Then God Had An Idea!

“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.”  Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)

I would like to think that the Tri-Unity of the Godhead foreknow the folly that would take place in the Garden. Just by the way that Genesis three is written I think that if God wanted it to stop it would have, but it didn’t. If God chose to create and love us, why would He in turn deny His creation the choice to love and worship Him by not giving us the chance to discover how he works? The Serpent understood how His creator worked and wanted to see us fail because of his jealousy concerning God and us. Keep in mind this is my own commentary and not one from Calvin, Gill, Henry, the Wesley Brothers or The Inspiration Channel.

I was recently having a conversation with my good F.F.C. friend, James Getz, and we were sharing some things that we have learned about Scripture. James is the older one so I joke that I am his Timothy and he is my Paul. He brought up that there is a part of God in all of us whether we want to believe this or not and I agree. We find this right in Genesis 1:26-27 but the text only says “in Our image, after Our likeness.” So there is the part but then there is a fall later in the story and a few verses later we are given the promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3:15.  Then many centuries go by and many stories go on being told about THE Messiah to come. This concludes the Old Testament.

When Jesus Christ shows up, He clears up any misgivings that have been taught over those centuries and begins healing in ways that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were too blind to see. They only saw the physical healings but I believe they totally missed the spiritual ones. It’s in those healings that people take Jesus into their hearts…which is where the Father also wants to be…once that has taken place we get to have another part of “in Our image.” No sooner than the perfect sacrifice is made, here comes “The Helper” that Jesus promised and that ignites a consuming fire within our hearts that gives to us the realization that we ARE children of God. Thus continues the New Testament.

In Deuteronomy 29:29 we read, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” I believe that our heavenly Father wants us to know this about Him…that He wants us to love Him with the same love that He has for us…it is in this love we were created. After that, knowing how or why he made the giraffe is basically none of our concern. But let’s keep in mind that this love is sacrificial.

God showed Adam and Eve there was to be a living sacrifice; Jesus lived knowing He was to be a sacrifice and in the twelfth chapter of Romans Paul makes it clear what continues in sacrifice. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” I think the Serpent never wanted us to get to this realization of God because sacrificial love was expected of him. Praise God we were given the choice. Kinda hard, ain’t it? Knowing that you are created to choose to be a sacrifice…Jesus knew it and still went through with it. The example we get from Him? To live in the obedience of sacrifice. Amen? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter blogger

Team YOU: Psalm 89-90; Proverbs 14; Romans 14

Motivations: “Salvation is brought to every sinner. If we are lost it is because we have neglected and defiled God’s love.”—A.B. Simpson

Practice to Remember: Level 1:Philippians 3:9-10; Level 2: Philippians 3:1-11

Powered Up:  There is nothing to be valued more highly than to have people praying for us; God links up His power in answer to their prayers. Oswald Chambers