To Be Human...

I was excited I was this morning when I read the following footnote (on p. 72) in Brian McLaren's Generous Orthodoxy. In talking about the nature of Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man, he notes: "It's instructive and beautiful to consider that the Gospels use the terms son of man and Son of God virtually interchangeably, suggesting, I think, that the true essence of humanity is to be in the true image of God. It's also instructive to contrast our use of the term human in statements such as 'I'm only human' (where human means prone to do wrong) and 'That was very human of him' (where human means prone to godlike kindness). True humanity, this 'son of Man' language suggests, follows the latter use; distorted humanity, the former."

Thinking through this has some pretty big implications on our understanding of salvation. Maybe salvation is not saving us from our humanity, but saving us for humanity. Maybe salvation is freeing us to be the people God intended us to be all along. Athanasius said it well, "He became human, so that we might become divine." At first glance, this might appear to dichotomize humanity and divinity, but in Christ, huamity and divinty come together to step and glide in the perfect dance of the Incarnation. Through Jesus, God not only showed us how to be human, he made it possible for us to acheive it through his grace by being written into Christ's story.

As the church, may we all be about the business of salvation, of restoring humanity into the Christ, the one who showed us what God intended humanity to be.