrument, or repairing a vehicle, or finishing drywall (I still have not mastered this skill).
So, as we learn to become human again, something which God has already made us to be (2 Cor. 5:17), and yet something we’re still learning to become (Rom. 6: 12-19; 12:1-2), we must exercise great patience.
By God’s grace through Christ’s Spirit in us, we must remind ourselves that this is a life-long pursuit. It requires attention and effort, and, most of all, time.
Don’t give up. Don’t quit. Ask God to help, and keep on working at it through His strength.
Most of all, don’t forget that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6).