Ever since the Garden of Eden, people have argued over what it means to try to be like God. Adam and Eve ate the fruit so that they might have God-like knowledge, and, well, we all know how that turned out. Yet, Scripture describes humans as the image of God and calls Christians to pattern themselves in the likeness of Jesus.

In what ways are we to be like God, and in what ways are we to acknowledge that God’s greatness far transcends us?

In “How to Be Human like God,” Stefani McDade juxtaposes human attempts to achieve God-like knowledge and power with becoming like Christ in his humility.

“Already possessing the invulnerability of divinity,” McDade writes, “Jesus fully embraced the status of humanity; not just for a lifetime, but for all time. The Incarnation has been likened to a great or wondrous exchange, wherein God became human in Christ so that we might become like God—but in the opposite way of Adam and Eve.”

As we approach Good Friday and Easter, may we consider what it looks to be human like God: not searching for ways to transcend our humanity, but rejoicing that the Son of God chose to take on the humanity just like ours, that we might become the righteousness of God.