One of the most significant things about The Salvation Army is our understanding of what it means to be human. These truths are powerful, and their impact is the very reason William and Catherine Booth chose to do the extraordinary things they did. We didn’t invent the Christian truth regarding humanity—God has revealed it. The Booths received this extraordinary Good News and spent their lives proclaiming freedom and joy for every person. No matter how far we have fallen or how wrecked our lives may seem, Jesus has come to rescue us and make us whole.  

My family has a saying we often speak to one another when discussing how the message of the gospel is communicated: “Theology matters.” Perhaps in light of someone’s poor behavior, you’ve heard the statement, “Well, that is to be expected, because we are all just sinners.” Our Army recognizes that the story of humanity does not begin with our fall into sin. It begins with being created in God’s image and living in face-to-face, dependent intimacy with our Creator (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7). This was what whole, flourishing human life was intended to be, what it actually was for a time, and what it still can be in our daily lives when we are saved and restored (Psalm 80 NIV).

Our human nature became “sinful nature” when we turned our backs on God, rejecting the Source of Life. This was a tear in reality of cosmic proportions. Every person since that moment has been trapped in sinfulness, completely helpless and hopeless to do a single thing about it. Sinfulness is not some nasty virus added to our nature; it is the absence of the presence of God, manifesting in self-centered lives that cause harm. Without Jesus, who is Life (1 John 5:12 NIV) as our center, we decay morally. Our human nature is not what He intends, and corruption reigns in every part of who we are (Ephesians 4:22 NIV). Sin dehumanizes us.  

This decay thrives as deception. We’re blind to our condition. Instead of living together in relationships of equality and mutual, self-offering love, we have ravenous, distorted appetites (Galatians 5:13-15 NIV). We, in our dehumanized condition, dehumanize others. And we find perversely satisfying pleasure in it. It becomes delicious to slander and gossip, and to listen to that garbage (Proverbs 17:4; 18:8 NIV). We judge others as evil, measuring our own self-righteousness against them (Luke 6:27-45 NIV). It’s like a dopamine hit for us to destroy someone on social media, all in the name of “real Christianity.” For millennia, our sinful nature has found expression in the dehumanization of others through racism, sexual assault, slavery, infanticide, war, terrorism and unjust oppression. And in this sinful state, we are blind to how wicked we are, justifying these horrors in the name of self-expression, economics, freedom, “this is my body,” and “it’s just business.”

The truth is that we need to be saved from the self-gratification of dehumanization, because it is damning. Jesus is our re-humanization. He is God who came from outside this world in order to take our wrecked nature right back into union with Himself as He always intended (Colossians 1:9-3:17 NIV). Jesus utterly rejects what we’ve become too comfortable with: that being a sinner is our identity (Matthew 5:1-8:3; Romans 6; Galatians 5:5-6:10; Ephesians 4:1-5:20 NIV). He has come to rescue us, not only by forgiving our behavior, but by giving us His Life (2 Peter 1:3-4; Romans 5:1-10 NIV)! Jesus is human nature joined inseparably to God. In self-offering incarnate love, Jesus Christ stands before us—damned, deceived, addicted, dehumanized and despairing. He cries out with a loud voice, “All who are thirsty, whose flesh yearns for Me, come to Me! Bring Me any kind of impossible condition you are dealing with. Give it to me. I will take it. I will set you free” (Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 63:1-8; John 7:37-39; Matthew 27:50-51; John 11:43-44; Luke 8:54-55 NIV).

The Salvation Army has always seen humanity for who Jesus can make us to be. We call that entire sanctification and holiness. We never cease being capable of choosing to turn away from God. Sinful nature is separation from the life of God. Holy humanity is living in continuous dependence upon God. Flourishing human nature is life in union with Jesus. That is our identity and our true self.  

That’s what every single person is created for! It is to live filled with the life of God (Ephesians 3:19 NIV), in joyous, intimate union with the Creator (John 15:1-17 NIV), who makes all things new (2 Corinthians 5:11-7:1 NIV). 

Questions to ponder

• How can the concept of “re-humanization” through Jesus influence our daily interactions and relationships with others?
• In what practical ways can we live into the freedom Christ gives from living for self-gratification?