JESUS! GOD'S ANTHROPOLOGY BY PASTOR GREG ELKAN.

We’ve dwelt on the doctrine and theology of (Christian) anthropology in the past 2 weeks and pointed out the central role it plays in understanding not just the human condition but the Bible and the Gospel message itself. 

Humanity is God’s apex creation; not the angelic hosts in their plethoric numbers, not the cherubs and seraphs in their majestic glories, not even Heaven itself, compares to what God did when He created Man. 

In Ps 8:3-4 David cries out _“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you are mindful of him?”_ Secular scientists are just as overwhelmed. That’s why they spend billions of dollars in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) trying to find someone or something else occupying this “house” that God gave us that’s so big that it’d take light – travelling at a speed of 300,000 km per second – 93 _billion_ years to pass through it. 

And while we’re trying to grasp such an astronomically extravagant gift, Heb 1:14 then goes on to say that even the angels were created for our service! Truly, Man is the apex of God’s creation – in the physical and spiritual world. 

We must understand, however, that Man as we see him today is not what God had in mind. Even Adam is not God’s ideal. To get a picture of Man in his glorious perfection, Man as Man ought to be, we need to look no further than _“the man Christ Jesus,”_ (1Ti 2:5).

Jesus is the only Man who fits God’s declaration in Gen 1:26 to make Man in His likeness. Jesus alone is _“the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”_ (Col 1:15). Jesus alone is the epitome and quintessence of what God wants Man to be. Thus, Jesus is God’s _anthropology!_ 

Jesus, however, is God come in human flesh (Jn 1:1, 14); how on Earth can we ever imitate Perfection Himself!? Well, that’s why we have the Holy Spirit. 

The work the Spirit does in us each day as we yield to Him is to transform us through His word to make us conform to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). So, the more you become like Jesus, you’re not becoming like God per se; you’re actually becoming like the person God had in mind when He created you!

AMEN.

PASTOR GREG ELKAN.