Who are you?  Not your labels such as a father, mother son or daughter, but Who are you at your core?  What are you made of?  How you answer this question means everything regarding how you see the world.  If you believe people are nothing more than the tiniest particles identified and their corresponding chemical compounds, then you will have a completely different perspective than someone who believes they were created by an intelligent designer.  No matter what you believe, your answer is critical to how you see the world and everything in it.

My picture above is the result of my understanding of who we are based on who the Bible says we are in both the old and new testaments.  The Old Testament includes the Holy scriptures that were written before the arrival of Jesus and the New Testament contains the Holy scriptures that were written after Jesus’s life, death and resurrection from the dead.  In the first three chapters of the Old Testament we get the first and most critical part of the answer to the question. 

In the book of Genesis chapter 1, it explains that we were made by God, the creator of everything male and female.  I could have created a companion picture along with this one that depicts the female perspective, but I haven’t yet.  In Genesis chapter 3 it explains that Adam and Eve, our earliest descendants, disobeyed God and went against God’s will by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  These two events give each of us two natures.  A “good” one because we were made in the image of a good God and an “evil” one because we inherited a selfish desire to do what is right in our own eyes rather than obey God.

You may think like I used to that this is crazy.  How could this ancient story possibly be true?  I resisted even entertaining the thought that it could be true for many years.  Then, as I started to believe that it may be true, I began reflecting on how the Bible describes us and I realized that this idea of having a good part of us and a bad part is actually more reflective of what my experience had been.  If we were born all “good” and the environment outside of us was all that was different, then it would make perfect sense to change our environment and produce only “good” people, but that’s been attempted and failed throughout history. 

The battle that goes on within us which is communicated in my picture is something we can all identify with. We all have these struggles. In our minds we are constantly trying to sift through the barrage of information coming at us to determine what is true and what isn’t. In our imagination we are able to see all kinds of pictures including ones that comfort and soothe as well as ones that are intensely unsettling. Our consciences as well make us aware of things that are wrong, like abusing someone, and things that are right like caring for someone in need.

You would think that’s enough conflict, but it goes much much deeper.  The longings in our hearts point us in two conflicting directions as well.  On the good side we long for life, liberty, attention, affection, relationship and more.  On the other side are selfish longings include lust, gluttony, greed, laziness and pride among others.  This inner conflict wreaks havoc on us and points to another clash inside.  

Our emotions war with each other pitting fear, shame, contempt and extreme anger against love, joy, peace, and kindness to name just a few.  Then there is the matter of our wills which are driven to either protect and serve ourselves or love and serve God and others.  We are constantly faced with choices every hour of every day that call for us to choose which direction to follow.  More conflict.

Finally, the overarching conflict inside of us is compounded by our life experience especially in a fallen world.  No matter how loving your parents were, if you’re honest with yourself, you didn’t receive everything you needed and for those whose caregivers were less than ideal, you may have received many things like verbal and physical abuse that you didn’t deserve.  These experiences set the scene for your individual battles to play out inside.  What we tell ourselves about what has happened in our lives naturally drives us to protect ourselves so that those things won’t happen to us in the future.  This protective stance is so natural and makes so much “sense” to us that the thoughts come as easily as breathing.

The second “Man” in my picture with the diamond on the good side of the internal battle line is the person that has accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  This is the “Man After.”  When we are saved or born again the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us and enables us to overcome our fallen or “bad” nature with His help.  This means that God helps us to turn from what we would naturally do to want to do what He wants us to do.  Before I became a believer, it was the stories of people’s lives that were completely changed that had the greatest impact on me.  What could make someone that was stealing cars for a living one day become a believer and be driven to do the complete opposite?  One thing the Bible says is that we can’t do it on our own apart from God. 

The third “Man” in my picture depicts the “Man Forever.”  This is the most wonderful promise we receive from God and there have been so many people throughout history that have been willing to suffer horrific deaths in this world rather than deny that Jesus was their Lord.  Because they believed that their death in this world was not the end, they were willing to go through unimaginable pain rather than deny His name.  

If you are still struggling to believe, I pray that you would continue to seek to find the answers you’re looking for.  In Mathew’s Gospel Jesus tells us  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

The inspiration for this picture came from the following quote by Archbishop William Temple.

“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, is the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.”

If you are a follower of Jesus, I pray that in some way that your relationship with Him will become deeper and more meaningful after seeing my pictures and reading these words.