Are All People Created Equal?

Question:

I know people say that we are created equal and all, but I mean like, what about competition? If we were created equal, then why do we compete to see who is better than the other person?  People look different, so why do some people consider one person better looking than another? I don’t understand how people are supposed to be equal if both people have different personalities.

What about money? I mean, just because someone has more money than another person, they think that they are better. So how exactly are we all equal to one another?  And if ALL people are created, then you are saying we are equal to Jesus and that every one is equal to mass murderers such as Hitler and the like. But then, how are we created equal to the mentally incapable and the newborn babies that die at birth? How exactly are all people created equal? Don't tell me it’s in the Bible because its not. Or if it is tell me the verse. You can’t!

My Reply:

Your question is about creation in words, but your explanation is about culture and status set by worldly standards. For example, when it comes to money, money is NOT something that sets our equality or status in CREATION...it sets our status in the culture...worldly standards.

Although we were all CREATED equal, none of us were created to be equal to Jesus.  Jesus is God. If we were to be equal to Jesus, then that would be to say that we were created equal to God. But if that were the case, then we would be God (or gods), too...but we're not.  Also, Jesus wasn't created...Jesus has always been.  So in terms of us being created, we were created in God's image...equally.

As for equality with mass-murders...you know, let me ask you something. Is it fair to say that babies who died at birth are equal with us, but also to say that we're not equal with mass-murderers?

You wanted scripture that talks about us being created equal. Look at Romans 3:23. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." You might say we were all created equally-screwed. Verse 24 tells us also that all "are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

So we're all created equally into sin, and all equally able to receive righteousness and salvation from this sin through Jesus Christ, regardless if you're a mass-murderer, Hitler, Mother Theresa, the Pope, or just somebody trying to figure out why the world's cultures continue to shun the equality in which we were all originally created.  It's when culture and humanity take what God equally created, and turn it into their interpretations of how it "should" be, that this equality is destroyed. 

But we were all CREATED equal.

---Pastor Andy

Equal sign courtesy of: http://www.polyvore.com/equal_sign_image_picture_sarahwentz/thing?id=228016