Western civilisation is floundering and teetering

Are we comfortable in our own skin? How do we feel about being human? If we call ourselves evangelicals, we are nervous about thinking about ourselves too much. After all, that way lies narcissism.

Narcissus was a beautiful youth who rejected Echo, the nymph, and fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. There he lay, transfixed by his own image, until he was changed into a flower that bears his name. Is this really any different from staring into phones, taking selfies and posting them, ever so slightly enhanced and filtered, on Instagram?

In our rush to avoid vanity, we may have forgotten that God made us the pinnacle of His creation. Does that idea make you feel uncomfortable? It shouldn’t. It’s clear that the creation of mankind is the climax of the account in Genesis 1, and the completion of His work. Neither animals nor angels bear God’s image. But we do. God gave us bodies with mind-bogglingly complex biological systems, and He gave us minds to eventually unboggle those systems, fix them and medicate them.

Now we know how it all works, or at least we think we do, have we lost that sense of wonder? It’s rather like finding out how a magic trick is done. Part of you wishes that you hadn’t found out. Either way, have we forgotten the words of Psalm 139, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made?

How do we view Renaissance art? Many of us would be uncomfortable with its elevation of the human form and we thank God for the Reformation which recovered the doctrines of sin, judgment and justification by faith. We know that humans are sinful, mortal and, if we’re Calvinists, totally depraved. That passage in Romans 3 could be summarised thus: We’re the WORST.

God came looking for Adam

We are. And yet God delights in us, even in our sin. God still wants to dwell with us. Look at God’s treatment of Adam after he sinned. In full knowledge of our disobedience, God came looking for Adam, asking questions and seeking dialogue. The punishment could have been instant obliteration. But it was mercy, and a promise that would require God the Son to leave heaven to come to earth.

So God became a man. This doctrine makes Christianity laughable to followers of Islam. The truly transcendent cannot become touchable, let alone one who hungers, thirsts, tires and seeks solitude. Is this purely indignity for God? Or is this a reminder of the glories of being human, made in God’s image?

God took on human flesh and was without sin. Have we forgotten the doctrine of Incarnation? At Christmas, we like to teach that Jesus had to be fully man so He could represent us on the cross, take our place on the cross. The baby was born to die. So why do all the gospels tell us about Jesus’s life in astonishing, surprising and colourful detail? What can we learn from His ministry and miracles, His parables and temptations?

If God only became man to die for our sins, there would be no need for a bodily resurrection. And yet Christ rose from the dead, appeared in person, in a recognisable body to His disciples for them to touch. He ate meals, continued to teach and then ascended to heaven as a man. How do our current bodies relate to our eternal bodies?

We need to retrieve a Christian understanding of our humanity, because there is a crisis in the wider culture. In Love Thy Body, Nancy Pearcey does a great job of warning us that body and soul have been divided in public perception, implying that my own mind can be a different gender from the body I was given. In fact, who needs a body if I’m just code that could be preserved forever on a memory stick? Christians need to come forward with some answers because Western civilisation is floundering and teetering.

The theme of this year’s Keswick Convention is long overdue: Human. What does it mean to be human beings? Ros Clarke’s book, Human (IVP), explores this further, as do the latest series of Keswick Convention podcasts. I highly recommend that Christians embrace these resources and find out who God made us to be.