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Bible A Royal, Revolutionary Calling

A Royal, Revolutionary Calling

This past Sunday, we continued our winter series called “Step In: Taking In the Message of Christ”, all about “taking in” the big ideas of Christian faith so that we can believe – and live – differently. Last week, we asked the BIG question (who is God?), and this week we asked perhaps an even more asked question:

Who are we?

We talked about what it means that we’re made in the “image of God”. Basically, just as an idol or statue (or image) represents a god or goddess in a temple, that’s what we are made for:

To represent, reflect, and implement God’s rule in this world.

The way we do it, is just like how God did it on the first six days of creation: by bringing order to disorder and peace to chaos – so that life can flourish. We represent God, by helping people flourish. 

It’s a mighty calling! Or rather, it’s a “royal” calling.

To rule, is what kings and queens do. It’s what God does, as King. It’s why Jesus came talking about the Kingdom of God: he came to represent, reflect, and implement God’s rule and then handed the keys to the kingdom over to us!

God has so dignified our lives by handing over that rule to us.

The most amazing thing about this understanding of what it means to be human – in the image of God – is how different it was from all of the other ancient perspectives. In the Ancient Near East (the world where Israel came out of – places like Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, etc.), the only human being who was ever in the “image of God” was the king. The king, then, was the only one who represented, reflected, and implement the gods’ rule. You know what everyone else was (more or less)? Slaves of the king (and thus, the gods).

This is what makes the bible so revolutionary:

Every human being (not just the most powerful one!) is made in the image of God.

Every human being has this awesome, royal calling of representing God.

Every human being, then, is to be treated as one who is made in the image of God, with this calling and with this given dignity.

It changes everything.

It changes how we look at those who we don’t like and who aren’t like us. It changes how we think about those who we disagree with. It changes the way we treat those who are ‘less’ than us.

It’s no wonder that when Jesus came bringing the Kingdom of God, he lifted up the lowly, brought good news to the downcast, welcomed the outsider, and was always talking about loving our enemies: if they’re in the image of God too, then in God’s world, we’re on the same image-bearing team called humanity!

If we could really “take in” this revolutionary idea, wouldn’t we all believe – and live – differently?

Check out this really neat Bible Project Video that explains everything!

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