Eastridge Church

1.  How we got to a precarious view of ourselves: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Another Christian concept, no less crazy: the concept of equality of souls before God.  This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.  Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

2.  What the Bible reveals about human life:

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."  27 So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 9:6

Whoever sheds human blood, by human beings shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made humankind.

Colossians 3:9-10

9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

3.  How to image the difference: 

a.  Value life in God's image.  Psalm 39:13-16

b.  Value people in God's image.  James 3:9

c.  Learn to see that God's image can be fixed in you.  2 Corinthians 3:18  

Colossians 1:15-16

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.