God is God. He is other; that is, He is not human. We humans were created in the image of God, but are the created and, as such, are less than the Creator.

God created humans male and female (Genesis 1:27). He created us and designed us for His presence. God placed His created beings, Adam and Eve, in a pristine environment (Genesis 2:8).

God is lover. God is giver. God seeks relationships (Genesis 3:8-9). When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they were in the presence of God daily and comfortable with Him.

Another difference between God and man, other than being Creator and the created respectively, is that God gave us as people the power to choose against Him, our Creator. This was/is the ultimate act of a loving God to empower a created being. Adam and Eve used their God-given power to do the unthinkable; they chose against God and went their own way (Genesis 3:6-7). The consequence of their choice was to be separated from God (Genesis 3:24).

God is not content to allow His creation to drift from Him. He, as lover and relationship seeker, had already put a redemption plan in place even before man sinned (Revelation 13:8). God sent His Son Jesus Christ to live a sinless life, to suffer, to die on the cross, and to be resurrected in the glorious power of God.

Jesus Christ is Savior. The gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16, declares this heavenly transaction: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Belief in the finished work and resurrection of Christ puts us back in God’s family from whence we fell when Adam sinned.

There is a new status for the believer in Christ, as declared in 1 Peter 1:3-4: “In his great mercy [God] has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you.”

Believers are children of God, heirs, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, God’s Son. We as believers have been given everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). In other words, we have power through the Holy Spirit of God to be godly, different than we were as mere humans.
He new has come!” We have the power to be different, to be godly.

This transformation is not automatic. God has given us new life and new power, but we must act on it by our willful choice. As Adam chose against God in the Garden of Eden, we must choose for God and His ways.

This right choice is energized by God’s grace. The right choice is to choose against ourselves and our interests, and to choose God and His interests. That choice will make us different.

The Rev. Dan Puckett is a minister with Life Action Ministries.