Being Truly Human - Part 3 - Living as True Humans

The Conclusion of my talk from MYC 2011.

In my last post I argued that we can only become truly human if we come into relationship with God through the True Human - Jesus Christ.

6. Living as a True Humans


So how do we live as True humans?

What we don’t do is live for ourselves. We are brought out of Adam’s humanity and out of slavery to sin and death, but we are not give freedom to do what we like or live for ourselves. We are set free to serve. We are set free to become slaves to righteousness.  As we saw in Colossians 3:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

We are to put to death what belongs to our sinful earthly nature (3:5), ‘because of these the wrath of God is coming’; and we are to ‘clothe ourselves’ with godliness (3:12); we are to let the Word of Christ dwell among us richly (3:16); and, according to Colossians 3:10 we are to: "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

In our sinful natures we are cut off from relationship with God, but God is at work by his Holy Spirit transforming us to be like Christ, to be more like the image of God that we were intended to be. Of course we will never be perfect this side of heaven – we live in the overlap of the ages. But if we are in Christ we can know that we will finally be perfected in heaven.

But how do we live?  => We put off ungodliness, and we put on righteousness and we participate in the Rule of Christ. In other words we work.

7. True Humanism

This is where we see that Christians, as true humans (in relationship with God) are the true humanists.

Humanism is seeking the full potential of humanity. The secular humanists are on the quest to advance humanity while rejecting God, but Christians seek the best for humanity in the name of Christ and for his glory. So our work ought to be for that purpose – exercising the rule of Christ by caring for the creation and seeking the good of humanity.

Can you see how being truly human can give you a different perspective on your work? A different purpose? And so any and all work can be done with this motivation:

- Manual labour.

- Providing for the material needs of others in the name of Christ.

- Doing the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.

- Raising godly offspring has to be part of the work of ‘being fruitful and multiplying’.

- But there is a kind of work that most directly advances the good of humanity, and that is work of the gospel, because that is the work that helps people become truly human as they come into relationship with Christ.

So friends, I hope that you will leave from MYC this year knowing more about what it means to be human. Even more than that, I hope you will leave here as a true human, because you know THE true human – and your identity is found in him.

I hope you will leave here committed to living out your true humanity in relationship with Christ; and I hope you will leave here committed to being a true humanist – using every ounce of your humanity to serve Christ and to making him known – on your campus, throughout Australia and around the world.
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