When describing humans as God We might best describe humans as 'priestly kings.' Like kings, According to Genesis 1:26, all humans were meant to govern and reign on God's behalf on this earth. As humans, we were called out and set apart to do God's purpose and definition of good and evil something that humanity failed at rather quickly because of continual disobedience due to the freedom of choice that God instilled in every one of us. We as humans were made to be likened to someone who is infinite and limitless. That someone is Jesus who when was on this earth demonstrated what being human is like. Jesus is the reality of God's desire to be included in the human story. He stayed here among us breathing, talking eating, sleeping, and living for a purpose because he wanted to demonstrate what we humans should strive to be and what humanity should look like. Being more like God doesn't require us to escape our humanity but rather accept it and strive to be more like Jesus when he was on this earth, because when we follow the ways of Jesus, we ultimately follow the path to true humanity.
In Augustine's Confessions St. Augustine, a fourth-century philosopher whose philosophy made drastic changes to Christian doctrine uses the pilgrimage of his grace that was his life to speak about his human experiences and being human and how that affected his relationship with God. In Book 1 of The Confessions of Augustine while reminiscing on his childhood from infancy to adolescence Augustine realizes God's grace and how constant and omnipotent God has been throughout different stages of his life and states 'You stir us to take pleasure in praising you, because you made us for yourself, and our heart are restless until it rests in you.' This statement amplifies a major theme that Continues throughout Augustine's Confessions, As Human Beings we long to know God and to do his will but because we are born inherently sinful and weak (which is inherited through original sin from our first parents. Adam and Eve disobeyed God when they ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.) We often are unable to do God's will without God's help. As humans, we are blind to our dependence on God. This truth relates to Augustine's pilgrimage of grace; he was very skeptical of God's truth throughout his entire life, but God patiently drew him back. This presents itself in humanity's relationship with God because we are not necessarily born sinful but because of our free will we make choices that are sinful in God's eyes which then leads us to not fulfil God's will.
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Throughout the confessions Augustine highlights the importance of the will, free will to be exact, which is the ability to choose between good and evil. As Christians the fundamental religious duty is to love and serve God; if we can do this, we will also have to choose the good above the evil. Human nature, as created by God, is good ( referring back to Genesis 1:26 we are good because God created us ' in his image' which is what the Latin term ' imago Dei' means 'first, God's self-actualization through humankind; and second, God's care for humankind for one to refer to humans in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. In other words, for humans to have the conscious recognition of their being in the image of God means that they are the creatures through whom God's plans and purposes can be made known and actualized; humans, in this way, can be seen as co-creators with God.')the free will that He originally gave us places us higher in the ladder of beings than nonhuman animals or plants that same freedom of choice is the same freedom which also allows us to alienate ourselves from God and choose to deny or repress our spiritual and moral likeness to God just like Augustine tried to do throughout his life.
In Augustine's search for the truth which he talks about in Books 7 and 8, Augustine comes across many different doctrines such as the Manichee and Platonists, he finally comes to understand God, Christ, and evil when reading the Hebrew scriptures (bible ) specifically the Gospel of Paul in the new testament he finds The importance of Christ as a mediator between human and God, material and spiritual, which is a turning point in his spiritual conversion For Augustine, Christ provides the only real resolution to the matter of human sin. All the skepticism and questions he had about God and Sin in 7.5 are answered by the beatific vision he has in 7.17('in which he learns that there is no evil; evil is nothing, having no existence of its own. It occurs only as a corruption of good things.' This leads him to the realization that helps him understand what it means to be human about God, understanding that Christ is the only bridge between humanity and the supernatural glory of God which then leads him to accept God's will.
In Books 11-13, Augustine explains the Trinity, and it's the functions of the three 'persons'' of the One God. 'The Father can be identified with being or existence: God the Father is eternal, perfect, and unchanging. The Son can be identified with knowledge: God the Son is the Word, the eternal Wisdom that gave order and meaning to the creation. The Holy Spirit can be identified with the will: God the Holy Spirit is the activity of God, at work throughout history and specifically within the body of the Church.' These are the qualities of the trinity which Augustine states are also qualities of humans, going back to the belief that humanity was created in the 'image of God '(Genesis 1:26) but because of Sin humans become less like God, and Jesus coming down as on this earth and dying for our sins is God's grace towards humanity and the only way we were able to be redeemed for us to come to resemble him again.
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