Who are we?

There are ¹two fundamental aspects of our being (nature) that define us. One is divine, the other is decidedly human and the opposite of divine.

1. We are like God,  the divine - in His image.

2. We are not God - not self-sufficient, infinite, without limits, but finite i.e. human.

Because we are like God and created to interact (commune) with God - who is ²infinite - only our union and relationship with this infinitely loving God can make us whole - complete us. 

Because we are not God, we are limited, dependent, finite, not infinite, we ³must be in union - connected - with the infinite to function properly, i.e. as designed.

What is the nature of our relationship with God? 

He is the source of all things and we are recipients of all things, i.e. All we are, have, and need to exist and function ⁴comes from God either directly (such as our breath-existence and our abilities) or indirectly through His creation - e.g. food, water, air, sun, other image bearers, etc.

Because we are finite yet designed for the infinite we must go outside ourselves to find lasting meaning, purpose, value, and fulfillment.

Since God is the Creator and the Source of our being (existence), and we are in his image, to understand ourselves correctly, we must ⁵know and understand God correctly.

How do we know God? God is a person. What can be known about him on a personal level must be revealed to us by Him; just as others only truly know us to the extent we reveal ourselves to them. 

His revelation to us of Himself comes in great part through his words (the bible) - What he tells us about himself specifically, as well as what he says in general. 

He also reveals Himself by His actions; through creation - which includes us and our being like Him.

God's fullest, most complete self-revelation occurred when God the Son took on human form as Immanuel (i.e. God with us) and came to live (abide) among us. 

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..." ‭‭Heb 1:1-3

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth..." - John 1:1‭‭-‬5‭, ‬14 ESV

Yet we are not presently connected to God because we have rebelled and broken away from our dependence and need for God. We act as if God is irrelevant or unimportant when it is just the opposite i.e. He is all important. 

If we wish to be reconnected with our Creator, Jesus tells us how in the following statement...

And this is eternal life: that people can know you, the only true God, and that they can know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. - John 17:3

To understand why we are disconnected and how to reconnect click here.

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¹theology - the study of the nature and essence of God

anthropology - the study of the nature and essence of humankind.

²God is infinite both in depth (qualitatively) and breadth - duration (quantitatively). There is no deeper love or a love that never ends except His.

³yet we are not connected because we have rebelled from our dependence on and need for God.

⁴Whether we function optimally, as He desires and designed or not, we still live, move, and have our very being (existence) in God. If there were no God, there would be no us i.e. We still exist because of God whether we willfully and consciously have a personal relationship with God or not.

⁵John Calvin's opening paragraphs of The Institutes. 

Italicized comments in (brackets) are my own to help clarity the authors intended meaning.

1.Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.

For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith (immediately) turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments (gifts) which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay (no), that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in (existence and maintenance by)  God alone.

In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil (come) to us from heaven, are like streams conducting (pointing) us to the fountain.

Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence (thereby) ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us, (see Calvin on John 4: 10,) that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things (ways/conduct) to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest (depend on) in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

2.Without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self

On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride that...) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord also - He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced. For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance (appearance) of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems (estimates) an object of a whitish, or even of a brownish hue, to be perfectly white. Nay, the bodily sense may furnish a still stronger illustration of the extent to which we are deluded in estimating the powers of the mind. If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence (brightness), as to oblige (compel) us to confess that our acuteness (skill) in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun. Thus too (in the same way), it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods (insignificant or lesser gods). But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly (previously) delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity (most wicked actions); what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom (what we mistakenly thought by our own estimation) will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy (right or good efforts) will be condemned as the most miserable impotence (totally inadequate). So far (so distant or removed) are those qualities in us, which seem most perfect, from corresponding to (in relation to or compared to) the divine purity.