Man Fully Alive

I am not a huge fan of contemporary Christian music in general, though I followed Petra for nearly 20 years and enjoy the work of some other artists.

One song I heard recently was Sara Groves' "Just Showed Up," in which she quoted St Irenaeus, who wrote, "Man fully alive is the glory of God."

I hadn't read the passage from Irenaeus when I heard the song, so I assumed for a little while that it was original. Googling the phrase, however, helped me find this excerpt from Against Heresies, whence comes the quote.


My first reaction was that the phrase well speaks of Jesus Christ—he is, of course, the prototypical fully alive man. He is the one human of whom we may say that "In him was life" (Jn 1.4). All other men borrow life from God—they cannot claim to be alive intrinsically. That Jesus Christ is the glory of God may be seen readily from the Scriptures (Jn 1.14; He 1.3).

Groves truncates the quote in her song, but I think I anticipated him somewhat. Irenaeus continues, "[M]oreover man's life is the vision of God." And what is the vision of God but Jesus Christ? As Irenaeus says, "... God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him."

How do we grasp, comprehend, and see God? Through the Incarnation, who is "The express image of his person" (He 1.3).¹ He was tangible, having come in the flesh; he revealed God to us by his existence and by his message (cf Jn 17.6).


We may also consider the phrase by looking at mankind itself (and this, I think, is the way that Groves was looking at it in her song). It is interesting that we read that Jesus Christ came to give us life, and life more abundantly (Jn 10.10). Properly we cannot divorce this from the person and work of Jesus Christ, for one thing he did was to redeem humanity—he showed us what it means to be truly human.

We find in being fully alive that we reflect God's glory (cf Ho 4.7, Ro 1.23, 2Co 3.18—the first two verses are negative, the third positive). We must look at God to live, as the Israelites looked to the serpent to live, and it is in our vision of God that we reflect his glory.


This is such a rich subject! I've been working on this post all day and still there are thoughts I have that haven't really made their way into the writing. I'd highly recommend picking up the excerpt and exploring it mentally.

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[1] This, incidentally, is one of the reasons that the Trinity is necessary. While God may reveal himself in creation, the Law, and the Prophets, the only result from these was condemnation; this is the argument of Romans 1-3. The gospel is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's no coincidence that man exchanged "the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man" (Ro 1.23). If Jesus Christ is not God, God remains veiled from us.

It's worth noting, too, that this is how we identify the Scripture as more than a mere book. Christ is identified as the Word; the revelation of God is more than just words—it is "living and active" (He 4.12).