Amante, Kevin Q.

Essay 1
JD3 March 26, 2018

“We, Who Come from His Likeness”

For us, Christians, it is of the highest of honors to revel in God’s greatness. We, who
are created in His likeness are the materialization of God’s creation. Being His creations, God
has displayed mercy and compassion for us. He has dealt with transgressions with
righteousness and justice. Now, to revel in these great qualities of His are our joy. They are
simply limitless and cannot be discussed fully using only our imaginations. However, by using
His words, we can come closer to the meaning of His greatness.

From the passages of the Holy Bible, we can get a deeper understanding of God and
His greatness. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”1 I believe that
the best way to exemplify how God wanted to know and show that He is interested with us and
our affairs is that He came before us. He lived with us. He ate and slept with us and suffered
with us. The people of the past are very lucky and very unfortunate for having walked the earth
with God but being ignorant of such fact. In 2 Thessalonians, it is said that God was just for
repaying affliction to those who afflict you. 2 God is merciful and compassionate but He is also
just and righteous. If not, then how are we going to learn from our mistakes if we would never
understand that what we have done is wrong? Hence, God is great because He can balance the
“carrot and the stick” for us to be better individuals. Of all the things that He gave us, it was
Jesus Christ that was the greatest. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”3 Without Jesus
Christ, we would not have any bridge to cross toward Him. We would forever be stuck in this
Earth with no salvation and no hope. We will be waiting for the end like lambs lost in the fields
because they have no Shepherd to guide them. Jesus is this for us, our salvation, our hope, our
Savior.

1
Ephesians 2:4-5.
2
2 Thessalonians 1:6
3
John 3:16.
 We are all equal in the eyes of God. It may not be apparent in terms of our financial or
education conditions, but to God, we are all the same in His eyes. We are after all, made in the
likeness of God. So how can there be inequality in His eyes when He has always said that "Let
Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth."4

We are all equal, we have always been and always will be. He even gave us His only
Son, to live in our own likeness, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He
is able to aid those who are tempted.”5 With Jesus Christ, God was able to reach out to us and
teach us personally that we all came from the Father and that all of us are equal in His eyes. I
have always believed that what is meant by all these is that we have equal chances to be with
the Father. We may not be born equal in this earth, but in Heaven, we are all children of God
and thus, equal.

All of us dream to be with the Father. It may not be apparent to others but we are all
born with the desire as we were all born undefiled by the world. So, can we ever know if are
going to Heaven? We will never know. But the Bible teach us how we should live our lives.
And what was said is that we should live our lives as God would.

“He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy
on the needy.”6 It is common knowledge that the poor are closer to God’s heart. To God, those
who earn their living through honest labor are not lowly but are His children that are willfully
living their lives to the fullest. And those of us who are blessed by the Father, would earn our
keep not only for ourselves but also for the poor. We are not born with these riches for us to
benefit alone but for us to make the lives of the poor a little bit lighter.

4
Genesis 1:26-27
5
Hebrews 2:17-18.
6
Proverbs 14:31.
 “He who despises his neighbor sins; but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is
he.”7 True happiness can only be attained by sharing. I have personally experienced this
because every time I help my neighbor, there is this feeling of satisfaction that you have done
good. And contrary to this, there is that stiff feeling in my heart when I’ am at odds with another.
Additionally, as exemplified in Zechariah, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Execute true justice,
show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the
fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.”8 We
should always love our neighbor as we love our own. This is how Jesus Christ lived with us
and it is how we should be living as ordained by the Father.

In Matthew, it was expressly said that what we do to our neighbors, we do to God. “

..for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger
and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in
prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we
see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger
and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and
come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch
as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. … Assuredly, I say to
you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”.9 This
verse, tells us that we should treat our neighbors as if we are to treat God. To God, we are all
equal and He loves us all. God never despises anyone. God only gives us punishment for us to
grow. Thus, we should live the same way, as we are created in His likeness. If not, we are not
going to Heaven. It is not only about following the rules or by praying every day that we obtain
the right to enter Heaven. It is how we treat our neighbors especially the poor, either with
compassion or desistance that we earn the right to be with Him.

As a student of the law, I must strive hard not to earn my keep but to help my neighbors
to the best of my ability. As a future lawyer, my words have the capability to either save or
destroy someone. Thus, I should study the law to the best of my ability so as to not destroy
anyone’s life. The Supreme Court ruled that, the practice of law is a profession, not a business.

7
Proverbs 14:21.
8
Zechariah 7:8-10.
9
Matthew 25:35-40,45
Money is but a secondary consideration. Duty to one’s neighbors and administration of justice
comes primarily in the law profession. Money is but a byproduct and the highest eminence may
be attained without making much money.10 The practice of the law is like living in God’s
likeness. We are ought to do good to our clients because it is their lives that are on the line.
And as we practice our profession to the best of our ability to help others, especially the poor,
we uphold God’s greatness as that is how He wants us to live our lives.

10 Burbe vs Magulta, AC NO. 99-634.