Created in God's Image?

"So God created man in His own image. In the image of man He created him. Male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27).

What does it mean that we are created in God's image? It means a lot of things. It means that we have free will, emotions, and the ability to reason. It means that we have "dominion over the earth and all the living things that move on the earth." (Sorry PETA, but we are above the animals, we are more valuable than animals, we are superior to animals)

But most importantly, it means that we have the ability to love and to form intimate relationships with one another and with the Creator of the universe Himself! That's the reason God made us.

"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." (Genesis 1:26). This is the first verse in the Bible that is a clear indication of the triunity of God. God expresses love within His own being. He's all about love. While on the cross Jesus - the Second Person of the Triune God - cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," He was in anguish over having been temporarily separated from the Father as the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus, who became sin for us as our representative - our propitiation for sin.

The separation was unbearable because He had enjoyed an intimacy with God that mere words cannot describe. And that's the kind of love that we - who are created in God's image - are capable of enjoying with each other and God. And those of us who are believers will indeed experience that kind of ecstatic, ineffable, eternal love and joy when we get to heaven.

Thank you Lord for sending your Son to die in my place, to be my sin-bearer, to pay my sin-debt in full. Thank you for making it clear to me that Jesus Christ is the Truth, the Life and the Way, and that no one comes to the Father except through the Son.