Systematic Theology - Creation and Providence - Part III

Here is the segment on The Human Creature:

Creation and Providence (Continued)

The Human Creature:

Scripture proclaims that God created humankind in God’s own image (Gen. 1:26). This truth begs the question: can we know something about ourselves based upon what we know of our Creator? The answer is yes and that is affirmed by other theologians writing such statements as, “since human beings are created ‘after God’s likeness,’ it is reasoned that this enables us to compare and contrast God’s being who God is with our being who we are” (Morse, 122). Central to this understanding are two ideas: we are made for each other and we are made to know and to love (Marshall, 2008). The Trinity, as a community of distinct persons, calls us to reflect on how we might be as human creatures. Our being made for one another, to be in community and to have an attitude of being for others outside of ourselves, reflects the very community of the Trinity. Likewise, we can see God’s longing to know us and to love us. Since we are made in the image of God, then we too must be made to know and to love. Thus, the image that we are made in can only find its full expression in community with God and others.

Other understandings of humanity are not as easily discernable from our knowledge of God. For example, when we recognize that God is the sole source of everything and everyone, we recognize God as our own Creator. We are created as something other than God, and though valued by God, we are not properly God; we are merely images of God. Additionally, we are made not just by God, but we are made for God. To be made for God is to insinuate that we have purpose in God’s created order and that we are made for intimacy and union with the One who created us (Marshall, 2008). Also of great importance is the fact that we are made with bodies. There is something inherently good in our having bodies. This assumption is posited simply because the second person of the Trinity has been resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven with nothing less than a body! Additionally, when we consider the fact that the angels were not given bodies as we were, there must be something important about our bodies. Furthermore, if our bodies were inherently bad, why would there be such importance for a resurrection that includes the body? The need of such emphasis would be unnecessary. While I cannot fathom the fullness of the body’s meaning, the fact that we were given them and that we are promised new ones upon Christ’s return signifies they are of great importance. Finally, any systematic theology that does not specifically recognize that we are made free is, at the very least, incomplete. This freedom is a gift from God, in that the God who wills to have communion with humanity gives humanity the freedom to return love for love (Migliore, 110). Without such freedom, we are reduced to mere puppets. This freedom gives us the opportunity to choose love. Love without such opportunity to choose it is not love at all.