I had a date night with my lovely wife last night. We started out by going out for coffee, we talked at one of those tables in the coffee shop then we went to see a movie. I’m not here to give movie reviews, so don’t worry there won’t be any spoiler alerts. We saw the movie “The Host” by Twilight author Stephanie Meyer. Now before you demand my man card be taken away, remember we were on a date, and besides that I’m a sucker for Sci-fi movies even movies that involve a tale of romance. There was a scene though within the movie that struck me as profound. The alien inhabited people were searching for the ‘Resistance’, a collection of people still hiding out in the rocky desert. As they flew over desert terrain searching, the antagonist of the film looks down and says, “I see evidence of humans.” To which a fellow alien in the helicopter looks down and only sees another alien vehicle driving by and he says, “I only see evidence of us.” The world had been conquered but for small pockets of resistance, evidence of humanity was all but gone, and profoundly the alien in the helicopter gets it right when he says “I only see evidence of us.”
When God created mankind; Adam and Eve, He created them both in His image. He created them, as Rick Warren accurately describes for God’s fellowship. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, He talked with them…their bond of fellowship and love was deep. Then the fall took place, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, ate of the tree in the middle of the garden and sin entered into the world. Because of sin and the fall, the image of God was marred within all of humanity. Little by little evidence of God’s image diminished from humanity as sinful acts, temptation and its total depravity ensued. Since the fall, that image of God or Imago Dei within us all has been marred. And if humanity turns from Him, that image further diminishes. Sin could rightly say “I only see evidence of us” as some of humanity has knowingly turned their backs on God.
But the beauty of God’s Redemptive story is that He won’t let us remain ignorant of our sinful state. God wants to restore us and Imago Dei within us. There is nothing physically or spiritually we can do to save ourselves no matter how hard we try. We can never rid ourselves of the parasite of sin within us. We are slaves to it, in and of ourselves we are powerless to resist it. And God knows this…that’s why He sent us His Son Jesus Christ into our fallen world to conquer once and for all sin and death. The parasite of sin that has marred the image and ravaged the world by forcibly removing evidence of God within all of humanity…this is what Christ came to reverse. He came to make us right again. He came so that we could be sons and daughters of the Most High once again. His blood sacrifice on the cross was our replacement on death row in the death sentence of sin. So that when we call upon Jesus Christ, accept His sacrifice, believe that He is the only way to God…He looks at us and says “I see evidence of me in you! You are my child and I love you!”
That is redemption, that’s atonement at work because of Christ, that’s Godly love! Imago Dei in us begins by acceptance of Christ as our Savior…then we live it so that each day the reflection of Christ becomes more and the reflection of this fallen world in us becomes less. Not by our power and strength, but by the workings of the Holy Spirit within us. God comes to us today and says, “I don’t see evidence of sin, I see evidence of me!” Receive it, believe it and live it today!
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