Who am I?

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your
works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139.14)

Man was created by God; a God who took a personal interest in us. He formed us. He
knitted us. He has intricately woven us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The question “Who am I?” is an important question for every human being. We are
greatly affected by the way we think about ourselves: our self-concept and our sense
of personal identity. If we are to have a quality relationship with God, we are going to
have to answer the question “Who am I?” in a way that is true to reality. If we are
serious about the question of who we are, the place to begin is the beginning: we must
come to grips with the fact that we are nothing less than God-created beings.
God is a personal being. He is a deity who can be related to as a person instead of an
impersonal force, who always speaks in the first person.

Mankind is different from the rest of God’s creation in that He gave man not only a
special intellect but also a soul that will live forever. This precious soul he placed in a
temporal, fleshly body was created with senses to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and
speak. Each sense is used to gather information that is processed by the mind. Our
body is then informed of things that it considers pleasant, beautiful, helpful, sad, or
painful.

God made us male and female — we are not just generic persons; we are men and
women.

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis — the book of beginnings — God speaks
the world into existence. He speaks and creation bursts forth: light; the heavens; the
earth; plants; the sun and moon; and creatures that fly, swim, and walk on land. God
also separates light and dark, day and night, the sky and the earth, and water and
land. But God’s creation of mankind is different.

He honors humanity by creating us in His image and likeness (Genesis 1.27). This
story is expanded in Genesis 2 as God forms man from the dust of the earth and
breathes the breath of life into him. He then fashions the woman from the man
separating humans into two sexes. Each is distinct and valuable, and both reflect His
image and likeness.

Since we have been created in God’s own image as personal beings, the central
concern of our existence is our relationship to the God who created us.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2.10)
– Kevin Goddu