We’ve looked at how amazing it is to be human but, if we are to be honest about human beings, we need to look at the bad also.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made, in His image. Each of us is uniquely created. But there is a lot wrong with the world of human beings.
The reason for this is given in today’s verse.
All have sinned – even the nicest people. Every single one of us. We are still made in the image of God, so we see His kindness, for example, in all the essential workers and communities pulling together. But we are all sinners, so we also see selfishness, greed and pride.
Even good things are not done for God’s glory but man’s. So, as v23 says, we also fall short of God’s glory. We don’t reflect back to Him the image that He created us to be. Every person is “fearfully and wonderfully made” but we make a fearful and wonderful mess of all that God has given us.
Yet, our God is so great and He is mighty to save. To those who have believed (v25), they are “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (v24).
Think for a moment. We have sinned, we have taken the life that God gave us and, instead of reflecting His image and His glory, we have used it for ourselves and not for the glory of God. My wife once spent almost a year making a cross-stitch picture. We took it to a shop to be framed, and the shop damaged it. You can imagine how upset we were.
What we have done with the perfect, living design that God has made is beyond imagination. Yet, He saves. He justifies, He makes His people righteous through the sacrifice of His Son. Instead of judging us broken image bearers, He Himself comes as the _perfect_ image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and He Himself takes the punishment that we deserve.
Glory to God. Great things He has done.
The best is yet to come 