I can abase myself, I can withhold consent to the God-given form of life, and so deny or devastate or erect a counterfeit of my creaturely dignity. But I cannot abolish it. Sin is a potent threat to the destiny in which the dignity of creatures is enacted, but it cannot entirely overthrow and bring to nothing the creator’s purpose. I may erode, even ruin, the creaturely side of fellowship with God. But I cannot unmake myself, I cannot not be a creature made and called by God’s love, even though I may have subjected my being to a fearful onslaught. For in the hands of God and his mercy that very onslaught becomes the occasion for the unfolding of his purpose to dignify fallen creatures through his reconciling work. God the reconciler defeats creatures’ deadly trespass upon their own dignity.