State of Man - Created

Genesis 1:26-28 (ESV) ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] 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.” ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ²⁸ And God blessed them. And God 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.”

When I was a child, one of my favorite things to play with was Lego Sets. Whenever I was gifted a new set for my birthday or Christmas, I would instantly get filled with excitement and anticipation. Before I even had built the set, I was “in love with it.” Thinking and pondering of how it would fit into the other sets I had, and the grand adventures that I would have with them. I could, of course, see on the box what the set in question was going to look like when it had taken form. Yet, even prior to that I loved them…

I am so utterly floored by the depth of God’s love for mankind at the onset of creation. Similarly to how I had a love, albeit limited to my 8-year-old human self, prior to even building the Lego Set, God had immense love for us prior to the onset of humanity.

Look at the opening words…”Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” That alone should be enough to put any doubts to rest that God has love for mankind. Here is this holy, pure, eternal, awe strikingly beautiful and totally perfect God. This same God that made man in His image. He could have given us a totally different image. He could have given us a totally different goal and life. Yet, He did not. He created us to be like Him. The image we are made in is not merely any type of physical form or shape…but rather, what we are to think, act, and love. We were created to exist as a reflection of our Creator!

Created…for the Christian this term grants peace. It grants a feeling of safety. We aren’t in charge! HE is in charge. HE holds the rod and the scroll (look it up!) as He alone is worthy of this lofty place in and beyond existence itself.

This very thought goes against our flesh. That someone other than “ME” is in charge. It is something that goes against the hearts of all of men. We want control. We want power. We want sovereignty over our lives. Yet this is not how God created us. He created us as lesser than Himself. We give HIM glory. We give HIM joy. We give HIM love and worship and praise and adoration and accolades. We do this because this is what we were created to do!

The most wild thing about all of this…God doesn’t need these things. He doesn’t need US! He is fully supreme in all things. So why then? Why did He create us? Further, why did He create us in this manner? He created us to need Him and want Him and love Him and glorify Him and yet, He needs none of it.

Why? I don’t know :)

And I am okay with that. Because the most critical aspect of our being created is the most simple. The one that you don’t need to know the Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic. You don’t need to know the annals of Church History endless. You don’t need to have all of the systematic theologies memorized to know this one.

We were created simply because He loved us first…thank you God…

Soli Deo Gloria!!!!