How to Live Like New Humans, According to Jesus
We might only be humans, but God made me, you, and everybody else with purpose. I know that sounds cheesy, but I’ll show you it’s true. In short, even though humanity failed and fell almost immediately with Adam and Eve, Jesus clarifies our role as new humans and amplifies this purpose to ear-drumming, soul-shaking levels. Let’s dive into how.
Genesis 1:26–31 says that as His “very good” creation, we’re meant to have rest, rule, and relationship with God and each other. That’s a tall task, though humanity is clearly different as we’re intentionally made in God’s image. This means we’re put on earth to act on His behalf and reflect Him by serving each other before ourselves, projecting His love by working as a community of love.
We were set up for success in the Garden of Eden, where God dwelled with humanity and heaven met Earth. Despite this, Genesis tells us Adam and Eve gave into temptation, eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil when God explicitly said not to. That set humanity up for struggle. Evil came in and had its way with the generations that followed, and every biblical hero but one let it take hold of them at some point or another.
Noah, the faithful remnant who was supposed to serve as a righteous reset for humanity, failed immediately after surviving the flood by getting drunk in a vineyard and wrongfully cursing his son. Then Abraham, who God promised to make the father of a great nation that would eventually become the Israelites, slept with his servant because he didn’t trust God would work through his wife. And David, the shepherd turned royal priest king who was intimately close with God, took a married woman and had her husband killed after finding out she was pregnant with his kid. It’s messed up, right?
Jesus Makes Us New
This is why Jesus is such a big deal. There’s no overstating the importance of his work on Earth, through which he healed humanity’s relationship with God. The apostle Paul waxes poetic about Jesus’ role as the new Adam in Romans 5, saying, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
Because of Jesus’ perfect life, unparalleled sacrifice, and miraculous resurrection, heaven can and does overlap with our world. He shows us how to make this happen, and his sermon on the mount is filled with instruction for acting like a new human. It takes up all of Matthew 5–7, so it’s a lot to take in, but he hits on key points in a way that goes against our human instincts, but for the better.
He says that as his followers, we’re meant to be the light of the world — another cheesy-sounding saying that’s packed with legit meaning. Rather than putting ourselves above others, we’re supposed to flip it upside down and build each other up, trusting that God and fellow believers will do the same for us. All the while, we’re meant to serve with God as our motivator and tell everyone He’s why we live how we do “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
And when people treat us wrong, we can’t call it good enough that we refrain from actually retaliating. Jesus says not to store up anger but rather to reconcile immediately — which doesn’t mean after we’ve sat and stewed on it a while — so that no tension remains in our relationships. It’s so humbling, which is definitely the point.
We’re told to love our enemies, too, and that goes beyond not hating them. Jesus says to “pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” He tells us we’re going to see people we disagree with succeeding, and that shouldn’t call God’s character into question because He “sends rain on the just and the unjust.” Instead, we’re meant to love even those who wrong us because there’s nothing special about only caring for people who treat us right.
I could keep paraphrasing the sermon on the mount, though if you’re into living like a new human, it’ll serve you well to read it in its entirety. Meditate on it like Jesus’ earliest followers did, taking it in as a revolutionary way to live. We’re given a few lessons on how to apply these lessons in the New Testament, and they’re worth touching on as well.
Becoming Doers of the Word
James was Jesus’ brother, so he witnessed his character closely throughout his life. He talks about hearing his teachings and doing what they say in James 1:19–26, giving advice like “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” He also includes an impactful line that says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” In turn, we can’t claim Christianity if we don’t strive to reflect Jesus.
We aren’t being told to live this way by someone who has never struggled, either. Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” That’s empowering when we’re in union with Christ.
Paul specifically refers to Jesus as “the last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15, and verses 47–49 say, “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
So read and re-read Jesus’ words; study his character and know that he’s both fully God and fully human. Engage with his teachings in a group of believers and fill your community with love. Through hearing these instructions and doing what he says, we live as new humans that reflect our Creator rather than the hurt that exists in contempt with good. Jesus is the light of the world, and just as he overcame darkness, so can we by following him.
This blog also appears on Calvary of Neosho’s Medium channel. For more like it, follow our church!
