“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” - C.S. Lewis
Human life is the crown of God’s creation. We have been fashioned in His image and have been given the honor of eternal life! As C.S. Lewis continues in his wonderful essay, The Weight of Glory, “Nations, cultures, arts, civilization – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
The Bible says we are special – and that we will endure beyond our mortal flesh. We talk about “the sanctity of human life” because human life is sacred. God loves each of us enough to want to take up residence within us. Think about it! – the Glorifier and the glorified, together. “…Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
No wonder that the greatest commandment of all includes “love your neighbor as yourself.” God’s love helps motivate us to be kind to one another and to do whatever we can to help people move onto the narrow path that leads to eternal life!
As Lewis continues, “It is a serious thing… to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.” But in spite of this high potential value God gave human life, we live in a culture which has devalued it – what is often called a “culture of death”.
Evolution says we are merely animals, bags of enzymes and other bio-chemicals – materials which, if you distilled them at life’s end, would be worth approximately $4.95 by one estimate. Evolution says that human life is nothing special – simply materials coming together by chance. Evolution is given the presumption of scientific truth; therefore, its conclusions are considered intellectual and correct. And this has led to all kinds of human tragedy.
But God, our great Creator, has given mankind stewardship of His creation and has bestowed on us honor and respect by way of giving us liberty! The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America summarizes these great gifts of our Creator in its famous passage, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This expresses the great biblical principle that mankind has been created special by God – in life and liberty!
Naturalism, atheism’s expression in science, and the philosophy which spawned evolutionism, removes the whole idea of God – and most significantly that man is a special creation of God. We are just animals and there is no God. There is, therefore, no real meaning and purpose to man’s existence – no satisfying answers to such questions as: “Who are we?” and “What really matters and why?” A crisis of meaning and identity has taken hold that persists until we find God in Christ.
C.S. Lewis was right. “You have never talked to a mere mortal.” People are special in the sight of their Creator. The divine spark can be fanned into a hot fire spreading warmth and light all around, or it can be smothered into a cold, dark and even horrific ember.
Someday we shall enter into and mingle with the splendors that we can now only see and feel in part! “Behold I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet... for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
