Treasure Tree DNA: Humanity is beautiful but broken.
God made us to be like Him (Genesis 1:27). The language that is used, “made in His image,” evokes the picture of a little one, partaking of the same nature, sharing certain similarities, but fundamentally made of different “stuff.” That is the reality of human nature. We were made in God’s own image, to share in His nature and carry His dominion on the earth. In fact, the Psalmist will later say that He has crowned us with glory and honor above all other created things on earth. What would compel Him to do that? What caused God to make us like that, to share with us something that He shared with no other part of creation?
It was sheer love. We hadn’t done anything to deserve it. We didn’t even exist yet. What kind of love gives itself before getting anything in return? What kind of love brings honor and glory to dust? God’s love does. We affirm that He made us to reflect His glory and to serve as culture-builders on earth, to share the fruit of His nature with all of creation. But unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.
Our nature has been corrupted. From the moment our first parents ate from the tree in rebellion, we have been at war with God and within ourselves. We have become lovers of darkness instead of lovers of God (John 3:19-21). The intentions of our heart are wayward, confused, and self-interested (Genesis 8:21). Eden echoes in us as we reckon with this brokenness and work to find a way back. But this is the paradox of our fallen condition. We were made in honor, glory, and love but far too often we choose shame, sorrow, and grief.
This is the fundamental struggle at the heart of humanity, this wrestling between darkness and light, righteousness and wickedness, wisdom and foolishness. We see it moment by moment, the highs of human compassion and empathy and the lows of human evil and destruction. We affirm the goodness in which we are made, and we also affirm that it is often sinfulness that we choose. God made us to be like Him, but we yearned for something more, something different, and the fruit of that dissatisfaction is seen in the brokenness of every human life. We were made in goodness, and we are in desperate need of rescue.
We think, teach, and write with this core truth at heart. We recognize that human beings are complex, and we will be careful to not oversimplify things that are nuanced. We will strive to avoid cynicism that devalues our nature or humanism that worships it. We make it our goal to be balanced in the way that we understand humanity, and we will work to give an honest accounting of the goodness in which we are made and the brokenness in which we now live.
