[Darris McNeely] Aren't you glad that you have a choice? Whatever it is about our life – the clothes we put on, the food we eat, the house we live in, very often where we live and even what we do for a living – we have a choice. That's the great thing about human beings: the power of choice. We've been talking about the question of "What is man?", and today we're going to talk about part 3 in this short series that we've put together for BT Daily, about mankind and what we are. We have seen in the two previous ones that number one, man is not an animal. When we look at what the biblical record tells us, we see that man is the highest point of the physical creation, as Genesis gives us this information and this revelation. We understand that man is the highest point of God's creation and man is not an animal, contrary to evolutionary teaching. There's also another critical point, a second point, and that is that man is created in the image of God. We saw in Genesis 1:27 that God created man and the human creation is to be formed and shaped into the character – the spiritual image, ultimately – of God Himself. How do we get to that point? How do we get to the image of God? Well, it's through this matter of choice. No other part of the creation has that. Only man has the ability and the privilege and the liberty to choose. You want to call it the freedom of choice, as one of the fundamental keys of human existence.
We see right in the Bible, in Genesis, where that's exactly where the whole story started. Because in the creation account, we read of two trees planted in the garden that symbolize two ways of life – a tree of life, representing the way of God, and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that represents human knowledge apart from God. And in that choice, God said to the first man and woman that of all of the trees of the garden they might eat, except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, leaving open to them the choice to take of the tree of life. And when that moment came, as the account tells us in Genesis chapter 3, the first humans, Adam and Eve, chose to take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that's been the history of the world ever since.
Man has had both good and evil in the whole story of human history and human development. But it began with that choice. Now today, you and I have the choice to choose between two ways, between good and evil. God still gives us that choice. And that's, again, embedded in this story of the first chapters of the book of Genesis, that really begin to tell us exactly what man is. Man is created in the image of God, with the potential to become a member of the family of God and to share in the glory that God has and desires to share with all who choose wisely. But God is going to give us that choice. And so it comes down to each one of us. What is our life? Who are we? And what are we in relationship to God? We're human beings created in His image and we have the power of choice. And God always tells us to choose life. Choose the way of life that is good and that leads ultimately to eternal life. And that helps us to frame the initial question and understanding of what is man.
