Man’s Highest Good

I lost the feeling in my legs 2 minutes ago, but I was almost there. I just needed to climb the last of 999 steps to reach the top. Hopefully, I can take a breather while I look at “heaven’s gate,” the reason for the climb up the mountain. My friends and I decided to tour one of south China’s natural landmarks, which is essentially a big hole in a mountain. But as I, along with most everyone else, stared at the gate, I noticed three guys sitting toward the other direction. I could tell with their uniforms that they worked at the park. I guess after a few hours the luster of a big hole in a mountain loses its sheen.

One reason human satisfaction wanes is because God made us for more than national parks, career milestones, and family vacations. God made man in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:27). Among other things, this means we’re different from all the other physical things in the world because we are not merely physical creatures. Man has both physical and spiritual natures. God made Adam from both the physical dust of the ground and the spiritual breath of God (Genesis 2:7). Even though we have traits in common with animals, we differ from them in a number of ways, chief among them is comprehension and desire for spiritual things. Whereas certain primates can discern the comfort and usefulness of certain things, man considers the absolute goodness of a thing—something he considers but can never attain.[1] It’s cool that your dog can catch a frisbee, but I’ve yet to see him ask about the meaning of the universe.

We can discern all the ways in which humans sing like birds and play like dogs, but we can’t discern how spiritual we are because we see nothing else to which we can compare ourselves spiritually. We are blind to the spiritual world because we are dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). Our sinful nature destroys our created nature, but not completely. God’s image still remains in us in small pieces. These small pieces of God’s image are enough to condemn us of our sin, testify to our previous glory, and remind us of our God-given calling.[2]

Although man lives in a temporal and physical world, he still desires heavenly and spiritual things outside of physical matter and temporal space. No created thing can satisfy man because he was created to be satisfied with the uncreated.[3] We cannot satisfy this desire with our own technological devices and philosophical science because true knowledge of the uncreated God can only come through fearing Him (Proverbs 1:7).

“God, and God alone is man’s highest good.”[4] So, it makes sense why eventually we lose interest in beautiful mountains and football games. We are constantly looking for the very being we don’t want to see. “Man is an enigma whose solution can be found only in God.”[5] And thanks be to God, He meets with us.

[1] Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, 2.

[2] Ibid., 1.

[3] Ibid., 3.

[4] Ibid., 1.

[5] Ibid., 7.