James Duff June 8th 2014 - geniuses or sinners?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” - Albert Einstein. Was Albert Einstein correct in claiming that everybody is a genius? Do we look at certain people as though they are not geniuses? I think what Einstein was really angling at is that all humans are incredibly unique and amazingly gifted. However, we don’t always see humanity like this. Like all thoughts that claim to be objectively true, Christians should go to scripture to assess the claim. I did this last week, spending some time working through what the Bible says about humanity to see if Einstein’s claim is indeed true. I found that humanity is the creature of God (Gen 1:26; 2:7f, 21f; Ps 8:2; Acts 17:26, 28) and every man and woman exists only because God made them (Gen 5:1f; Ps 139:13f; Ecc 12:1; Mal 2:10; Matt 19:4; Rom 1:25; Jas 3:9; 1 Pt 4:9). The scriptures seem to have a very positive and high view of humanity. The fall of humanity (Gen 3) however, diminished God’s image, not only in our first parents but in all their descendants – i.e. the whole human race.Sin, according to the Bible, is universal (Rom. 3:10,23) and if we claim to not be affected, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).Jesus alone lived as a human being ‘without sin’ (Heb. 4:15) and through his death and resurrection imputed his perfection to us (Col.3). So should we think of ourselves as geniuses or sinners? I think the answer is “as geniuses”, for those who have trusted their life to Jesus. Because of the work of Jesus, the fall has been reversed. We are not under the weight of sin but under grace (Rom. 6:14). The call is for us to live into this reality. Christianity teaches that humanity was made by the ultimate genius, God himself. Because of this, all people should be treated with dignity, love and respect for all are his handiwork. There are many who think following Jesus is stupidity, seeing it like a fish trying to climb a tree. But for the followers themselves it is Jesus who makes them geniuses (1 Cor. 1:19-20). So we need to get on with boasting in the Lord (1 Cor. 31). Blessings James