If you are old like me, you might remember the song by Human League from the 1980’s “ I'm only human…born to make mistakes”.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve
heard people repeat that line to rationalize their sins, first by trivializing
them to “mistakes” and second by claiming that making “mistakes” is what we
were born for!
So it was nice to hear a young man named Eduardo describe
sin as being “less than human” or somehow denying our humanity. He wasn’t particularly religious but he did
recognize this is something people do no matter what their religious background
is.
I found this somewhat unusual because from his Catholic
background he would have heard an emphasis on “original sin”, and many young
people his age use this as a justification to reject Christianity, assuming it
teaches we are condemned for Adam’s sin without being responsible for our own.
But Eduardo believes being truly “human” means avoiding the
sin that dehumanizes us, and in a lot of ways, I believe he is right. God created Adam to be “very good” which
would mean he was without sin and perfect in every way. The original sin of Adam and Eve dehumanized them
as beings made in God’s image, and caused them to try to run and hide from God,
with their sin exposed and naked before Him.
They were “dehumanized” and the same happens to us every time we
sin. It drives a wall of separation
between ourselves and our Maker.
So if sin isn’t what it means to be “human”, what does it
makes us? Many people assume to be
dehumanized means we are just basically animals, but it goes much deeper than
that. Ephesians 2 tells us that “you were dead in your transgressions and sins”. Sin doesn’t just dehumanize us – it kills
us! “The wages of sin is death” Romans
tells us, and that death began originally in the Garden of Eden and is
reaffirmed every time we sin as well.
We weren’t “born to make mistakes” like the song
claims. Later in Ephesians, we read that
“we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.” To be
human is to live out what God made us for, and even though we have already
sinned and deserve death, faith in Jesus can restore our humanity and allow us
to live out the purposes we were made for.
Thanks, Eduardo, for allowing me to record our
conversation. It can be seen on my
YouTube channel HERE at https://youtu.be/C2WQmZ1eUZI
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