Becoming Like Jesus: Who Am I?Sample

Sinner Saved by Grace

Yesterday, we looked at the core of what makes us who we are. Not the things we’ve done, or the mistakes we’ve made, or even the things we like and don’t like. The core of what makes us who we are is that we are made in the image of God.

But, if you’re like most people, that can sound really good on paper, but it can be really hard to actually believe. Because, like most people, you probably feel insecure at times. You might question if people would be willing to accept you if they knew the real you. You may even find yourself trying to make yourself look better by pretending to be someone you’re not in order to get the acceptance we all crave.

There was a time when human beings were free from those insecurities and questions. There was a time when all we knew was perfect relationship with each other and our Heavenly Father.

The second chapter of Genesis ends with this powerful statement:

Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25 NLT

The nakedness being described here wasn’t just physical nakedness (that’s definitely part of it). It’s emotional, mental, and spiritual nakedness too. In the beginning, we lived totally open, honest, transparent, and vulnerable towards one another. We didn’t have our guards up. We weren’t wearing a mask. We weren’t trying to put on a show. We simply were who we were, and that was enough. With each other and with God.

Can you imagine what that must’ve been like? To lay down the weight of trying so hard to say and do all the right things so people will like us? This is the way things were always meant to be.

Tragically, this isn’t the way things stayed. The next chapter of the Bible, Genesis 3, tells the story of everything going wrong. God’s very good world was vandalized by the rebellion of the people He made in His image.

Shalom (the Hebrew word that means peace, and also so much more than peace) was lost. Our intimacy was broken. Our security was shattered. Things were no longer the way they were supposed to be.

The first humans put their trust in a cunning serpent and their own desires instead of the God who loved them. Through this act of disobedience, Sin invaded the world and infected human beings.

What is sin? It’s a disease of self-centeredness that blinds us to the image of God in ourselves and the image of God in others. Instead of seeing ourselves and others as we really are, our view is obstructed by shame, selfishness, and insecurity.

It was through this event that we became sinners. We stopped looking to God as the one who decides what is good and true and instead choose to look to our selfish desires to tell us what is good and true. Allowing our desires to rule us, resulted in greed, pride, hate, and death.

But no matter how far the infection of sin spread, it never took away the fact that we are made in the image of God. Yes, much damage was done to the work of art God had created, but beneath all of that, God never stopped seeing us as His most valuable creation.

God was not going to abandon us to the fate we had chosen. This is why He became a man named Jesus. He lived a sinless life so He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. When Jesus went to the cross, He did it so that we could be rescued from the disease that had infected us. And when Jesus rose from the grave, He did it so that we could be made right with God.

And the best news of all? The forgiveness Jesus paid for and the reunion with God it brings isn’t something we earn by working harder or being better. It’s something we receive by placing our trust in Jesus. That’s why it’s called grace. It’s a gift that we didn’t earn and we don’t deserve but Jesus gives it to us anyway. All we have to do is accept it.

Who are you? You’re made in the image of God. And you’re a sinner saved by grace.