Jessica Rodriguez Discussion Questions

1. An example of total depravity that I have seen recently is the desire of people to define their own identities. I have seen people put the center of their identity in their sexual orientation or in their ethnicity and culture instead of being created as a son or daughter of God, in His image. When we try to define ourselves and construct our own identity, apart from God, we are really enslaved to the self-made identity we have for ourselves. We must be whatever we convince ourselves and others that we are and it is all conditional on what we "do." That is an example of total depravity because it is totally corrupt to reject God's definitions and to make up our own. Instead, because we are made in God's image, it is HIS image and HE is the only one who gets to guide us in knowing our identity. God is the only one who has the right to define us and our identity, since He created us. And because we were created in His image and it is His image that we bare, only He can tell us how to become more like that image, since it is His own.

2. Page 695 #3. If someone says that salvation consists of the escape of the soul from the body, what would you say?
I would say that that statement first, implies that the body itself is something that needs to be escaped from and that it is inherently bad. If salvation includes the soul escaping from the body, then the soul is good and the body is bad. But, God created the world and Adam and Eve and he said that they were very good. It wasn't until sin entered the world through Adam's sin that the body/flesh became corrupted. Originally, the body/flesh was not an inherently bad thing. God created the body and said it was very good. If the body was inherently bad, then Jesus becoming man would mean that Jesus couldn't be fully good, but we know that he was. He was sinless, yet he existed within a human body that had aches and pains. When Jesus resurrected into new life, he resurrected with a body didn't he? Then, can't we assume that our bodies as well as our souls will be resurrected and made new? God created all of us, not just our souls. He created our bodies, minds, souls and we are all of those things. We aren't souls trapped inside bodies nor are we bodies that have souls. We are body, mind, spirit, the way God made us!

Jessica Rodriguez wrote:1. An example of total depravity that I have seen recently is the desire of people to define their own identities. I have seen people put the center of their identity in their sexual orientation or in their ethnicity and culture instead of being created as a son or daughter of God, in His image. When we try to define ourselves and construct our own identity, apart from God, we are really enslaved to the self-made identity we have for ourselves. We must be whatever we convince ourselves and others that we are and it is all conditional on what we "do." That is an example of total depravity because it is totally corrupt to reject God's definitions and to make up our own. Instead, because we are made in God's image, it is HIS image and HE is the only one who gets to guide us in knowing our identity. God is the only one who has the right to define us and our identity, since He created us. And because we were created in His image and it is His image that we bare, only He can tell us how to become more like that image, since it is His own.

2. Page 695 #3. If someone says that salvation consists of the escape of the soul from the body, what would you say?
I would say that that statement first, implies that the body itself is something that needs to be escaped from and that it is inherently bad. If salvation includes the soul escaping from the body, then the soul is good and the body is bad. But, God created the world and Adam and Eve and he said that they were very good. It wasn't until sin entered the world through Adam's sin that the body/flesh became corrupted. Originally, the body/flesh was not an inherently bad thing. God created the body and said it was very good. If the body was inherently bad, then Jesus becoming man would mean that Jesus couldn't be fully good, but we know that he was. He was sinless, yet he existed within a human body that had aches and pains. When Jesus resurrected into new life, he resurrected with a body didn't he? Then, can't we assume that our bodies as well as our souls will be resurrected and made new? God created all of us, not just our souls. He created our bodies, minds, souls and we are all of those things. We aren't souls trapped inside bodies nor are we bodies that have souls. We are body, mind, spirit, the way God made us!

I think that your examples of total depravity are excellent. And it's one that I haven't thought about lately. But it is so true that people identify themselves based off of what they do or how they feel but not of who they are. They insist on their own ways and not God's ways, and we struggle with that all the time too.

I actually didn't think about your idea until I read it. But the idea of an escape means that the soul would be trapped, and that doesn't conform to God's view. God will always place us in a set of His limitations; even when we are free from the grip of sin, we then become slaves to righteousness. So, it would make sense that our souls would also be forever contained in a body, whether our present ones or future ones. Also, if I remember correctly, the Gnostic view was that the physical things are bad, so they would view the body as evil. Thus the idea of an escape from the body would be a Gnostic view as well, resurfacing in current thought.