Leadership Personal Reflection
Being a Person
What Does It Mean
From a Christian Perspective?
Copyright by CC Molcar, Ph.D.
Sire’s Description
Human beings are made in God’s image, being like God and reflecting him.
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27
We are personal because God is personal. To some degree, we are self-determining. We can make choices.
Furthermore, we have personality,
self-transcendence, social capacity, and
creativity.
Human beings also have dignity which has been derived from God.
Anthony A. Hoekema Created in God’s Image
Human beings are Created Persons.
Created means we are creatures made by and dependent on God, our Creator.
Persons because we possess self-determination (freedom).
Therefore, there is a mystery that we are both dependent and free.
Although still in God’s image, that image has been marred by the Fall.
Because the first humans chose to be autonomous or independent from God, they and their descendents have been negatively impacted by the Fall spiritually, physically, morally, intellectually, and relationally.
The Way of Healing
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, through His substitutionary death on the Cross, has provided forgiveness for people who accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord
AND
the possibility for substantial healing now and total healing in the future in all of these areas that have been affected by the Fall.
Jesus is the Perfect Image of God.
*“He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15
*Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9
*“…the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2Corinthians 4:4
*“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” Heb. 1:3
From Christianity: The true humanism by J.I. Packer and Thomas Howard
“Jesus has been worshiped by Christians as the
Lord, the Savior, the Holy One of God, the Word
of God, the Son of God, Immanuel (God with
us), and indeed as God himself.
This same Jesus is also the Son of Man (his
favorite designation for himself), which means,
along with some other things, that he is the
figure in whom we see all the potentialities and
aspirations of our humanity in all of their
freedom and full development.
Morally and spiritually, intellectually and
experientially, motivationally and relationally,
the incarnate Son of God stands before us as
perfect man, the one totally human being that
history knows.” Packer & Howard, 1985
Redeemed human beings (those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord) are being conformed to His image.
*“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son… Romans 8:29
*“(We) are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2Corinth. 3:18
*“(You) have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Colossians 3:10
The Image of God as Relational
The Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is relational within the Trinity.
Therefore, we who are made in His image are invited to join into this relationship.
*Jesus said “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you…the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14: 20, 26
See Icon.
Craig M. Gay’s thoughts from The way of the (modern) world
Gay, a professor who teaches at Regent College and has extensively studied modern culture, stresses that the depersonalization of modern thinkers ultimately came from objectifying the natural world through the natural sciences and objectifying human beings (partially through the social sciences).
The sense of awe and wonder of God’s Creation was replaced by an objectifying, modern, secular scientific understanding.
Gay describes how Christian theology has understood that we become persons only in relation to other persons and ultimately in communion with God.
Greek Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas has noted that, “being a person is basically different from being an individual or ‘personality’ in that the person cannot be conceived in itself as a static entity, but only as it relates to.”
Gay notes that:
“In contrast to ancient pagan, and now to
modern post-Christian ambiguity with respect to
the possibility of individuality and personality,
the Christian religion affirms that the ultimate
nature of reality is actually personal, and indeed
that God’s essential being consists in the
absolutely personal communion of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Christianity further affirms that the world that
God has created does not simply reflect dimly
the personal and relational quality of his being,
but that the world was created and is destined
to participate in the divine nature and to share
in personal communion with the Father, through
the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit
eternally.
Here we must stress that no other religion,
ancient or modern, has ever dared to place as
much emphasis upon the person as Christianity.
Indeed, personal existence is Christianity’s
distinctive glory; and to the extent that our
culture still appreciates such things as the rights
of conscience, individual responsibility, and the
dignity of persons, this is largely the legacy of
Christian theology. Both the idea and the actual
experience of personhood in Western society
and culture are the fruit of Christianity
trinitarian onto-theology.” Gay, 1998
Christianity: View of People
Made in God’s Image (creative)
Relational
Dignity
Valued by God.
Loved by God (God is love).
Personal-Can make choices
Fallen (sinful) but can be redeemed by belief in Jesus Christ.
Can have eternal life.
Naturalism
People are complex machines.
Nothing more than the rest of the natural world.
Death is the end of the individual.
Eastern Pantheistic Monism
God is impersonal, more like Being.
Everything is part of god.
We are part of this and will be absorbed into the oneness of being when we die if we have lived a good life.
View of people and how it relates to Leadership
How would our view of people relate to how we treat others as leaders?