IMAGES OF GOD #12

The God of the Bible is a God who blesses, that is, a God who makes people profoundly and truly happy.

This can be seen on the first day of human existence. Having created man and woman in his own image 'God blessed them and said to them "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." '

In these words God identified the two areas in which we as humans find the completeness and significance that we need to be happy: the intimate relationship of marriage and family, and well defined responsibility and purpose.

After sin entered the world in Genesis 3 these two areas of intimate relationships and work, which God pronounced as blessing, became areas of curse, or unhappiness. But it does not have to stay that way. The blessings of God can be regained.

We are told: 'God ... has blessed us ... with every spiritual blessing in Christ'. This means that every one who is reunited to God by faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, already possesses every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer.

Once this spiritual reunion with God has occurred, restoring our happiness (blessedness) on a spiritual level, the joy or blessedness that God purposed for us on a physical/social level also begins to be re-established, as our lives are increasingly brought under his direction.

Scriptures: Genesis 1:27,28; 3:16-19; Ephesians 1:3; Matthew 5:1:12; Psalm 1.