In the beginning God created man in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26). God, Elohim, is plural. You see, God's essence is one of other centered love, connection, wholeness, and safety. We were created in His likeness, bearing his same characteristics; in other words, we were created to live the kind of life that He does within Himself. We were created to walk intimately with both God and the rest of humanity in all truth and wholeness; we were created to be naked (completely vulnerable/exposed) and unashamed (no insecurity or pretense).
Satan came into the garden and did the one thing he could to undermine God's children, he tactfully placed a lie at the core of what made us His. 'Did God really say?. . . You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil (Genesis 2:1,4-5). Already bearing God's likeness, humanity believed the lie that Satan presented, and the lie produced in them thoughts and actions that went against their true nature. We call those thoughts and actions sin.
The lie came to Adam and Even, imparting a very powerful belief at the core of their being; the belief of 'I am not'. For the first time they had reason to question God's goodness, and began to wonder if He was holding something from them. It gave birth to pride in them, a new experience, where they felt entitled to have what they thought they needed. This lie of 'I am not' birthed sin in them. They eat of the fruit of the tree, and immediately lose their innocence. They cover themselves up because now they have been introduced to the shame of doing something wrong. Out of that shame and insecurity Adam lashes out at both God and Even by blaming them for the mistake, 'The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate (Genesis 2:12).' Sin then, led to death, which is the opposite of the life were created to be in. All human suffering, shame motivated actions, idol worship, and depravity stem from the believed lie, 'I am not'.
It is this lie that still dictates much of the world today, and much of our lives. I am not good enough, I am not beautiful enough, I am not smart enough, I am not strong enough, I am not popular enough, I am not spiritual enough. . . the list can go on and on. What is your, I am not?
We never actually lost our God-likeness, but we fell into a lifestyle of functioning out of lack. We began behaving and feeling like children of the devil rather than children of God. We can tell we weren't created for that kind of life because of how destructive those thoughts and actions are to the world and our own well-being. Again, God's image never left us, but we adopted a way of living that waged war against the life of our design. Instead of feeling secure we feel ashamed, instead of focusing on others we focus on ourselves, instead of having empathy we have jealousy, instead of giving we take, instead of gladness we are angry. Sin birthed all of these in us, because sin is actions/thoughts/emotions that are outside of the life of our design; they blind, numb, destroy, and kill our capacity to be whole. That sounds a lot like Satan's life goal, to 'kill steal and destroy'.
God never forsook us, but continually worked within and through our blindness to reveal Himself and our true selves. It culminates when God Himself comes to Earth in human form; Jesus, the image of the invisible God. God's ultimate plan to reach us in our blindness, to reveal Himself to us, and in so doing to introduce us back to the life we were created to live. He starts telling stories about coins bearing Cesar image, 'give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar, and give to God what belongs to God.' He talks about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. He talks about the treasure hidden in the field that the man gives everything he owns to redeem. These parables and more we will look at in the next blog.
There is no doubt, when we see Jesus we see the Father, but we also see something else. As we gaze upon Him we are suddenly transformed from glory to glory into His likeness (2 Cor. 3). As in a mirror we see ourselves made in His likeness, and the life of our design is revealed in us through Christ. The Holy Spirit testifies with ours spirit that we are God's children, He teaches us, reminds us, and reveals Christ in us, the hope of glory!
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