The Doctrines of Humanity and Sin

For the first time at Multnomah (outside of Domani’s lit classes, that is), I’m in a class where we are actually given some space to think theologically in our assignments. The class is Seminar and Doctrine, and the assignments are called doctrinal statements. The following is what I came up with in regards to Humanity and Sin. If you want to read something really good on humanity, try the post on the imago dei at The Fire and The Rose, especially with the subsequent comments left by Halden. For sin, check out Kim Fabricius’ ten propositions on sin. Ok, here goes.

An old saying goes that the two things we can be certain of in regards to human existence are death and taxes. This much we can learn from the first Adam, under whose compromised existence we dwell in sin. Death and Taxes refer to two coexisting realities: We are not God; and, We are made in God’s image. But our humanity in its fullness is revealed only in Jesus Christ, the second Adam, whose sinless life alone can show us the true image of wholeness to which we shall one day be restored.

Death: To be human is to be fundamentally finite.
Anthropology: The people of God know their existence to be owed to no other fact than that they were created by God. This means that they are not gods. This also means that they are not immortal, since there was a time when they were not. Related is the fact that humanity is irreducibly embodied. Bodies both place limits on our presence, and are built with the capacity to reach out, to yearn for connection and transcendence. But earthly bodies are also subject to corruption. To think of death as an intrinsic condition to humanity is difficult, since it brings up the question of whether humans would have lived forever in the Garden. For two reasons, I tentatively assert they would not have. First, having been given the charge, “be fruitful and multiply,” it is not difficult to imagine what a disaster the world would have been after a few millennia of not dying. And second, (more importantly), the source of “living forever,” was from the tree of life. Although this tree was not forbidden to them before sin, making it possible for them to have lived forever, it still remains that the tree was external to them, something they had to eat, to bring into themselves from the outside, and thus eternal life was not an intrinsic property to humans. Therefore, the finitude that is ensured by death is not something to be feared by Christians. Rather, it is to be embraced as a characteristic of God’s good creation. Our continued existence is not something under our control, but is rather dependent on an external sustainer, and that is God. The resurrection of Christ, whose embrace of humanity extended even as far as the death that is common to us all, is the pronouncement of the sustaining, creative, life-bestowing grace of God. Alan Lewis makes this clear enough:

“The resurrection of a corpse is the ultimate assurance that it is good to be bodily, carnal, temporal; and that God should say this resurrecting Yes to the human body only by first identifying with that body in the grave confirms that it is good and fitting not only to be fleshly., but for our flesh to perish, to come to termination and ultimate decay.”

The resurrection means that we can enjoy the bounded existence that we are faced with, knowing that our ultimate security and fulfillment comes only from God’s grace.

Hamartiology: Sin does not exist as an entity unto itself. It exists as a parody, a perversion of the good way that God made things. The creation narrative tells us that what God had made was good. Therefore evil must come as some distortion of that good, if it is to come at all. As such, I believe that any sin may be understood as a particular absence of the good. Absence can only be felt in relationship to an awareness of that which something lacks. Therefore, the definition of sin comes by way of that from which it departs. So, if our wholeness is to be found in embrace of finitude, then it stands to reason that the opposite sin is an attempt at infinitude. This can take many forms, but chiefly it is expressed in terms of pride. Our sin is a refusal to accept the fact that we cannot do everything. This self-sufficient transgression of our nature as created is a denial of grace. The interrelationship of finitude as blessedness and pride as sinfulness is highlighted especially by Luke’s account of the beatitudes in 6:20-26.

Taxes: To be human is to be fundamentally social.
Anthropology: In spite of the fact that our createdness means that we lack much of the qualitative extent of the characteristics of God’s being, we nevertheless are told by the scriptures that our created state is in the “image of God,” even after the fall (Gen. 9:6). While this image is understood in many ways, I take it to mean that true humanity is a reflection of the social existence of God in irreducible relationship. This truly human way of existing in relationship is no longer an innate capacity in our fallen state of ego-centricity. Therefore, this must be actualized by means of an external force. This force is the Holy Spirit, who was the one who bridged the gap of infinite distance between the Father and Sin-laden son, and who is now active in the church, redeeming a people unto the true interconnectedness that exists only within the life of the trinity. Stanley Grenz writes, “As the indwelling Spirit proleptically comprises the new humanity as the imago Dei after the pattern of the perichoretic life of the Triune God, the Spirit constitutes continually the ‘self’ of the participants in Christ’s ecclesial community and, by extension, the ‘self’ of the world.” Since this new life of relationship is externally actualized, and does not arise organically from humans being together, this must not be taken to mean “relatedness” in a generic sense, but in the particular sense as revealed to us in Christ. Thus, the image of God is truly the image of Christ. Daniel Migliore states it best:

Just as the incarnate Lord lived in utmost solidarity with and for sinners and the poor, and just as the eternal life of God is in communion, a triune “society of love” that is open to the world, so humanity in its coexistence with others is intended to be a creaturely reflection of the living, triune God made know to us in Jesus Christ and at work among us by the Holy Spirit.

Hamartiology:The sin that abjures relationality, that quenches the Holy Spirit’s work of reunification manifests itself in several forms. Most broadly, there are two forms. The first is tightly related to the sin of self-sufficiency, insofar as its basis for the rejection of community is a belief that within oneself dwells sufficient potential for genuine existence. It may be called isolationism. The second is an enemy of human fellowship not simply by means of retreat from it, but by active destruction thereof. This can be seen in sins of verbal undercutting of another person. It can also be seen in physical violence, which destroys the brother whom by the death of Christ has been reinstated to fellowship with all other humans, thus destroying all old notions of “enemy.”