What does it mean to be human coram Deo (before God)? According to St. Paul to be human is to be ‘in Christ,’ it is to be an image of the imago Dei (cf. Col. 1.15) for us, who is the Christ. Therefore, by implication, to not be ‘in Christ,’ subjectively, is to not be living out what it means to be human by way of God’s order. Understanding this should help people understand why the world looks the way it does; why people live lives that appear more animalistic rather than familial; why there is evil among people, among us all, rather than an inherent righteousness. It is because after the fall humanity was plunged into, at best, a sub-humanity, wherein the elevated status God has deigned for us, in Christ, cannot be achieved left to our own devices. If we are going to live genuinely human lives, we must do so from the only genuine human there is before God: viz. Jesus Christ. According to Julie Canlis, John Calvin held to the same notion:

This is the typical move for Calvin, who takes the focus off humanity in se and instead brings all under communion. T. F. Torrance observes: “In such a dynamic conception of man’s relation to God as the Reformers envisaged, there are only two directions attributable to human existence: toward God, or away from him. . . .” One might add to that observation that life in the Garden is characterized not only by right “direction” toward the Word, but living by the Word — seeking all good things in him, not merely from him. Here it is crucial to remember that Calvin’s emphasis on participation is not an end in itself but is in service of intimacy and a world that has been designed specifically so that everything draws us to God. “Direct communication with God was the source of life to Adam.” On a deeper level, it is a fundamental characteristic of a world in which the person to whom we are drawn is also the one in whom we exist. Nothing can be had independently of him; everything is to be had in and with him.[1]

Torrance’s summary of Calvin’s doctrine of humanity gets at the kernel of what I believe fits with, in particular, the Pauline corpus in regard to a theological anthropology. For Paul et al. what it means to be human is to be toward God rather than away from Him. And yet we all are born dead in our trespasses and sins; we are all born ‘away from God.’ This is our impossible (to overcome) lot in life. And yet the Grace of God! Because God has freely chosen to be God for us in Jesus Christ, it is through His anhypostatic reality made enhypostatic that we now have a center in God to live from; and it is this center, as the ‘anchor of our souls’ that turns us toward Him, thus making the impossible possible, and actualized in Christ for us. This is the eternal hope of God for us, and He has invited us into His banqueting table just as Christ alone is God’s banqueting table for us. Because we are simul Justus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinner), we will have moments where we are less human than other times. But praise the Lord, we have an Advocate with the Father, and in His advocation we have the capacity to be genuinely human afresh anew, just as His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness.

[1] Julie Canlis, Calvin’s Ladder: A Spiritual Theology Of Ascent and Ascension (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), loc 801, 807.