InGenesis Chapter one and two, God created man by God’s image, and it was good toHim.
That means that we are created in the image of God (the imago Dei). Ibelieve that it was that God created humanity as a part of God’s good creation.I believe that God created humanity for relationship – relationship with God,relationship with creation, relationship with each other. God also createdhumanity with the freedom to do good or to do evil thatis unique from the rest of His creations. Accordingto Wesley, man was originally made in the image of God thatwe were meant to look like Him. He has alsostated that either simply by seeing or from our experiences, we should be ableto know the difference between truth and false. When God created both male andfemale in a perfect state, Wesley believed we were free from “sin and filledwith righteousness and tru holiness”. However, after sinning, we’ve lostthe original image of God, not only in physical sensebut also in spirituality.
When we lost the imageof God through disobedience, we’ve also lost “both the knowledge and love ofGod”, according to Wesley. This fallen, sinful nature seperates us from God andleaves us without hope, but for the need for salvation that is only available bythe grace of God That is why we need God’s grace for we cannot find God due to their distorted image. Wesley had acknowledgedthat human beings need the grace from God first. He called it prevenient grace.Prevenient grace is “leading grace.” It is the operation of God thatmoves us to the place of repentance. God leads us tothe place of repentance from our sins through this leading grace by allowingthe necessary sensitivity to God’s will and secondly producing even a slightconvicetion that we have gone against His will. Lastly, it leads us to our wishto please our God.
Through these steps and processes, it is believed that aperson would be led to the place of repentance which is also a step to his/hersalvation itself. Althoughhumans turned away from God, fortunately God has not abandoned humans. Godcontinues to graciously seek to restore each human being in the lovingrelationship that He wants us to have with Him. Because of that, God gives usHis unchangeable grace: PREVENIENT GRACE.
