Not of This World

I appreciate the perspective and insight of G.K. Chesterton who masterfully communicated in an intellectually stimulating and satisfying way how mankind's existence reveals the reality of a God Who created man and everything else.  In response to cave paintings Chesterton claimed, "Art is the signature of man" and if this is true, then mankind is indeed the signature of God who created artists of every kind.  The biblical account of Genesis says God created mankind unique from all other creatures in His own image, and thus accounts for the vast difference between people and animals.  Chesterton wrote:

"The simplest truth about man is that he is a very strange being; almost in the sense of being a stranger on the earth.  In all sobriety, he has much more of the external appearance of one bringing alien habits from another land than of a mere growth of this one.  He has an unfair advantage and an unfair disadvantage.  He cannot sleep in his own skin; he cannot trust his own instincts.  He is at once a creator moving miraculous hands and fingers and a kind of cripple.  He is wrapped in artificial bandages called clothes; he is propped on artificial crutches called furniture.  His mind has the same doubtful liberties and the same wild limitations.  Alone among the animals, he is shaken with the beautiful madness called laughter; as if he had caught sight of some secret in the very shape of the universe hidden from the universe itself.  Alone among the animals he feels the need of averting his thought from the root realities of his own bodily being; of hiding them as in the presence of some higher possibility which creates the mystery of shame.  Whether we praise these things as natural to man or abuse them as artificial in nature, they remain in the same sense unique.  This is realised by the whole popular instinct called religion...It is not natural to see man as a natural product.  It is not common sense to call man a common object of the country or the seashore.  It is not seeing straight to see him as an animal.  It is not sane.  It is a sin against the light; against the broad daylight of proportion which is the principle of all reality.  It is reached by stretching a point, by making a case, by artificially selecting a certain light and shade, by bringing into prominence the lesser or lower things which may happen to be similar.  The solid thing standing in the sunlight, the thing we can walk round and see from all sides, is quite different.  It is also quite extraordinary; and the more sides we see of it the more extraordinary it seems.  It is emphatically not a thing that follows or flows naturally from anything else." (Chesterton, G. K. (2008). The everlasting man. Ignatius Press. pages 36-37)

Man is not an accident, product of nature or a social construct:  people male and female have been created in the image of the almighty God, people who are more than bodies but possess an eternal soul.  There is a sense of morality and duty borne from a conscience, an individual will we submit to God as Master or shall master us.  Man alone has senses animals cannot understand or express:  indignation based upon morality, judgment according to wisdom, desire for intimacy and honesty, modes of communication and expression, to appreciate kind words and gratitude, the horror of sin and the delight of forgiveness.  I was once told by a pastor, "People are weird and life isn't fair."  This is true for we are indeed strange, unique beings all created and sustained by the grace of God.  Compared to animals in nature man is unique, and compared to all other people Jesus is even more unique--truly not of this world.

Praise God for His power to create, redeem and save!  On our own we would have all remained like beasts before God clawing for scraps in the dark, but glory to God as Zecharias prophesied of Jesus Christ who brings knowledge of salvation and forgiveness of sins in Luke 1:78-78:  "...Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; ⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."  The God who said, "Let there be light" and there was light is the God who has revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus, the One who alone gives rest for our souls.  Without God revealing this to us, we wouldn't have known we had souls or that rest is needed or possible!  What riches of knowledge, grace, forgiveness and love are freely provided for all who are born again through the Gospel:  in the world but not of the world, now eternal citizens of heaven by grace.