One key truth often forgotten is that individuals are created in God’s image with enormous potential having intrinsic worth stemming from their connection to God. God has assigned work to man going back to the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve were commissioned to maintain His creation including the land and various forms of life. Ephesians 2:10 says, we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He planned beforehand that we are to walk in. Throughout time, God has met people where they are including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to name a few. In New Covenant times, He meets His people at His appointed time to bring about new spiritual birth in them and apply His Son’s redemptive work by forgiving their sins and liberating them from Satan’s grasp.
Not only that in addition to becoming their savior He also becomes their Lord. As Lord, He requires obedience to the 10 Commandments which can be summarized as love Him and love our neighbor. His Son, Jesus assured us by saying, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
There will come a time when Jesus returns to judge everyone who ever lived for their obedience to God. Everyone will be accountable for their works and God will apply His justice at this time. For those who rejected Him, He will cast into Hell for eternity for the scriptures say the wages of sin is death. However, that verse goes on to say the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Instead of incurring judgement for their sin, those who trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior by God’s mercy had their sin record expunged when Jesus suffered on the cross and reaped the benefit of His resurrection which gave them hope of new life with Jesus.
So, how do we respond? I would say in great awe, amazement, and if you accept Jesus in your life, you will have a gratitude that will continually grow as you realize what He did for you. We are led to glorify Him exceedingly by admiring His redemptive work and praising Him for His attributes including His omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience while recognizing that He holds all things together including things we cannot comprehend. I am thankful in this life to be under His authority for scripture say He will neither leave me nor forsake me, He said He will fight my battles for me, and Jesus attests that nothing can snatch me out of the Father’s hand. I am also pleased to read Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you not to harm. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
Now in today’s time we live in much turmoil like in generations past. There’s push and resistance to adopt a socialist system which embraces a totally opposite worldview to the one mentioned above. There is an influential faction in society that stubbornly moves the anti-life agenda despite the gross and heinous injuries incurred by women while having abortions who thought they could get a quick fix that they will regret for the rest of their life. There is so much more that can be mentioned whether it is endless wars, the drug epidemic, loss of various liberties including second amendment rights and infractions to economic freedom as there are proposals to interfere in the marketplace through increased taxation and stipulations on wages.
I say all this because we are experiencing results of man imposing authority and rejecting God’s Lordship. There are many reasons people want to adopt socialism. The underlying worldview is the survival of the fittest mentality going back to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in the mid-1800s, which inspired elites to rule over the masses despite God granting man the right to self-govern and live according to His law as opposed to crippling bureaucracy put into place by central planners. Their systems fail to hold back the effects of sin as decentralized rule is resisted heavily.
Consequently, with socialism so linked to Darwinism which scientist fail to determine man’s origin and identity, human worth is devalued. What reason is there for the elites to trust man to be stewards of their property though God called man to take on this role? As previously said, Ephesians 2:10 tells us that God mandated our labor. With that in mind, why should power and influence be given to the state to stipulate guidelines for labor cost, pricing for products and services, trade guidelines, requirements for participating in the labor force, and so on? As said, God gave us a Moral Code designed to serve as a basis for civil law which He commissioned the state to enforce.
Living under God’s commands represents freedom from oppression when considering that over time, sinful man has highjacked civil government to satisfy their objectives at the expense of individual liberty. The more we move to towards socialism as we have been doing for over 100 years, the more we deny the truth that we have a direct tie to God and that we are created in His image. Not only that, we also forget that He ultimately provides, not the state. In closing, I’ll quote Deuteronomy 8:18 which says, You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Finally James 1:17 tells us, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
In His Image 