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).

The Righteousness of God

I think if we were to look at the theme of Romans 1-3, we would see that it is the righteousness of God. The purpose of the letter is given in 1.15:

So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

It is the gospel that reveals the righteousness of God "from faith to faith." Why? Because "the just { i.e., the righteous } shall live by faith." The bolding here is perhaps a bit excessive, but I want to draw attention to the repetition in the language: the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.

The phrase "from faith to faith" is interesting and bears a bit of examination. I'll do this in another post (Lord willing). As a bit of word salad, though, compare the phrase "Author and Finisher of the faith" (Author is parallel to "from"; Finisher is parallel to "to"). It's perhaps also worth noting that it is the righteousness of God that is revealed by the gospel (from faith), but it is expressed in righteous men (to faith).


For all the arguments about how Romans may or may not be a systematic theology, it is clear that the apostle's train of thought is aimed squarely at 3.21:

But now the righteousness of God ... is revealed ...

The intervening text squarely addresses two ways in which the righteousness of God is revealed: by his punishment of sin (ultimately by giving men over to sin) and by the law. On the one hand, we have those without special revelation (the Gentiles) and those who were given "the oracles of God," that is, the Jews (3.3).

Neither of these ways, we are told, leaves man with any hope. The purpose of the law was to condemn, not to justify, and so both the Gentiles who have no law will be judged for sin, and the Jews, to whom the law was given and the prophets came, will likewise be condemned. There is no excuse to either—on the one hand, creation is sufficient to testify to God's judgment for those given no revelation, and on the other, the explicit revelation of the Law taught man his inability to live up to God's righteous standards.


And so we see in the wake of the moral devastation of the passage that

[T]he righteousness of God without the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe

So here we see again our thematic elements: the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith (of Jesus Christ) to faith (upon all them that believe). This is how the gospel reveals God's righteousness. In the person of Jesus Christ, God is incarnate in human flesh, redeeming humanity, exemplifying the righteousness of God in his faithfulness to perform the work he was given, and this same righteousness is revealed (for there is no difference) by our faith—for we are justified by faith, and our faith reveals the righteousness of God.

The Return

After taking July, August, and half of September off, it seems time to return to this blog. I have not been absent for lack of material, but lack of time and, to a smaller extent, lack of motivation.

I've had some interesting ideas on the chiastic structure of Psalm 130, translational notes on Psalm 139, thematic structures of Romans 1-3, and St Irenaeus' phrase "Man fully alive is the glory of God." Hopefully it will provide suitable fodder to jumpstart things here again.