Glorified Depravity

In today’s society, as you will often notice, we have grown into a culture that looks for opportunities to claim for ourselves either how accomplished and capable we are or what a disappointment and failure we turned out to be. For being at such seemingly opposing poles in the realm of self-confidence, these claims are surprisingly alike…arguably even the same. Most of us see self-confidence as a means of deriving or maintaining societal validity because, in the end, we all want to be happy, and it only seems to make sense that those who are not happy with themselves will never be happy. And so it appears that the extent to which one achieves self-confidence connotes the degree to which that individual is personally satisfied.

On the spectrum of confidence, at one end is arrogance and at the other is depression; altogether different but nevertheless strikingly similar. One person feels they are on top of the world while the other can’t stand to be in it, but the commonality among these two opposites is the underlying motive behind them both…a propulsion for self. Arrogant people are consumed with themselves, thinking of little more than what can be used to their advantage in promoting what interests them most. Likewise, depressed people are so preoccupied with all of their shortcomings that they can’t help but wallow in that which makes them miserable. In either case, at the most fundamental level, the motive is the same. Yet they seem to be so different because as we confront these individuals, the former stirs in us a sense of intolerant enmity while the latter arouses a sort of empathetic compassion. Perhaps knowing a critical piece of information can help shed more light on why these poles are not so different.

Take, for example, a neighborly young man who kindly comes to the aid of a woman carrying groceries, only to use her bags to cover his face as the police usher by in pursuit of him. Or consider an indignant driver that irresponsibly cuts off every car in sight and speeds off, making his way to meet his wife in the emergency room at the hospital. In these cases, our first impressions may be quite different from our ultimate understanding…and all this because of a critical piece of information.

The piece of information is the same in both cases: how a person relates to oneself may be vastly different than we think. In our examples, they are both so overly consumed with themselves to even think of how their selfishness is adversely affecting, or even endangering, those around them. In this frame of mind, our response can become intolerant and even embittered. On the other hand, they are also both so desperately grasping for meaning in the familiarity of their surroundings, but they can only seem to find a fleeting moment’s contentment. This understanding, however, melts away our hardness of heart. Perhaps our perspective is that which is in need of adjustment, not just the persons exposed above.

For those of us who don’t readily admit to struggling with arrogance or even depression, it would still behoove us to ask: Are we really all that different, or are we just better at hiding it? Perhaps our manifestations of such struggles are simply more subtle, in such a way that we don’t even realize we’re hiding them. For example, one person may be quite exceptional at reasoning why they are always right, allowing them to avoid dealing with why they want to be right in the first place; another individual, however, could be so used to deferring to other people who appear to be right more often, allowing them to avoid the possibility that they may be wrong. Call it meticulous vs. sloppy, industrious vs. passive, type A vs. type B; the motive behind it all is the stigma of self because we think that to be happy with ourselves is indeed what will make us happy in the end.

And for the most part I would agree this seems to be true; but only in part. Isn’t the whole point of this writing to help us come to an understanding that it’s not all about ourselves; instead it’s about others, right? Well, this is also true, but before trying to reconcile these points of interest, we first should understand a bit more about ourselves.

Wayne Grudem, in his book Systematic Theology, writes about who we are in light of who God is:

The difference between the creature and the Creator is an immensely vast difference, for God exists in a fundamentally different order of being. It is not just that we exist and God has always existed; it is also that God necessarily exists in an infinitely better, stronger, more excellent way. The difference between God’s being and ours is more than the difference between the sun and a candle, more than the difference between the ocean and a raindrop, more than the difference between the arctic ice cap and a snowflake, more than the difference between the universe and the room we are sitting in: God’s being is qualitatively different.

John Piper, likewise, puts it this way in Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ: “Indeed, what could be more ludicrous in a vast and glorious universe like this than a human being, on the speck called earth, standing in front of a mirror trying to find significance in his own self-image?”

We come now to understand a bit more about how obscure we are in light of the overarching renown of the Lord. And yet, in spite of our irrelevance, we are given more meaning than we can imagine.

Genesis 1:27 reads, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” How is it that we, so small and unsubstantial, are blessed that we might be the image bearers of God to the world? The most infinite and incomprehensible God not only created man, but gave each of us the weighty responsibility of bearing his infinite image through our finite dominion on the earth. Not only this, but even when man fails to image him appropriately because of sin, still “God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The Lord, in spite of our nothingness, makes us something, not because we are of any worth in and of ourselves, but instead because he simply has chosen to make us so.

Can you see how the pieces fit together? Yes, alone we are inconsequential; but in God “we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). We can simultaneously admit that we are more miniscule than we would ever want to admit, but we are also more blessed than we could ever dare to imagine. We want most to be happy, but inasmuch as we are unable to muster any qualitative significance on our own, we can be overjoyed that God was providential in supplying a much fuller and more eternal significance found in him.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Because of the passion of Christ, we can be free to pursue God for the same reason that Christ pursues us…for our ultimate joy and happiness.