26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them

reflecting our nature

So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,

the birds in the air, the cattle,

And, yes, Earth itself,

and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."

God created human beings;

he created them godlike,

Reflecting God’s nature.

He created them male and female.

God blessed them:

"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

8 When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.

12-14 You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

45-49 We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.

1-17 "We’re all adrift in the same boat:

too few days, too many troubles.

We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt,

transient as the shadow of a cloud.

Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps?

Why even bother hauling me into court?

There’s nothing much to us to start with;

how do you expect us to amount to anything?

Mortals have a limited life span.

You’ve already decided how long we’ll live—

you set the boundary and no one can cross it.

So why not give us a break? Ease up!

Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.

For a tree there is always hope.

Chop it down and it still has a chance—

its roots can put out fresh sprouts.

Even if its roots are old and gnarled,

its stump long dormant,

At the first whiff of water it comes to life,

buds and grows like a sapling.

But men and women? They die and stay dead.

They breathe their last, and that’s it.

Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,

parched reminders of what once was,

So mortals lie down and never get up,

never wake up again—never.

Why don’t you just bury me alive,

get me out of the way until your anger cools?

But don’t leave me there!

Set a date when you’ll see me again.

If we humans die, will we live again? That’s my question.

All through these difficult days I keep hoping,

waiting for the final change—for resurrection!

Homesick with longing for the creature you made,

you’ll call—and I’ll answer!

You’ll watch over every step I take,

but you won’t keep track of my missteps.

My sins will be stuffed in a sack

and thrown into the sea—sunk in deep ocean.

17-21 "‘How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?

How can humans be purer than their Creator?

Why, God doesn’t even trust his own servants,

doesn’t even cheer his angels,

So how much less these bodies composed of mud,

fragile as moths?

These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,

and no one even notices—gone without a trace.

When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—

we die and are never the wiser for having lived.’"

17-21 "What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,

that you even give them the time of day?

That you check up on them every morning,

looking in on them to see how they’re doing?

Let up on me, will you?

Can’t you even let me spit in peace?

Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?

You’re responsible for every human being.

Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?

Why make a federal case out of me?

Why don’t you just forgive my sins

and start me off with a clean slate?

The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.

You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around."

5-9 God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,

What is man and woman that you bother with them;

why take a second look their way?

You made them not quite as high as angels,

bright with Eden’s dawn light;

Then you put them in charge

of your entire handcrafted world.

When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made "not quite as high as angels," and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory "bright with Eden’s dawn light." In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.

24 The very steps we take come from God;

otherwise how would we know where we’re going?

20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

14,15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

11,12 But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

21-23 Mark well that God doesn’t miss a move you make;

he’s aware of every step you take.

The shadow of your sin will overtake you;

you’ll find yourself stumbling all over yourself in the dark.

Death is the reward of an undisciplined life;

your foolish decisions trap you in a dead end.

1 Mortals make elaborate plans,

but God has the last word.

5,6 God’s Message:

"Cursed is the strong one

who depends on mere humans,

Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone

and sets God aside as dead weight.

He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,

out of touch with the good earth.

He lives rootless and aimless

in a land where nothing grows.

5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

1,2 Don’t be harsh or impatient with an older man. Talk to him as you would your own father, and to the younger men as your brothers. Reverently honor an older woman as you would your mother, and the younger women as sisters.