Human Perfected

Human Perfected
Monday, September 27, 2021 by Zachary J. Hunter

Human Perfected and the Ultimate Human Example

By: Zachary Hunter

Lately on my mind has been what we as Christians are meant to be versus what we can actually achieve. For me I felt like what we are meant to be was unattainable, after all the examples we are taught in church such as the prophets and apostles seemed to simply be more than human. This is not because of a failing in the telling of their stories by the Bible but rather a failing in how we teach them.

We so emphasize their successes and the miracles and prophecies they did and their faithfulness to God yet mention their flaws and failings little to never. As someone who is very aware of their failings, I find this to be detrimental to a growing Christian. After all, with people like Paul on the pedestal we’ve put them on what hope do I have? I’m saved but I didn’t suddenly do a 180 turn because of an encounter with Christ and suddenly became perfect in everything I did.

This brings me to Human Perfected, or to give his full name, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of the Most High God. We all know how Jesus came to the Earth and became fully human. He understands us in a way that only experience can help you understand someone. Yet as a human he never sinned, never gave into temptation though he felt it, and as far as I know he never even made a mistake.

Jesus is our savior, our Lord, our advocate, our redeemer, and our goal. He is Human Perfect, what humans were meant to be in how he walked with God, how he loved others, and how he taught. His example is what we are to aspire to be and to work towards. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be very intimidating. As wonderful as Jesus was and as great an example of what we should be as he was, I often feel like that is an impossible standard to meet. That makes me feel like it is impossible to be a good Christian, a good person, a good servant of Christ, and I will never be able to be useful.

While wrestling with this state of mind and the feeling of hopelessness because of it I was led to go back and reread the story of King David. Full disclosure I HATED David the first time I read his full story. The man seemed like such a scumbag to me with all the people he randomly killed or cursed. Yeah, he loved God but was such a mess when it came to handling other people. This time though I saw things from a different perspective.

David was NOT a perfect person, by any stretch of the imagination. He murdered, committed adultery, practiced polygamy instead of marriage as God intended, got angry and cursed people; he did some truly wicked and horrible things. Yet he did love God; he loved to worship God, he kept many of God’s principles that we often don’t even think of as existing, such as how to act towards leaders when he wouldn’t harm Saul, and when God called him out on his sins, he not only repented for them he would accept the punishment the Lord sent to him.

After reading through all of that I came to the conclusion that David is the Ultimate Human Example. He is not perfect, in fact he is very flawed, yet he was held up by God as one of His most beloved servants. In fact, every king after David would be compared to David’s example by God Himself. Jesus himself even came from the line of David; he is a direct descendant of David via Mary. What honors he received from God!

Suddenly I have new hope. David was not some superhuman who never messed up; he was but a man. A man who sinned yet was beloved of God. Flawed but with the right heart; teachable, repentant, full of praise. We are in the same boat when it comes to flaws for even the greatest among us has flaws and failures. Believe it or not the best among us even…sin sometimes! (Gasp, Shock, Horror, Lightning Crackle) Yet God is good and just to forgive our sins if we confess and repent. We may also have to pay restitution and receive some punishment for our sins but that is all according to God’s principles and righteousness. David is the Ultimate Human Example; flawed but favored. We are not so different from him which means that we too can attain what he did. He even showed us how to do so. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.

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