Video Transcript: Humanity

But we also confess the misery of humanity, humanity has fallen into sin, and we are totally unable to save ourselves. Those are the two great facts about humanity that we must know and confess how great God designed us to be, and how terribly we have fallen into misery. 

The Bible says that we were created for God's glory, God speaks of everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made it in the last book of the Bible, the hosts of heaven say you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. 

Everything God made, is designed to give him splendor and glory, because we're reflections of something about God Himself. And humans especially, are created to show God's glory. The other things the stars, the animals, the plants, the beauty of the skies, the waterfalls, the mountains, those display wonderful things about God, but humanity, in some sense, has been created for God's glory, because we're in his image. 

The Bible says that we're created to enjoy God, you give them to drink from your river of the lights for with you is the fountain of life. In your light, we see light we were made, to live on God, to delight in God, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. 

Humans are designed for joy, and not just for joy in general, but for joy in God for feasting on God, for just having fun, so to speak, in being Gods and belonging to him and knowing him and walking with him. And we are made in His image, God created man in His own image in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them. 

And God said, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth have dominion over all creatures. And Psalm 8:6 it goes that you made him ruler, over the works of your hands, you place all things under his feet, all flocks and herds, beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth, God's majesty is reflected in the way that he gave us charge to rule over the works of his hands. 

So when we think about being made in God's image, sometimes it's said that this is because we reflect certain things about God, some say it's, we're rational. And it's our ability to reason that that reflects God, or our ability to relate or to love. And all of these may be dimensions of being in God's image. But really, the main thing about being made in God's image is that we carry his authority in relation to creation, we are meant to rule it. We are meant to rule it, and answer, of course to God. 

There's a difference between being a steward and the king. The king is the one with the final authority. A steward is simply someone who's acting on behalf of the royal authority. And we are stewards, we are caretakers of the creation on behalf of the God who created it all, and the God that we answer to. So that's the glory of being human. We're meant to feast on God, to enjoy God and to represent God, to be in his image is to represent God in relation to the rest of his creation. 

And so we shine forth with the glory of God when we image him and when we act on his behalf. What a glorious thing it is, to be created a human being. And what a terrible thing it is, to be fallen into sin. God said to Adam and Eve, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. Well, they ate and death came into the world sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. 

And because Adam and Eve sinned were all involved in their sin that's sometimes called original sin. Their sin has involved all of you Humanity in their action in their standing before God in their condition. And so though we're created splendid, we are a ruin. You know, the great ruins in Greece, they once had tremendous splendor, and now they've fallen into ruin, that's the case with humanity. We're not what we were meant to be. And we can't make ourselves anymore what we were meant to be that we were designed and meant to be splendid. And now we're fallen. 

And the Bible says that once we fall in, we cannot save ourselves all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God falling short, that's a picture of distance. Now, if you were to look at a person sitting in a wheelchair, who can't use his or her legs, and another person who is a tremendous mountain climber, and can even make it to the top of Mount Everest, you would say, well, that one person is definitely more capable and fit than the other. And we sometimes make that sort of comparison. When we're thinking about sin. 

We look at somebody who has really gotten degraded, and really badly messed up. And we think we're doing pretty good. And so we feel good about ourselves. Because we're above them. Jesus told the story of a religious person who looked down on somebody else, and thanked God that I'm not like other people. Now, think back again, to those two persons one in a wheelchair, the other who can climb the highest mountain, let's say that they need to go to the moon.  Do you think that climbing lessons will help either one. No, they cannot possibly cover that distance from the Earth to the Moon. In fact, from the moon, you can't even see those two persons, they're so far away. And any differences in their mobility don't matter at all. They just can't make it. 

And that's what it's like to fall short of the glory of God, one person may be able to be a little better when compared to another one. But that comparison is irrelevant. When it comes to falling short of the glory of God, we cannot restore ourselves to what we were meant to be. 

Another statement from the Bible, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, we were by nature children of wrath. Now, that is dead. If you look at two different corpses and compare them, one might have just died an hour ago. And there might even still be a little bit of warmth in it, and the features may be okay. 

And then you look at another corpse which has been severely mangled, or has been dead for a long time and has rotted, you'd say, Boy, that one body is in way worse shape than the other. True enough, but Dead is dead. We are without life. We're without life in our spirit, without life and relating to God, once we have fallen into sin, and we can't make ourselves alive again. We need to be born again. To have life from above to be born from above, in order to have life. 

So the great Christian doctrine of sin, is that all fall short of the glory of God all are dead in transgressions, there is no way we can cover the distance, there is no way we can undo the deadness. We need a savior. If you want to get from the Earth to the Moon, you don't need climbing lessons, you need a rocket. 

If you're dead, you don't need your corpse to be just a little prettier than another dead corpse. You need to be made alive again by somebody who has the power of new life and resurrection. So in our doctrine of humanity at Christian leaders college and Institute we confess that God created humanity, glorious, to glorify, to enjoy God, and to be stewards of creation. And we say humanity has fallen into sin, and we are totally unable to save ourselves.