What Is Mankind?

Two tragic events have taken a bit of space in my mind lately. The death of a Christian lady who sadly took her own life by hanging, and the callous attack on Israel by Hamas. I found myself imagining how and why any Christian would want to take their own life. I wondered how deep and overwhelming the pain must be for someone to not only think about it, but actually go through with it. I have no reference point whatsoever for the idea of suicide. I don't understand it. A friend recently told me about a mental health seminar he attended a while back. There were about 20-25 people there (mostly Christians). When asked, it turned out that one in four of them had either thought about or attempted taking their own lives. That shocked me.  After musing for a while, going round in circles in my mind, in the end, I started thanking God that it is something I may never understand. Then my thoughts returned to the family and friends left behind. If I feel this deep sadness, I wonder how deep theirs is. May God's comfort be with all who have lost a loved one. 

Unlike people taking their own lives, I understand (to some extent) why people kill other people. It is nonetheless the height of all evils. The wanton disregard for the sanctity of human life is not new, but we seem to be increasingly desensitized from the cruel and needless massacres going on all around the world at the moment.  The latest Israel-Hamas conflict, which is less than a week old has already claimed more than two thousand lives on both sides, with many more thousands injured, and the death toll is bound to keep rising. If it's not teenagers killing each other on our streets, it's an 84 year old killing a young man for knocking on his door. If it is not the Police killing innocent people, it's a nurse killing babies she was meant to care for, or armed gang rivalry ending in senseless deaths. Why? How did we get here? What have we become?

The answer entirely lies in the prevailing ideology across the world, which is that we have become "gods" to ourselves. We say there is no God, so we become our own "gods". We do what we like, we "follow our hearts," as if our heart is our god. If we can think it, no one should stop us from doing it. We treat any form of authority with disdain. We are increasingly led by our feelings. Bye bye to the age of reason. Constraint is a bad word, so we cast it off. We do what makes us happy, often at the expense of the happiness of others. So, I ask the question, what even is mankind? 

Inspired by the Psalmist, we know that we cannot answer the question "What is mankind" without reference to God. We can't understand humans without recognising where they came from. In Psalm 8, the Psalmist located humans within the bounds of the majesty of God. His name is Majestic in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1). Many may refuse to acknowledge Him on earth, yet His influence is not diminished nor His existence invalidated by their beliefs. His glory and splendour are set in the heavens, yet the earth teems with the works of His hands. Science discovers and observes what He created, yet no scientist can replicate the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. None can compare or compete with Him. He has no beginning. He has no end. We can't explain the beginning without Him, and none of us is immortal, as He is. He is the maker of all mankind, whether black or white, Jews or Palestinians, Russians or Ukrainians. He made them all. Only He is qualified to speak authoritatively about mankind. And He has. His word (The Holy Bible) is clear about who we are. Let's explore a few of what God says about mankind. 

1. Mankind is God's creation. Genesis 1 and 2 tell us exactly how mankind was made. Adam was created from clay and became a living being when the breath of God entered him. We were made to worship Him. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev. 4:11, ESV). The reason the Psalmist (in Psalm 8) is puzzled and went on to ask the question "what is mankind" is this, he pondered... how can a God so big and so awesome care so much about mankind? As lowly and insignificant as we are, yet God makes us significant. It's like a man caring so much about the tiny ants on the ground, that he makes sure no step he takes tramples the ant. No, more than that. It's like the man actually bestowing so much honour on the ant that he says to the ant, "tend my garden, keep it looking beautiful, I trust you will do a good job of it." God "crowned {mankind} with glory and honour...{and} made them rulers over the works of {His} hands; and put everything under their feet." (Psalms 8:5-6,NIV). Yet, we have not only made a mess of God's creation, we are on the verge of killing each other off. The ants will do a better job of keeping our gardens, than we have done keeping God's creation. 

2. Mankind was made in the "image" of God. "God created mankind in his own image" (Gen. 1:27, NIV). The essence of this is representation. As the pinnacle of God's creation, we are supposed to represent Him on earth. To develop, nurture, protect, enjoy and exercise dominion on all His creation. He made us equal. We are not made to dominate another human. But what do we see now, we misrepresent God. We have become barbarians hunting down one another. We grab, we steal, we take what does not belong to us. We oppress the poor, we take advantage of the vulnerable, we use intellectual, military and political powers to subjugate people. We take resources from others to enrich ourselves. We are selfish and self centred and refuse to be our brothers keeper. What is wrong with Mankind? How has something made good become so evil? All our problems stem from rejecting the source of our existence - God! Are we not tired of doing it our own way? We innovate, we gain technological advancement, yet with the same innovation meant to do good, so much evil is perpetrated. Whether it's computers, internet, mobile phones, or Artificial Intelligence, we get an equal dose of evil as the good we gain from all our advancements. No man can solve a problem created by man. Our problem needs a God sized solution. 

3. Mankind is made to love others. The words of Jesus put this perfectly. "You have heard the law that says, 'Love your neighbour' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:43-48, NLT). Jesus did not only say these things, He lived this way. He loved His enemies to the point of dying for them. Why is there so much hate in the world? We can trace the root of evil to Genesis 3, where the devil deceived mankind, but are they the only ones to blame?

You can blame the evil in the world on Adam and Evil, but since they left, we have through every generation after them, more than surpassed them in imagining, orchestrating and perpetuating evil. We are quick to judge Putin or blame Hamas and every other person, but what about us? We can't directly influence what is going on in Israel and Palestine, but how about the evil in our own hearts and homes? How about our own selfish ambitions that trample on others. Do we always treat people the way we want to be treated? How about how we abuse and mock people. We are suspicious of one another, we don't trust, we pretend, we hide our real identity because we are afraid there are things people may discover that will make us less loved. There are family feuds that goes back generations. In Noah's time, God destroyed the world  and the people in it to rid it of all evil, but in no time, the eight people that survived started destroying themselves. If God were to do the same today and left only the best behaved families, it wouldn't take a year before problems start emerging. Is man doomed forever? If not, what is the solution?

Jesus is the answer! He is the only man that lived a sinless life. He is God in human form who came to show us the perfect way. Jesus is the perfect image bearer. He is the exact representation of God (Heb. 1:3). He came to do the will of His Father. He lived, died, rose from the dead and is ascended into heaven. In this, he has shown us the design God intends for mankind - to live here on earth, doing the will of the Father, to die, rise again and spend eternity with God in heaven. That is God's design for mankind. What is mankind? We are mere creatures elevated beyond our worth, by our maker, for His glory, and His pleasure, to bring us back to Himself. This truth requires only one response - our total submission to His will in reverence and obedience. This is how Ecclesiastes puts it..."Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind." (Ecc. 12:13, NIV).

I could stop there, but the story will not be complete without mentioning what will happen to those who refuse to submit to God. This is Ecclesiastes' final word on the matter..."For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (Ecc. 12:14, NIV). Human justice is imperfect, God's justice is perfect. There are wrongs we can't right because it goes back for generations. Our most sophisticated justice system is not perceptive enough to consider every possible angle to determine the rights and wrongs of all cases. God will judge at the end. No evil will go unpunished. Not just at a global level, but at a personal level. What is mankind? He is a created being, who will one day, stand before his maker (God) to give an account of how he has lived his life. Even death cannot stop the day of reckoning. We must all give an account! "It is written: "As surely as I live, says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God,' So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God." (Rom. 14:11-12, NIV).   

You may not be able to change others, but you can change you. What kind of mankind do you want to be? You can accept the way of Jesus - a way of submission to God that leads to life eternal, or you can be a god onto yourself and face eternal condemnation at the end of days. I urge you to be like Jesus. You can't achieve it by trying, you can only achieve it by surrendering your life to Him. He will teach, lead and guide you to be the mankind God intends you to be. #WhatIsMankind