You are special. You are loved. Boy, those are simple sentences that pack a lot of meaning. I suspect that most of us more often than we care to admit do not feel that way. So why do I say that? Because God says so.

In Genesis 1:1, 27 we find:

In the beginning…God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

It is easy to pass quickly over the phrase “in his image.” Yet, pause and consider how absolutely tremendous that is. I don’t think it means that we look like God. I think it means more. I think it means that God created us to be like him and with him.

If God created us to be in his image, to be like him, then we can look at what we know about him and know what he intended us to be when he created us. So what do we know about God? We know that God is love, so he created us to love and be loved. We know that God is good, so he created us to extend goodness to each other.  We know that God is joyful, so he created us to be joyful and bring joy to others. We know that God is selfless, so he created us to be selfless. We know that God is creative, so he created us to create also. We know that God is holy, so he created us to be holy. And perhaps the most important, we know that God is eternal, so he created us to live eternally with him in his Kingdom.

Our dilemma is that we can pick any characteristic on the list, or even one that I missed, and easily see that we do not live as God intended us to be. Why is that? Because we have chosen to live for ourselves over God and others. We cannot live in any way that we were created to live because of that choice. Selfishness swamps all other characteristics. Theology calls that choice “sin” but that term is so loaded in usage that I am not sure it can easily be understood. I find it much easier to understand when considered simply as my choice ahead of God and others. I was created to live eternally with God in his Kingdom as a reflection of his image but do not simply when I choose not to do so. Sin is all about the choices I make. Sin is all about my selfishness.

The Good News is that God wants us to be with him in his Kingdom so badly that despite all of the bad choices that we have made and will make he promises to renew us to his Kingdom and his image. We, however, think God expects us to change ourselves and do everything we can to be the person he intended us to be. We look at our past and our natures, however, and conclude that we have lived lives that are completely unacceptable in so many ways. Further, when we are honest with ourselves we realize that we have neither the strength nor the will to remake ourselves into the person God intended us to be. Jesus said we can forget about all of that.

Jesus came to us to show us the way back to God. The way he spoke to and showed, however, is so simple that it defies human logic and reason. He emphasized that God knows we cannot do it on our own. He wants us to give up trying. In his grace he will accept us as we are. All we have to do is turn to him and admit that we have been living life for ourselves and not him, and ask him to forgive us and take us back. That’s it! That is all he expects. When we say that and mean it, Christ will enter our lives and begin to restore us to be in God’s image in any area of our lives to which we invite him and submit to his transformational power. Being human, we will still have parts of our lives where Christ is not invited. That is unfortunate, but all that means is we will not experience the wonder of life in God’s Kingdom completely. The beauty of God’s grace, however, is that he knows that and chooses to focus on restoring us instead.

In Revelation 21:5, Christ says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” That means all things. That includes us. That includes you. All you have to do is stop trying to do it on your own. You know you can’t and Jesus knows you can’t. So why keep trying? Or even worse, why even bother to try? Why not just accept that you will have to live out your life on your own and as you choose, with all of the bad choices, and never become the person you were intended to be? The simple answer is because you do not have to live that way.

You were created to be in the image of God and live eternally in the Kingdom of God. Christ does not care about what you have done or will do. He wants to start renewing you now. He wants to start restoring you to the person you were intended to be.  You may have never invited Christ into your life, or did so but have not really invited him to begin transforming you. He wants to start showing you what it means to live as the image of God in his Kingdom. He wants to begin the work of your transformation  into the person God intends you to be. Now. You do not have to wait until after death. You can begin to see God’s Kingdom now. And it is so simple. All you have to do is sincerely ask him to start work in your life. He promises he will. You can count on it!

Amen

---

I have a footnote to the passage from Genesis quoted above that springs from the wordsmith in me, but I love it because it has so much meaning. The previous verse 26  is the first time that “man” is mentioned in the Bible.  In verse 27 quoted above, however, the usage is in the plural rather than the singular. The very first reference to “man” therefore is not to just the singular male, but in the plural to male and female. I think that shows that in our relationships with God we place far more emphasis on gender than he does. I do not mean that God does has not distinguished us on gender because we  were created with separate genders. But when it comes to the image of God, we should not get stuck on whether he is male or female. Verse 27 tells us it is a distinction without a difference to God.