Listen to Nancy answer this question recorded on Moody Radio with Kelli and Steve.
If you were not created in God’s image, you would be the result of random chance. You would have no inherent value, no relationship with God, no sense of morality, love, peace, and hope. When you died, you would turn into dirt.
The good news is that you were, in love, created by God! Your thumbprint, the iris of your eye and, your genetic code are each unique to you! You are not a mistake, but, instead, you were personally made by God, because he desires to have a relationship with you!
“On the sixth day of creation, in Genesis 1:26, the Bible says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” He made us like Him mentally, morally, and socially. Anything we do, which requires a plan to design or to build something, reveals God! Any time someone writes a book, paints a picture, sings a song, dances to music, balances a bank book, or loves another person, it reflects the One who created us!
God made us so that we, like Him, make choices. We have been created as moral beings with a sense of right and wrong. Within all humans, God placed a conscience or “moral compass” that gives us a sense of right and wrong.
“They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2: 15-16).
Made in God’s image means that we, like our Creator, are relational beings. God is one Being made up of 3 persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From all eternity past, present, and future, the Triune God is in perfect, active, and loving communion with one another. Never have they stopped loving, trusting, and communicating with each other. At the very core of God’s being is love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
God longs to be in a loving relationship with those whom He created. He knows that if we walk with Him by spending time with Him and obeying Him, no matter what this world gives us, we will be safe in Him.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
God is the great I AM. He had no beginning and will have no end. He is eternal and made us with an eternal soul. God originally designed Adam and Eve to live eternally with Him in perfect harmony. When they sinned, fellowship with Adam and Eve and, all humanity that followed, was temporally broken. Because we were created to have a loving relationship with God, restoration could only come through Jesus’ death and resurrection. For all who believe, the eternal relationship with God has been reinstated! How could this happen? Because we were created in His image.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36)
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-30).
For those who choose not to believe in Jesus, they will not turn into dirt, as most Humanists espouse. They will live eternally without God with no hope, no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.
“Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:44-46).
Life, both now and forever, does not work without Jesus.
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).