You may, at this moment, feel like nothing more than your DOC number. In prison, everything about your identity is stripped down. You’re given a jumpsuit, a bunk, and a number. People on the outside might only think of you as a thief, a murderer, or something worse.

But God wants you to know that you are more than your worst mistake.

I’ll never forget an inmate named Christy. After a Sunday service in the county jail, she cried on my shoulder. Through tears she said, “My daddy called me ugly every day of my life, even the days he molested me. My boyfriends treated me worse. The decent women in society have always looked down on me like I was trash. I’ve always known I was bad . . . but I swear, I’ve never had anyone tell me I could be—that I was supposed to be—more than that.”

Maybe you’ve always been told—by your
father, by the state, by your teachers—that you’re
worthless or stupid or beyond all hope. Maybe you’ve even started to believe it yourself. But what if God says something different? What if the
Bible says you were created for something greater? What if you were meant to be a king or queen,
living with dignity, purpose, and hope?

Well, friend, that’s exactly where the story of the gospel begins.

Created for Royalty

If you want to know who you really are, you have to go back to the very beginning. Long before your arrest, long before your childhood, long before you were even born, God created all people with an inherent identity. Genesis 1 tells us who we were supposed to be, and it’s nothing like what you’ve heard.

Here’s what the Bible says:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion.” (Genesis 1:27–28)

That’s the very first word about humanity—not “criminal,” not “addict,” and not “worthless.” The very first word from God about you is that you were created in his image. That means you were designed to reflect him and his glory like the moon reflects the glory of the sun.

And more than that, you were created to rule. Notice the word God uses here: dominion. From the beginning, men and women were meant to reign as kings and queens under God, ruling over his good world with justice, wisdom, and love. You weren’t created to be a slave to sin or to fight for survival in chains. You were created to carry yourself with dignity, to bear God’s image, and therefore to spread his glory.

Think about that for a moment: God made the stars, the seas, the mountains, and even the animals, and all of them were called good. But then he made mankind. And he put his own imprint on us, crowning us with his heavenly glory. 

That’s who you’re supposed to be.

Do you believe that? When I ask inmates to describe themselves with one word, they often use words like felon, addict, criminal, and prostitute. That’s how they see themselves. But that’s not what God’s word says is most true about you. You aren’t just a prisoner in a cage. You are, most fundamentally,
a man or woman made in the image of God, created to reign with dignity as his royal representative.

That changes everything. 

Before the handcuffs, there was a crown. Before the guilt, there was glory. 

You were created for royalty. That’s who you are.

From Crowns to Chains

If Genesis 1 shows us the crown God placed on our heads, Genesis 3 shows us how that crown was stolen and shattered. It’s time for us to talk about sin.

Think of sin like hitting a mirror with a hammer. Sometimes the glass stays in place, even though it is utterly shattered. The reflection may still be there, but it’s distorted, almost unrecognizable. That’s what sin does to the image of God in us. It shatters the glorious image we were meant to reflect. Instead of bringing life and beauty into the world, we bring pain and destruction. Instead of wearing crowns, we wear chains. Instead of exercising dominion over the earth, we become addicted to drugs, sex, and power.

That’s the tragedy of the fall. Do you feel it?

Adam and Eve listened to the words of Satan when he maliciously asked, “Did God actually
say . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1). And then what happened? They doubted God’s goodness and disobeyed his word. The result, of course, was utter devastation. Their fellowship with God was broken. Their dignity was corrupted. Their calling to rule with care was twisted into a desire to dominate and oppress. And because Adam was the first man, the head of the human race, the consequences of his sin flowed down to and through every man and woman born after him. 

Including you and me.

Sin is not just a mistake. It’s not just a bad habit. It’s hostility toward God. The Bible says,

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)

That’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth: Apart from Christ, we are not God’s friends. We are his enemies (Romans 5:10). We have rejected his rule, despised his love, and resisted his purpose for our lives.

You weren’t created to be at war with God. You were created to walk with him in peace and to reign under him in love. But sin twisted everything. The crown of dignity has been traded for chains of
rebellion. Instead of bowing to the King, we’ve tried to dethrone him.

This is why the apostle Paul says that apart
from Christ, we are “dead in [our] trespasses and sins, . . . by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1–3). I don’t have to spend much time convincing men and women behind bars that sin is real. You know it is. You’ve felt it. You’ve lived it. You’ve been the victim of it.

But here’s what you may not have realized: Sin is not just bad because it hurts other people, because it breaks the law, or because it ruins your life, though it certainly does all these things. No, sin is also wrong because it robs you of who you were created to be. It takes kings and queens and turns them into slaves. Dead men walking like zombies in a broken world, killing, stealing, and destroying all that is good, true, and beautiful.

As bad as that is, things get worse. You see, sin doesn’t just break us. First and foremost, it is rebellion against God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they weren’t just hurting themselves, they were sinning against the God who made them and called them to be kings and queens on the earth. 

Maybe you’ve felt the weight of this war in your own life. You’ve fought against his word. You’ve resisted his commands. You’ve lived as if he were absent, or worse, as if he were your enemy. And here’s the sobering reality: That hostility stirs his wrath. The Bible says we are “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:3).

That’s the bad news, yes—but it’s not the final word from heaven. 

God tells us in his word that he has made a way to reconcile his enemies back to himself, to turn rebels into sons and daughters again, to turn slaves of sin back into the kings and queens they were created to be.

The True Image, Jesus Christ

If sin shattered the mirror of God’s image in us, then Jesus Christ is the perfect, unbroken mirror. The Bible says that “he is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). What we have failed to be, he is, and has always been.

Jesus shows us what you were created to be: He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He loved his neighbor perfectly. He lived for his Father’s glory. He ruled, not with selfishness, but through service, healing, and ultimately, the giving of his own life. He became, on the cross, the broken image of humanity so that we, the broken ones, might be restored to our former glory through him.

This is the true wonder of the gospel: Jesus did not come merely to show us the image of God but to restore it in us. On the cross, the only true and righteous King bore the penalty for our treason. He took on himself the wrath we deserved. The Bible says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

At the cross, Jesus wore our shame so we could wear his glory. He endured our chains so we could receive his crown. The broken mirror of our lives can be remade because he was broken in our place on the cross.

And then, three days later, he rose from the grave. His resurrection was the beginning of a new creation, where God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). If anyone is in Christ, the Bible says, “He is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I want to extend that invitation to you, friend.

No matter who you are, what you’ve done, or what sentence you carry, Jesus Christ can make you new. He can take rebels and make them sons and daughters. He can take prisoners and make them kings and queens again.

A New Name

In the Bible, God is in the regular habit of changing people’s names as a sign of his grace. Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). Jacob the deceiver became Israel, the one who wrestled with God and prevailed (Genesis 32:28). Simon the fisherman became Peter, the rock on which Jesus would build his church (Matthew 16:18).

That’s what Jesus does for us. He takes rebels, criminals, addicts, sinners, and screwups (in other words, all of us), and he gives them a new identity.

I once had an inmate ask me, through tears, after I taught on this: “Do you really think I could be a king? Do you really think God could make me like Adam before he sinned?” My answer to him then is the same answer I’d give you now: Yes. That’s the story of the gospel.

You may be wearing prison clothes, but if you belong to Jesus, you will be clothed in his righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). You may be locked in a cell, but if you are in Christ, you are already seated with him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). The world may call you “inmate” or “felon” or worse, but if you repent and believe the gospel, God will call you his beloved child.

Hear and Respond

If you’ve made it this far, then you must be intrigued enough by Jesus to hear one final word from him. Here it is: Reading about Jesus is not the same as trusting him. We are not saved by merely hearing about Jesus, being fond of his teachings, or getting a cross-shaped tattoo. No, we must believe in his promises and cling to him alone for salvation. 

Jesus’s very first sermon was not a plea to get people to like him, but a call for them to turn in repentance and believe in him:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15)

That’s still the invitation today. 

But what do these words mean? Let’s consider them one at a time:

Repent means to turn around away from sin, to stop running from God and start running to him. It’s more than feeling sorry for getting caught; it’s feeling sorry that you sinned in the first place.

Believe means to trust Christ completely. To believe that his death on the cross is enough to save you from your sin. To believe that his resurrection means he is alive and able to save you today. To rest in him as Savior, and then to follow him as Lord.

Romans 10:9 promises,

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Not “maybe.” Not “if you clean yourself up first.” Not “once you serve enough time to make up
for your sins.” No. Confess, believe, and you will be saved.

So the question is simple: Will you keep believing the lies of Satan and this world—that you’re too far gone, too broken, too dirty? Or will you believe the truth—that Christ died for sinners, even for you, and that he offers you a new name, a new future, a new life?

The King is calling. What will you do?

If you want to come to Jesus Christ right now and put your trust in him, you can do that—
wherever you are, whatever you’ve done. Start by telling God with a prayer like this: 

Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, and that he died on the cross to save me from my sin. I believe that he rose again to life, and that he invites me to live forever with him in heaven as part of your family. Because of what Jesus has done, I ask you to forgive me of my sin and give me eternal life. Please guide me to other believers who love you and will help me grow as a Christian. Amen. 

© 2026 by Sean DeMars. All rights reserved. Published by Crossway. Printed in China. Bible references: English Standard Version® (ESV®).