Has a kid ever brought you a piece of really special artwork and you looked at it and went, “Oh, I love that! You did such a great job!…….What is it?” Then he starts explaining, “It’s an airplane! See, there’s the wing, and this is the window where the pilot sits,and this is the engine.”. When he says that, you see it. It really IS an airplane! In fact, it’s probably the most amazing airplane ever created by a 4-year old! You just needed the person who created it to explain it to you.
Do you know why no one can tell you what the Mona Lisa’s smile really means? Because daVinci never told anyone. He’s the only one who knew for sure.
No one would have any idea what “the force” is if George Lucas hadn’t made 86 movies to explain it.
If Steve Jobs (and company) hadn’t shown us all that the iPhones could do, we’d be walking around with really expensive phones saying, “Look how big these numbers are! It’s so much easier to dial this phone than that old rotary thing”.
The point is this: The creator defines the creation.
It doesn’t matter how many people think that child’s airplane is a giraffe. The country can vote and declare it a giraffe. Celebrities can speak out in favor of it being a giraffe. Parents, friends, and community members can say, “Obviously that’s a giraffe. It feels like a giraffe to me. Why would you think it’s anything else?” It doesn’t change the fact that the picture is, in fact, an airplane. It was created to be an airplane. The creator said it was an airplane. Other people’s opinions don’t define it – the creator does. The Bible reminds us of this in Romans 9:20, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ “
Because, of course, God is our creator. Genesis 2 tells us that the Lord God formed man of dust and breathed life into him. So, if God created us, He gets to define us. Not our parents, our friends, society – we don’t even get to define ourselves. First and foremost, we are who God says we are.
Back in Genesis 1, people are mentioned for the very first time. The first 25 verses of the Bible describe God creating everything – day, night, light, darkness, water, land, plants, animals – and declaring it good. Then we get to verses 26-31:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, “Behold. I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
God began defining us as soon as we were created. Throughout the Bible, He has a lot to say about who we are. If we could learn to see ourselves as God sees us, I believe we could learn to be more like Him. We spend so much time constructing our own image of who we are, when we already have the answer give to us in scripture. As we look through some of the ways God describes us, notice how many of them are about our behavior. (I’ll give you a hint – none of them) Our identity is not based in our behavior, but in our creator.
We are made in the image of God.
This is the very first thing God tells us about ourselves. He says it three times just in these verses, because God knows us and He knows we need to be hit over the head. Made “in the image of God”. It doesn’t get more big-time than that, does it? Notice that it doesn’t say we are God, just that we are made like Him. We reflect who He is. All of us – no matter our nationality, ability, age, or gender – show a piece of who He is. The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly which qualities we have that are like God. It does use the phrase to describe us before the Fall, after sin entered the world, and again after we are saved and become a new creation. So it’s clear that being the image of God is an inborn part of who we are – it’s not conditional and it doesn’t go away. What an incredible privilege!! It’s hard to say “I’m not good enough” if you really believe that you are made in the image of the Almighty God.
We have dominion over the earth.
As we see in the passage above, God placed us over the animals and plants, yet calls us to care for them. That’s a balance we have to work to maintain – the earth is here for our use, within the boundaries of caring for it. Like many other truths, we have to be careful not to fall off on either side of this line. I’m not going to make arguments for hunting, or vegetarianism, or environmentalism, or mining for natural resources, etc, because we are given freedom to believe and behave differently on issues like these, as long as we are doing it with our hearts focused first on God. In putting us over the natural world, God is showing us another part of who He is – above all creation.
We are sinners.
Once Adam and Eve sinned, we all became sinners. As a wise teacher at my church says, “We’re not sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re sinners.” All sin is equal in God’s eyes, and it all separates us from Him.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
“No one is righteous, no, not one” Romans 3:10
“For there is no one who does not sin” 2 Chronicles 6:36
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way”Isaiah 53:6
We are seen and known.
God knows you – he knew you before you were created and there is nothing about you that is hidden from Him. Your gifts, your weaknesses, your laugh, your cry, your worries and your secret thoughts…he even knows every hair on your head.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them” Psalm 139:13-16
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” Psalm 139:1-4
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” Jeremiah 1:5
We are cherished.
When I consider these last two parts of who I am – a sinner who is fully known by God – I can start to despair. If God really knows me, how could he possibly care what happens to me or love me? He gave me everything, and I keep messing up. But the Bible is clear on this… He loves you beyond your imagination. We know it’s true because the Bible is true. God is not fickle. He does not mess up. He does not change his mind and discard what He created.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” Jeremiah 31:3
“You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God …. for the Lord delights in you” (Isaiah 63:3,4)
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you with his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” Zephaniah 3:17″
“For we are God’s masterpiece” Ephesians 2:10 (imagine that – think about the sunsets, the oceans, the mountains, the variety of animals….all the things God has made and YOU are his masterpiece)
All of these are true of everyone that God created. Every single person. These truths should inform not only how we view ourselves, but how we treat every other person we meet. However, when we are saved – when we choose to accept the gift of Christ’s death on the cross to cover our sins – we are created again. (“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” 2 Corinthians 5:17) The Bible, in particular the New Testament, has a LOT to say about who we are and what our position is after we accept Christ. Again, notice that none of this is dependent on our behavior or our belief! Truth doesn’t change just because we don’t believe it or we’re not living up to it.
We are God’s children/heirs of his kingdom
When we accept Christ, we are adopted into his family. Not as servants or distant cousins, but as beloved children who belong and will receive the inheritance – eternal life in God’s presence in heaven.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” Romans 8:16-17
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” John 1:12
“for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” Galatians 3:26
We have freedom – we are not condemned
The only thing we have to do to be a new creation is to believe in Christ. (“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” Romans 3:28; “For by grace you have been saved through faith” Ephesians 2:8) God definitely defines sins and gives us guidelines to live by, but we have freedom in knowing that we don’t have to get it right to receive the inheritance. We obey him because we are saved, not in order to be saved.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:1-2
“For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” Hebrews 10:14
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” John 3:17
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” Galatians 5:13
We reflect Christ to the world
Christ is the true light (“(John) was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” John 1:8-9). Once we are saved, He lives in us (“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” Galatians 2:20). Because of that, we can shine his glory to those around us. The “light” doesn’t come from us, but from Christ in us.
“You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” Matthew 5:13, 14
“among whom you shine as lights in the world” Philippians 2:14b
“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” Ephesians 5:8-10
“So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” Romans 13:12
Tauren Wells has a song that I love called “Known”. These lyrics get me every time –
It’s not one or the other.
It’s hard truth and ridiculous grace.
To be fully known and loved by you.
It’s all true. God knows you AND loves you. It doesn’t matter if you feel unlovable. It doesn’t matter if the world says you’re beyond redemption. It doesn’t matter if your friends all leave you. God created you for good works and has a good plan for your life. No matter how far outside of it you’ve stepped, you can always turn around and step back in. Let yourself believe that you are who God says you are. He created you, so he’s the only one who has a say in the matter.