Discovering the real me

Every single person is unique. Each person is a special creation of God, sought out personally by God. God has a plan for your life and this plan is for your good. God wants the very best for your life.

So what went wrong? A lot of people feel their life is worthless. People tell them they are an "accident", "useless", "going nowhere". But these are all lies, because the Bible tells us something very different. Read Psalm 139:13-16, 1-5*.

Made in God's image

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

You were created in God's image! You are special, if for no other reason. But why did God do this? He didn't just decide one day that He wanted a mirror copy of Himself. He created you in His image for a reason - so that He could have a close relationship with you.

You can only have a real relationship with someone who is like you - someone who speaks the same language, who has feelings like you do, who understands what you go through. So when God created you, He put something of Himself in you - an ability to love, a desire for companionship, a demand for justice, a sense of humour, an enjoyment of music and art, and, most important of all, a free will - the ability to choose for yourself how you will live your life. The problem is, people have chosen to live their lives without God. And when you do things that are against the nature of God, then the image of God becomes spoiled.

Spoiled by sin

People like to compare themselves with one another. We like to compare our looks, our possessions, and especially our behaviour. But this can be deceiving. Many people say, "But I'm just as good as the next guy." But that's not how God sees it. God doesn't compare between us, picking out which one is better, or which one will qualify for His love. No, God compares us with only one thing - the original image He created us to be.

Read Romans 3:23*. This verse tells us that in God's eyes everyone is in the same boat - everyone has sinned, not just the ones we call "bad". We have all fallen short of God's glory - the image of God's perfection.

But what is sin? When you think of sin, what comes to mind? Many people think of things like murder, stealing, adultery. But what about God? What does He think of sin? Read Jesus' words in Matthew 5:21-28*.

Sin is not just outward acts. Sin is an inside condition. It doesn't matter how good a person looks on the outside, it's the inside that counts, and God sees the inside. Before sin becomes an act on the outside, it starts with a bad attitude or wrong thinking. The Bible says that sin destroys a person's life. Sin makes our lives "ugly" to God. It is like a cancer that eats people up on the inside. But most important of all, sin becomes a barrier between us and God - His love, His protection and His plan for our lives.

If you take a look at a tree, you only really see half a tree. The other half is hidden, under the ground. It's the same with people's lives. Others only see what is "above the ground" - the fruit, our behaviour. But God sees what's "under the ground" - the roots, the real source of all the problems.

A new creation

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God..." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

When you align yourself with God's plan for your life, God does a work of re-creation. You become what the Bible calls a "new creation". When you accept God's offer of relationship through Jesus, you become a brand new person on the inside, clean and forgiven. The old has gone; the new has come. You start a new life with God.

How does God do this? The Bible tells us: "He forgives all my sins...He fills my life with good things!...He is merciful and tender toward those who don't deserve it; he is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love...He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins, for his mercy toward those who fear and honour him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:3-8, Living Bible).

Born into God's family

God's great desire is for you to be part of His family. This is the bottomline of God's plan for you. When a religious man approached Jesus about how to really know God, Jesus told him very clearly: "You must be born again!" (John 3:7). Jesus was using the picture of natural birth to show what it means to become a part of God's family. A baby cannot be born by itself. Its mother must bring it to birth. In exactly the same way, you cannot just enter God's family by anything you try to do. You are born by God's own Spirit into His family.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

This now gives you a whole new perspective on life. You become a child of God, not because of anything you do to earn it, but because of God's great love and mercy toward you! You are a child of God because of something that God did for you. When Jesus died and then was raised back to life, He broke the sin barrier and opened the way for you to be born into God's family.

The family likeness

A new-born baby has the family likeness - people look for the resemblance to the rest of the family. And when you are born into God's family, God again stamps his likeness on you. God recreates in you that original image He had planned for you. Read Colossians 3:9-10*.

But this is only the beginning. A baby may look like her Mum or Dad, but she is still only a baby. She still has to grow up. In the same way, when we are born into God's family, God puts His Spirit into our lives to help us to begin to grow in that renewed "image of God". God begins to change our lives to line up with His own nature of love and goodness, so that the image of God shines out in everything we say and do. This is the "living hope' that the Bible says we have been born into.

The seed of eternal life

"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Peter 1:23).

When we are born into God's family, God gives us the most wonderful birthday gift we could ever have - eternal life. This is because He wants your new-found relationship with Him to go on forever and ever. But again, the Bible describes it like a seed. A seed has all the life of the tree inside, but it still has to grow into a tree. When you are born into God's family, you receive God's life - new, clean and linked to God. This life is eternal - it will never go away.

Jesus Himself gives us this special promise: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28).

[UP] [PREVIOUS] [NEXT] [HOME] [WORLDSCOPE] [FEEDBACK] [POST OFFICE] [RANDOM] [SEARCH]

Copyright & copy; 1981,1996 Paul, Bunty and David Collins. All rights reserved. This study may be freely used and reproduced, wholly or in part, by the Christian Church for the non-profit purposes of study and training only, provided copyright and contact information is included.

Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures quoted in these studies are from the New International Version of the Bible, & copy; New York International Bible Society, used by permission. Other versions referred to are: KJV (King James Version), NKJB (New King James Bible), TLB (The Living Bible), Amp (The Amplified Bible) and The Message. All versions used by permission.

These studies are "graceware" - distributed freely and without obligation. If you would like to help financially in the continuation of this ministry, you can send your gift to:

Churchlink
P.O. Box 1033
Newcastle 2300
Australia.

For more information on Bible studies available, visit the Churchlink site on the World Wide Web at http://www.churchlink.com.au/churchlink. Enquiries to: [email protected]<