Genesis 1:1; Romans 11:33-36; Acts 17:24-25

• Based on the passages above, how would you answer the question “who is God?”
• If these verses are telling the truth, how valuable (glorious, worthy, beautiful) is God? How do humans show that they value something or someone?
• Consider that someone (not something) created the universe, including you. How does this make you feel? Fearful, angry, safe, loved, hopeful, etc.

Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 8:3-9; Psalm 139:7-16

• Humans, unlike any other creature, are made “in the image of God.” This means that every human being has the capacity and responsibility to represent, reflect, and resemble God – or simply put – to “communicate God”. Making God known as the supremely valuable Person that He is, is not only the purpose of every human in existence, it is the essence of what it means to be a human. How well do you think the human race has been fulfilling its purpose? How about you as an individual human?
• What are some words or sentences you could use to describe God’s relationship to humanity and / or Humanity's relationship to God based on the two passages from the Psalms above?
• One of the words that comes to mind in answering question 2 is “dependent.” The total dependency of every human being on God is one of the ways we show His value to the world. How is human dependency on God (or any of the other truths from these verses) represented in the picture above?
• Why do you think there is a wound represented in God’s hand between the man and woman?

Romans 1:21-25

• In the passages from Genesis and Psalms that we just read, we got a glimpse of how God relates to humans and how humans are supposed to relate to God. However, in Romans 1:21-25, we read about humans relating to God in a radically different way. How do these two pictures represent the shift between Genesis/Psalms and Romans?
• In Romans 1:21 we read about the root of all sin. Ultimately, sin is not what we do so much as who we are. All sin (like selfishness, unbelief, anger, envy, lust etc.) grows out of a heart that fails to honor (that is, to value or glorify) God and so chooses to exchange Him for something else (verses 23, 25). The deepest root of sin is to prefer “not-God” over God. How is this exchange represented in the pictures below?

While we have all exchanged God’s glory for other things that we value more (a job, a relationship, a piece of technology, popularity, etc.), the main thing that we exchange God for is ourselves. We often make ourselves the “little gods” of our own world.

• Which one of these two pictures best represents your life right now? Are there areas of your life where one is true and areas where the other is true?

2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24

• Earlier we talked about the sinful exchange that every human being has committed at one time or another (exchanging God for “not-God”). In these verses we read of another exchange, one that God performs in order to save us. How would you describe this “better exchange?”
• How is this exchange represented in the picture above? Does this picture cause you to think or feel any differently about what God did for us on the cross?
• Jesus reveals God to us (John 1:18), and Jesus took our sins onto and into Himself willingly, what does this tell us about the heart of the Creator of the Universe?

John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10; Galatians 2:20

• According to these verses, what does God's love do? What is the gift or achievement of His love? How do you think these things might be represented in this image?
• The word “propitiation” in 1 John 4 can be translated as “wrath absorbing sacrifice.” With that in mind, what is the relationship between God's love and God's wrath in 1 John 4:9-10? Again, how is this portrayed in the accompanying picture?
• At the cross, the Love of God swallows the Wrath of God for the people of God. As we've already seen, God's holy anger is justly aimed at sinners (you and me) because we've exchanged Him for lesser things. However, in love God Himself steps in – through Jesus Christ – takes our sins into Himself and then dies under our punishment….in what ways was this greatest of Loves displayed in the animation?

In John 17:3, Jesus describes the essence of eternal life as knowing God the Father and knowing Jesus Christ, the Son. That is the heart of eternal life. Think about it like a marriage. A marriage involves a lot of different things, but the heart, the core, the element that breathes life into the entire experience is the relationship of the husband and his wife. In the same way, eternal life is a lot of things (that is an understatement!) but the core, the essence, the life of eternal life, is our intimate knowledge of and fellowship with the Triune God. Apart from knowing God as our all satisfying treasure in Jesus Christ, eternal life is dead.

• With that in mind, read John 3:16 again….what is the supreme gift achieved by God's love for us in Christ?

1 Corinthians 15:14-26, Philippians 2:5-11

• 1. The death of Christ is glorious only because through His death He overcomes death itself and rises to life again. In fact, it has been said that the entire Christian worldview would collapse into meaninglessness if Jesus had not been raised. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul talks about what it would mean if Jesus did not rise from the dead, what are some things he mentions?

But, as verse 20 says, Christ has been raised! It was impossible for death to hold Him and He destroyed it from the inside out. Read Philippians 2:5-11 for a concise picture of the “story arc” of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection.

• One of the ways Jesus shows us the beauty of God is by combining suffering and glory in Himself. He walks through humiliation for the sake of love and – because of His suffering at the cross – He is exalted to the throne of God. How is the union of suffering and glory in Christ depicted in this picture?
• The one to whom every knee will bow (yours and mine) and the one who rules all of reality will eternally bear the wounds of the crucifixion. For eternity, our God will carry the wounds of love. Why does this make the God of scripture unlike any other god? What does this tell us about His character? How does it make you think and feel toward Him?

John 6:35-40

• Earlier we said that eternal life (the true, full, abundance of life for which every human longs) is ultimately intimate fellowship with God in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who makes the One True God known to us, and to know God is life. With this in mind, why do you think Jesus says that those who come to Him will not hunger or thirst?
• How do you see these verses represented in the image? Why do you think the woman has a hole at her center? Why do you think the cross is visible through her?
• According to these verses, how do we receive Jesus as food and drink for our soul? (Hint, see verse 40)

Friends, we will all live forever, and what our hearts and minds do with Jesus now will determine our experience of eternity. If we ignore Him, if we mistrust Him, if we belittle or disbelieve Him....then it is as if we are flipping off our Creator and trampling over His outpoured life of love. Friends, if we refuse Christ, there is nowhere else to turn, and eternity will be a horror to us since we have chosen to remain enemies of God.

But, if we see that He is the Son of God who perfectly reveals the Father to us....that He is the Savior who carries our sins and absorbs our punishment....that He alone can bring us into fellowship with God....if we see that and believe it, if we receive Him as life, then eternity is joy to us because God Himself has become treasure not terror to us, delight and not damnation.

So, I conclude this discussion by asking you: have you seen and believed in Jesus Christ? Has God awakened you to see your sinfulness and helplessness apart from Him? Has He caused you to recognize the person and work of Christ as your only hope? And have you thrown yourself wholly on the infinite mercy of God that is found abundantly and only in His Son, crucified and risen for your sake? If "yes," then I pray that the rest of your eternity will be a steadily increasing joy in Him.....and if "no," then I pray that you would be mercifully haunted by the words and images from this study until, brimming with humble and repentant joy, you bow your soul to Christ as Lord and Savior.