The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground . . . (Genesis 2:7)
The Genesis creation account tells us that God saw all that He had made, and it was “very good” . . . and that included mankind. To be sure, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, the world and everything in it was broken under the weight of their sin. Yet mankind, though marred and stained by sin, still bears the image of the God who created them, which means that every person has dignity, value, and worth. So, as it has been wisely observed, “That God created us from dust is no reason to treat another person like dirt.”
Have you been treated like dirt lately? Or perhaps you treated someone else like dirt?
As image-bearers of the Most-High God, we are all equal in the sight of God. We are equal in our dignity in creation, as well as in our depravity after the fall. Yet even in our sin-stained, fallen condition, we must remember that we are the only creatures in all creation who bear the image of the Creator.
The implications of this truth when it comes to living out the Gospel are profound. Every person you meet, every person you see, every person ever created is an image-bearer of God, designed to live a life that brings honor and glory to the Creator. And yet we know that only those who have been born again by the Spirit of God can live such a life, which means that it is our duty and privilege to bring the Gospel to bear on every aspect of our lives. We are to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all those with whom we come in contact.
Seeing others—all others—as image-bearers of God should impact everything about our human relationships with everyone we meet. Whenever we look at someone, we must see him or her as God sees that person: made in His image and for His glory.
In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis rightly observed —
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
To sum up Lewis’s observation, when we encounter any person, we must see that person as created in the image of God and treat them accordingly. Every person matters to God, which means every person must matter to us. We must go out of our way to point them toward the stairway to heaven, which is Jesus Christ. Never do we bring more glory to God—and that is what we were created for—then when we share the good news of the Gospel. The extent that your life is marked by sharing the truth of Jesus Christ will make it abundantly clear whether you treasure others as divine dust . . . or despise them as nothing more than dirt.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 