The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.
Then God said, "'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Each and every human was created in the image of God. This makes you, and everyone else,. God's image bearers. This comes with some major responsibilities as well as privileges. As God's image bearer are are to represent God, meaning to be His ambassador, to all of creation. This means you are to think and act in a way that is in conformity with God's character. The Ten Commandments describe God's character. That means when you tell a lie, you are representing God as a liar. If you take something that does not belong to you, you are representing God as a thief. That is very serious and has consequences.
Breaking the law has consequences. The consequence for breaking God's law is eternity in hell.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." [We ALL have broken God's law.] - Romans 3:23
"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” - Revelation 21:8
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:23
The first part of Romans 6:23 reveals that we are all condemned not just to physical death, but spiritual death. But, the second part reveals we have an option. There is LIFE in Jesus Christ. So this brings up two big questions:
Spiritual death means total and eternal separation from God. Well, that's not so bad, some of you are thinking. I don't believe in God anyway. Or maybe you are thinking I don't believe in YOUR God, the God of the Bible. So big deal. I don't want to spend eternity with your God. I get rewarded with exactly what I wanted!
You don't understand what it means to be separated from God. EVERYTHING that is good comes from God. EVERYTHING. If you are separated from God, you are separated from everything good. you will have NOTHING good. Light is good. Food is good. water is good, especially when you are thirsty. You won't have any of those. Friends are good. Having someone to talk with is good. Being free from pain is good. You will not have any of those things in hell. Anything that you can think of that is good, you WILL NOT have in hell. That is what separation from God... spiritual death means. And that is the punishment for disobeying God.
You've broken God's laws. You have disobeyed God. That's called sin. You have earned the just penalty for disobeying God. That penalty must be paid. Two thousand years ago, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid the penalty for sin for all who will believe in Him. If you repent and trust that Jesus is God who was capable of paying your penalty, and in fact did pay your penalty for sin... you get this as a free gift. Jesus died, taking God's punishment for sin onto Himself, for all who will believe in Him as their Savior from the consequences of sin.
Trust Jesus now. Trust that He has paid your penalty in full. Repent. Turn away from disobeying God and turn to God. Jesus Christ is the ONLY one who can save you from the just and right consequences for your having disobeyed God. Trust Him today.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8