He Shall Have Dominion

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31

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Well, this will be our last week in Genesis 1.
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As we continue on what we began last week, the image of God, and we talked about specifically the image of God and creation and asked the question, what does it mean to be made in the image of God, to be created in the likeness of God?
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And the answer we said, in many words, was that man was made to be like God in every way that a creature can be like God.
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And we talked about there being a broad and a narrow sense to man being the image of God in relation to the fall.
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On the one hand, we said the ethical foundation, the very dignity of human life, the reason that we hold a funeral and bury a body is in no small part due to the fact that man has retained the image of God even after the fall into sin.
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There's something about the personal, moral, rational nature of man that still retains the image of God on the one hand.
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But on the other hand, the theological foundation of the gospel begins with affirming the fact that man lost the original righteousness in which he was created, which made him fit for life with God.
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And in that sense, he lost the image of God. And this morning, we're going to move forward from image of God and creation to talk about image of God and dominion.
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And that brings us more, more closely to verse 28, which is sometimes referred to as the dominion mandate.
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So beginning with verse 27, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female.
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He created them. Then God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.
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Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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So this morning, we want to consider this passage in three parts. First, we want to talk about image bearing and dominion.
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In other words, what what is this passage describing? Secondly, we want to consider its full development in the
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Bible. And then we'll be talking about the last Adam, Jesus Christ and his new creation.
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And then lastly, briefly, we'll make a few applications as we talk about being conformed to the image of Christ through communion.
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So first, image bearing and dominion. One of the things that we're trying to do is make helpful distinctions.
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So we began our series in Genesis by distinguishing God's transcendence from his eminence.
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In other words, the fact that he's above all and outside of all, but also that he's near and present.
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We also made a distinction between the broad retention of the image of God and the narrow sense in which it was lost.
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And now we also need to make a distinction this morning between talking about being God's image in a representational way and being
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God's image in a functional way. So that's the big distinction, the big vocab for today.
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First, what does it mean to be God's image representationally?
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In the ancient Near East, around the time that Moses was writing the account of Genesis, images were thought to represent or to mediate the presence of their likeness.
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This wasn't just true of idols or false God images, but even of statues of kings and of rulers.
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Wherever they conquered territory, they would set up images of themselves as a representation of their ownership or their reign over a new domain.
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When it comes to the idols, this is the case even more so. The bond would have been even stronger for the idea of an idol or a
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God. And you have to understand in the ancient Near Eastern mindset, deities were localized.
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The idea is that our God is the God of this land or this tribe, this ancestral area.
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And therefore, this is his domain and his image represents his reign over this domain.
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And Yahweh is always condemning the fact that he is the God of all.
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All the hills belong to him. The earth belongs to him in its fullness. So we have to understand this representational nature of being an image.
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It mediates the presence of the God for an ancient Near Eastern mindset.
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And this seems to be exactly a sort of counterfeit of what God's actually doing with man.
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It's a counterfeit, an idolatrous counterfeit of something that's recognized. We make an image out of something to represent or mediate its presence because we are image bearers of God representing or mediating his presence.
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For an idol, as Edward Curtis says, the statue was placed where the deity was present and manifested itself.
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Thus, the presence of the God and the blessing that accompanied that presence were affected through the image.
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And so this is why you have the pagans coming to certain sacred sites or sacred hills or temples to worship or venerate an image.
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The idea is the presence of that God and the blessing of that God are going to be coming through the image.
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It's going to have a mediating presence. And God says, do not make an image of me for that very reason.
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This all has a bearing then on what it means for humans to be the image of God in this representational way.
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The fundamental idea of humanity in this sense is that we represent the presence of God.
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We make manifest his blessing upon what he has made. That was the original intention of God's creation.
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I'll say it again in other words. As image bearers, humanity mediates the presence of God in the world.
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We mediate as those made in his image the presence of the creator in creation.
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That's what it means to represent God as his image. Human beings as image bearers mediate the presence of God in the world.
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It's a representational aspect to being made in God's image. Now, going back to what we said in the first week, this does not mean that God is somehow dependent upon man.
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As though he had to make image bearers in order to be present in the world.
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We've already said, no, God is imminent in the world. He's personal and present in what he's made.
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He's free and independent from it, but he's chosen in that freedom to draw near.
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But when we look to the creation of man as God's image bearer, we see this profound honor.
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This profound dignity that despite all of the various things, all of the complexity of creation,
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God chose human beings to be the manifestation and the representation of his presence.
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And to mediate in their work and in their worship, his blessing in what he had made.
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There's another aspect that flows out of representing God in this way, and that is it's functional.
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There's a functional aspect to being made in the image of God. Another way of talking about this is there's a vocation, which is another way of saying calling.
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There's a calling. There's work to be done. You know, you take up a trade or you go to vocational school.
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You're pursuing a calling. The fact that we were made to represent God and to mediate his presence and blessing to make it manifest in the earth means that humanity has this calling that was put upon them.
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This functional aspect of being God's image bearer is immediately connected to exercising dominion over creation.
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So realize what we're saying. At the very beginning, we represent God's presence on the earth.
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We manifest his blessing of creation in our calling, and that calling is dominion.
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Verses 26 and then 28, so it's front loaded. You have dominion, the creation of man in God's image, dominion.
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Then God said, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth.
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That's to say all creation. Over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And then
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God blessed them. This is after he made man in his image. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply.
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Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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Again, this is the summation of creation. And so see that God making man in his image immediately gives man the calling to exercise dominion over creation.
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Some of you would have heard this language of being God's vice regents. Meaning he truly is the king of what he has made.
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And yet he puts such dignity upon man that we reign with him. Man was created to be a vice regent, to sit next to the throne of God, as it were, and reign and rule on his behalf.
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There's this ruling function that flows out of being made in his image and likeness.
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And this is what we considered when we opened the service with Psalm 8. Again, when
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I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've ordained, what is man that you're mindful of him?
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What honor you would bestow upon us? You've made him a little lower than the angels.
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You've crowned him with glory and honor. You've made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.
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Do you see? Creation is being summed up. What God's hands have made, you've put man in this position to reign over.
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You've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea.
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It's a commentary on Genesis 1 .28. Now when we get to chapter 2 in Genesis, we see, if we could put it this way, the mundane specifics of how man exercises dominion.
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He cultivates the earth. He labors in every relationship of creation in which he participates.
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And it becomes for man an all -encompassing pattern of a life lived unto God, in work and worship.
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As co -equal parts of a life lived before God, man exercises his dominion.
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He manifests God's presence and blessing on the earth. The dominion then is never focused on man as man, but rather man as God's image.
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As man and woman together began to work the glory and the beauty and the order out of Eden into the rest of the world, they were to do so representing
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God, exercising what God had given to them, their minds, their morality, the law written upon their hearts.
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All of these things came to bear upon manifesting His blessing and presence upon creation.
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Another way of talking about this is the idea of being a steward. There's a stewardship that was given to humankind.
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I love what Henry Morris has to say about this idea. In order to subdue the earth, we must first understand its processes.
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And so man was made with knowledge to apply. And that's applied in technology, so engineering, medicine, agriculture.
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And we implement for use by all, business, commerce.
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We transmit that to the next generation, education. Creation can be described and praised in the humanities and in the fine arts.
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And so the dominion mandate encompasses every human occupation as a stewardship under God.
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All of life lived with reference toward God. Matthew Henry would say,
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God designed hereby to put an honor upon man, that he might find himself more strongly obliged to bring honor to his maker in everything that he does.
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There's no sacred, secular split. There's no equivalent of going to church and doing something holy on a
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Sunday and then just kind of grinding through the world the rest of the week. Everything that man does, he does as a representative of God.
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Everything that man is, is mediating the presence of God. Everything that man does is an application of what
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God has given him, so that God may be honored through him. See, this is how God created the world to be.
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I'm so tempted to go into the fall, but we're not in chapter 3 yet. All of this gets flipped upside down, as you know, as Christians.
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This dominion is diminished and it's lost by the fall. But there's this providence of God that continues.
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And in certain respects, the dominion mandate continues for all human beings.
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As we said, there is still this sense of being made in the image of God. So just put a place marker there.
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That's a world to unpack, but we really can't touch it until we get to Genesis 3. So again, we've seen so far, man made in God's image is representative of God, but also a functionary for God.
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And then perhaps the best way to encapsulate this is we can talk about the human being being a king and a priest and a prophet.
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There's this kingly language in Genesis 1 .28. Subdue the earth, rule over it, exercise dominion.
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This is royal language. Man was created with this royal imagery as a representative of God.
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But then there's also this idea of a priestly mediation. As man, as God's image, is mediating
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God's presence and blessing. That's priestly. You mediate the blessing of God. So there's this priestly function to being human.
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And then as God's vice -regents, as His image -bearers, ruling over all of the earth for the glory of God, there's a law written on the heart.
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In fact, Adam, the first thing he hears is the law of God.
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The law of God. And in that sense, he becomes a prophet. And so man is this prophet -priest -king.
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That is integral to what it means to be the image of God. Don't just take my word on that.
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This is the threefold office we call it. Prophet -priest -king. I'm saying this is something inherent to being the image of God.
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Hermann Bavink. One of just the greats. Hermann Bavink. Go buy
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Bavink. There's some great abridgements of some of his work. This is what he has to say.
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The image of God is not a static entity, but extends and unfolds itself in space and time.
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It's both a gift and a mandate. It's another way of saying it's something that's represented and something that works, that functions.
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It's a gift and a calling. Only humanity in its entirety, as one complete organism, summed up under one single head, spread out over the whole earth, as prophet proclaiming the truth of God, as priest dedicating itself to God, as ruler controlling the earth and the whole of creation, only then is it fully the finished image, the most telling and striking likeness of God.
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Now what bearing, as we move to the second point, what bearing does man, in God's image, as a representation, as a vocation and a function, as a prophet, priest, and king, what bearing does that have on Christ as the image of God?
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Christ as the last Adam. We've already said last week from Colossians 1 that He is the image of the invisible
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God. He is the firstborn over all of creation. And we again connect this immediately to dominion.
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All things were created through Him and for Him, we read. Things that were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
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Even the dominions are under His dominion. That's what Colossians 1 is saying. And we read this in light of Genesis 1 .28.
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The idea of dominion is preeminence. Humanity, made in Genesis 1 .28,
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preeminent over all of God's creation, and then specifically drawing all of that to Christ who is preeminent over all.
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And that's why, as we saw, Hebrews 2 makes Psalm 8 all about Jesus Christ.
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Psalm 8 is reflecting on Genesis 1 .26 -28. Hebrews 2 says
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Psalm 8 is properly understood ultimately as a reference to Christ Himself.
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What is man that you're mindful of Him? The writer of Hebrews quotes. Or the Son of Man that you take care of Him.
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You've made Him a little lower than the angels. You've crowned Him with glory and honor. You've set Him over the works of your hands.
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You've put all things in subjection under His feet. And this is a reference to Jesus.
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For in that He put all in subjection under Him, under Jesus, He lets nothing that is not put under Him.
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Jesus is the man to whom dominion is given over all of creation because He's the image of God.
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That's the significant thing here. I'm not probably saying anything groundbreaking to say to you
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Jesus is preeminent. Jesus has authority over all. Jesus exercises dominion.
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What I'm trying to emphasize is this. He does so as the image of God. That's what you have to see.
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And if you don't see that, you will not be able to make sense of the larger entailment of what it means to be human and the larger picture of why we are saved.
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That's how important this is. Jesus exercises dominion not because He's the divine
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Lord only, but because He is the image of God. He's the image of God.
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All of salvation, in other words, is bound up with God's plan to glorify
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His Son through a people that will be conformed to that image. The image of prophet, priest, and king.
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The mediating presence of God in the world. The vessel of blessing upon all that God has made.
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In you, Abram, nations shall be blessed. It's the same idea that's unfolded.
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Christ came, Galatians 3, so that the blessing of Abraham could come upon the
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Gentiles. You see, this is how the gospel begins to unfold and flower. Romans 8, 29.
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For whom He foreknew, this is God whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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Here we have, again, a different way of expressing what it means to be new creatures in Christ.
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A new creation in Christ. Paul is saying nothing less than this. Christ is the firstborn of creation, a new creation, a new humanity that fulfills
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God's original design and intention for humanity. So Christians participate in the fulfillment of who
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Christ is and what He's done. And as we participate, as we are in union with Him by faith, walking according to His way, we're being conformed by degrees into His image and into His likeness.
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That's wonderful, flowery language, but what does that mean? We have to go back to what it means to be the image of God in the first place.
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That's why this is so important. It's Christianese to say, oh yes, we were saved that we might be conformed to His image.
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And that might just sound like we sort of lay back and are slowly molded despite any effort.
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You see what I'm saying? Understand what it means to be the image of God. You have a calling now to be a prophet and a priest and a king, to rule in those ways that Christ has authority that's given to you, to mediate
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His blessing and His word as both prophet and priest. This is what it means to be conformed into the image of Christ.
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So when you read the Gospel accounts, you read it as the Creator coming to dwell in creation.
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And then all of the Gospel story is bound up with Genesis 1 and what it means to be the image of God.
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The Creator comes to dwell in His creation, the express image of the invisible
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God. And He humbles Himself to suffer His own curse upon fallen man for the sake of a people that He will create new in the newness of His risen life when
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He rose from the grave, having power over death. And what does He do to His people, to His disciples?
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He breathes upon them with the Spirit in the same way that Adam, as we'll see in chapter 2, is formed and breathed upon and given life.
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Christ does that to His people, newly formed, newly born. He breathes the Spirit into them, taking them out of that dry valley of bones, out of a state of death, dead in their trespasses and sins.
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He breathes into them new life as new creations, as a new humanity in Him. Now they're being conformed into His image and likeness.
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This all comes about in Christ. Galatians 6 .16
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For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation.
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Please note, not justification, which is the whole theme of Galatians.
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Wouldn't you expect Paul to say that? For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but being justified by faith alone, that no man may boast in his works.
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That's what you'd expect. He says, this is dealing with the old man, with old creation.
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This doesn't matter. You need to be a new creation. And how does that come about? In Christ Jesus.
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In Christ Jesus these things don't avail anything. It's whether you've been made alive in Him as a new creature, as a new life.
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2 Corinthians 5 .17 You all know it so well. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Where have they become new? And why have they become new?
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In Christ. That's what he says. New creation. New Adam.
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New humanity. The restoration and the consummation of what it means to be the image of God.
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Christ, risen in glory, radiates the fullness of humanness.
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Very important point. He brings humanness into the heaven of heavens.
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He sits at the right hand of God in the flesh of humanity. He wasn't some apparition when
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He ascended into the sky. He brings the atoms and the molecules of a body that was made for Him, that was nursed by His mother, trained and encouraged by His stepfather, blessed by friends and neighbors.
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He brings that flesh to the right hand of God. And it's entirely correct to say that the intent of all of God's creation was and is to present
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His Son in His preeminence as the head of a new humanity which perfectly reflects
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His divine image. And therefore, as Christians, we understand that we are new creations in Christ because we're being conformed to His image.
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Not that we're just being restored back to what Adam was, but we're coming to Christ.
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What I'm saying is this, there's a real sense in which it's just not that we're restored to the image of God, it's that we understand what the image of God really is.
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It's the image of Christ. Christians are being conformed to the image of Christ, to the likeness of Christ who is the express image of God.
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That's a vital point. The entire Old Testament storyline unfolds to reveal this great mystery of the coming of Christ.
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We sang about it as we sang joy to the world. It centers upon the preeminence of Christ as the last
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Adam, as we'll see in chapter 2. Coming from His torn side, He creates the bride of His glorified saints.
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But we're living between the now of that fulfillment and the not yet. Christ has been exalted and all authority has been given to Him.
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But there's this sense in which though salvation has been inaugurated, it's awaiting the consummation.
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It's awaiting the full revelation of it which is coming on that coming day. All of this turns upon Christ as the image of God, exercising the dominion of an image of God.
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1 Corinthians 15 I want to show you again. Christ raised from the dead, the express image of God, the glorified humanity that was always the design and how that's immediately connected to Christ, exercising dominion as the image of God.
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Genesis 1 into 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 20. But now
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Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection from the dead.
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For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order.
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Christ, the firstfruits. Afterward, those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end.
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And the end here is the completion of dominion. Subdue the earth.
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Right? That's the dominion mandate. Subdue the earth. And Paul is saying, then comes the end when
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He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet.
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Do you notice that language from Psalm 8? All things under His feet? The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
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Christ exercises this at the very beginning when He bursts out of the grave.
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He inaugurates. He begins. This is the Normandy invasion of salvation to use a very famous analogy.
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Once the Allies got on the beachhead at Normandy, anyone who knew the difference between North and South knew that it was just a matter of time.
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But they still had to push through the Ardennes Forest. There was still this holdout, this stubborn resistance, the
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Battle of the Bulge, all the way before they could finally make their way into Berlin. And that's where we are.
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It's over. The war has been won. But we still have to press into the kingdom, so to speak.
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We still have to press into Berlin. There's an enemy that remains and is retained until that coming day.
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And Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. In Christ we are conformed to this image -bearer exercising this dominion over all of creation.
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He was always the firstborn, always meant to rule in this way. He establishes a new humanity in His image and mediates
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His presence and the blessing of His kingdom as He subdues the earth and fills it with new life and new hope.
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And this all turns on Christ being risen from the dead.
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He came in the likeness of man. And then He's risen from the earth.
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In the glory of a new humanity. He's the first fruit, the first sprout of what we shall be, of what we were always meant to be.
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Adam, as God's image -bearer, was not the full intention of God's design for humanity.
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The full intention and design of God for humanity was in Christ always.
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Christ was the goal. Christ was the design. Christ is the fullness of what it means to be human.
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Thus in Christ we see the fullness of a prophet, the fullness of a great high priest, the fullness of a sacrificial and noble king.
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As truly God and truly man, Jesus Christ comes to exercise dominion over every facet of life, every square inch of the cosmos
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He created, because it was created for Him to rule over. Charles Hodge, the great
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Princeton theologian, says, the universal dominion, this universal dominion, as we learn from the
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Scriptures, has been realized and attained only by the incarnation and exaltation of the
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Son of God. But as God sees the end from the beginning, as His plan is immutable and all -comprehending, the supreme exaltation of humanity was designed from the beginning and included in the dominion with which man was invested.
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Do you see what Hodge is saying? Christ's dominion was always the goal. And yet because God sees the end from the beginning, here in Genesis 1,
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He is attributing this calling and this dignity and this honor to exercise dominion and subdue the earth.
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He gives that to man, knowing that Christ is the one to whom it will be fulfilled. That's why as we closed last week, we had this statement,
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God's purpose in creating man in His image is completely realized in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Frankly, this is why as we even began the series, we said we don't begin creation with the debates about creationism.
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We begin creation with Christ. We begin creation where John 1 begins creation, where Colossians 1 begins creation.
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Christ is the preeminent one. You cannot make sense of Genesis. You cannot make sense of the
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Bible. You cannot make sense of what it means to be human unless you understand that Christ is the center of it all.
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This is what Stanley Grenz has to say. He's talking about how Christology, unfortunately, if you have ever looked at a theology book, especially in the
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Western tradition, we always have the same categories in which we do theology. Theology meaning the study of God.
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And there's different ologies that go into a standard systematic theology. So even our confession is a good example.
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As we look at the different chapter headings of our confession, we have different headings, different ologies.
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And Stanley Grenz is making this point that we begin with the doctrine of God and maybe doctrine of Trinity and then doctrine of Christ.
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He's saying that's good, you have to order it somehow, but don't let that take you away from the centrality of Christ to everything.
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Listen to this. This is just gold. Christology, meaning the study of Christ, the revelation of Christ.
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Christology is a theology -informing locus, meaning subject.
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Christology informs the doctrine of God. You begin with the doctrine of God, you can't understand the doctrine of God without Christology.
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For we cannot know who God truly is except through Jesus, who is the true image of God, the true revelation of God.
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Christology is crucial for the doctrine of creation, as we're seeing, insofar as God's purposes for creation cannot be seen unless they're seen in relationship to Jesus, who as the image of God, fulfills the human calling as the cosmic
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Christ. Christology informs the doctrine of humanity. What does it mean to be human?
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For we cannot know what it means to be human without looking to Jesus, who as the image of God, embodies what
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God intended for humanity and is the true human. This is,
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I think, one of the most profound areas of our faith, is that the
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Creator became creation, is that God became man. We rightly, and as you heard me at the funeral yesterday, the cross is at the center of our faith, because it's our faith and our hope.
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You know, that's a Western tradition. In the Eastern tradition, sort of the centerpiece of their faith and worship is the
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Incarnation. And I've got to tell you, they're on to something with that. Not at the expense of the cross, but they're on to something with that.
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This is the great mystery that was hidden for ages. That God would come to dwell with His people.
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Not as a plan B to humanity. Not as, oh, the humans blew it.
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I guess I'll have to send my son as a human now so I can try to do something with humanity. Christ, before God created anything,
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Christ's preeminence was planned by Him becoming the creation. Christ's humanity was the purpose of humanity.
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That's how significant this is. So a few applications as we come to the third section.
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Just two brief points about what it means for us then as Christians to conform to Christ's image.
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And the first is, and you all know this, is we do this progressively. We do this progressively.
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2 Corinthians 3 .18 We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
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Lord, are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory, just as by or even as by the
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Spirit of the Lord. There's a progressive nature to being conformed to the image of Christ.
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We call that sanctification. The Spirit of the Lord from glory to glory is making us more like our
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Savior. We speak like that. You've said things like that. But you probably haven't thought of it in the fullness of what it means that Christ is the image of God.
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And therefore Christ is the representation of God and the calling of God for humanity.
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It's not just being made more pious, if you can put it that way. I'm being transformed into the same image because I'm slowly watching less and less
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YouTube videos. This is me becoming more like His image. That may well be a part of it, but do you see what
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I'm saying? The image is so much deeper than that. This is getting back to the fundamentals of how we represent and mediate
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God's presence in this world. Christ then shows us how to do that. He shows us how to do that in a broken and fallen world where men are stubborn and hardened and are quick to reject and persecute.
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He shows us what it looks like to be truly human and to fulfill God's calling for humanity in the flesh in a broken world.
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When you read the Gospels, read it in that way. We put off the old man with all those corruptions, all those defilements.
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We put on a new man, renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, Christ. We put off that former conduct, the old man, which as we read in Ephesians 4, was full of deceitful lust.
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And we're renewed in the spirit of our mind. We put on that new man created in righteousness and holiness.
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We put on Christ. We put on Christ. We're destined to be this new humanity in Christ.
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We're progressively being transformed into the reality of a new creation in a new
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Adam. As His image bearers, we're being conformed to His likeness. Christians are relearning, degree by degree, day by day, however imperfectly, how to follow
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Christ as a prophet, as a priest, and as a king, knowing that on the day we finally see
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Him, we'll be made like Him. Second point.
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First point again, we conform to His image progressively. Second point, we conform to Christ's image in community.
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In community. Or maybe better put, as community. Conforming to the image of Christ is not something you do solo.
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It was never designed to be this way. Human beings were made as social creatures, reflective of the
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God who is social in a sense within Himself. Perfectly one and yet perfectly three.
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The persons of the Godhead relating and communing together. And therefore, conforming to the image of Christ must be communal.
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Because the image of God is a triune image. It's a communal image.
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The restoration of the image then, the sanctification that makes us more and more like our
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Savior, is lived out in community. It's lived out not only in the wider community, but specifically in the church, in the body.
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The wisdom of God is that He composed the body. He gifted members with different gifts and abilities.
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He put them all together to work out their salvation together, so that in working out the grace that He's bestowing upon them, they can be collectively conformed to His image.
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That means I cannot conform to the image of my Savior without you. And you cannot conform to the image of your
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Savior without little old me. We need each other to conform to the likeness of the
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Son of God. That's the glory of God's design. And what happens when the church in particular is being conformed into the image of the
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Son of God and is exercising dominion out of the authority that was given to Him?
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The dominion that He has as He's presently now reigning, bringing all the enemies, all those that oppose
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Him, in subjection under His feet. What does that look like for a church to do that? Matthew 5, 13 and following.
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You become the salt of the earth. The city on a hill. You are the salt of the earth.
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But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It's good for nothing but to be thrown out, trampled underfoot by men.
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You're the light of the world. A city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. Nor do any put a light under a basket, but they rather put it on a lampstand.
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And it gives light to all those who are in the house. So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
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Father in heaven. Do you see? This is what it means for us together to be conformed to the image of the
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Son. We mediate His presence to the world as light, as salt. Just as He Himself came and mediated the presence of His Father to a lost and dying world, a world that would reject
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Him and crucify Him. So, taking a big step back in the last few moments,
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I just want to give you the big 10 ,000 foot view of what we should take away from Genesis 1, even
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Genesis 1, 26 -28, in hopes that we'll be prepared as we move into chapter 2 next week.
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Big step back. Big, big picture here. The chief end of man is to glorify
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God and enjoy Him forever. That's the chief end of man. There's a spatial and a progressive aspect to this.
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It takes place in space, and it's something that's progressive. This was true not just after the fall, where now the image of God becomes something missional through Christ's accomplishment, but even before the fall, the enjoyment of God and the glory that man brought to God required space and progress.
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In Genesis 1, God establishes the whole earth as the place of His dwelling, and He appoints,
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He literally plants Adam and Eve in Eden to mediate and represent
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Him, to function as prophets, priests, and kings, as royals, and then to begin to progress and spread out the order and the glory and that mediated presence from Eden to cover the whole earth.
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Eden is the prototypical temple of God. And we see that even when the temple was later built, it's retaining this garden imagery.
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This is the presence of God. This is where man is planted. But that presence is meant to break out and fill the earth with God's glory.
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That was the intention and design of God. Adam and Eve were to work as vice -regents, as stewards, ruling over creation, expanding the beauty and the order of Eden as they expanded by their own presence and by the generations they produced the glory of the
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Lord's likeness over all of the earth, and thereby magnifying
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God's glory to the ends of the earth as His image -bearers communing with Him. That was all torn away by the fall.
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It was turned inside out. It was meant for God, then became against God. But God promised to Eve, as we'll see, a seed.
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Really interesting, isn't it? A seed. A seed that would come in due time, crush the serpent, save the people.
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A seed that lived a perfect life we could not live, died the curse of the death that we were to die.
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And that seed, when He died, was planted in the earth and He sprouted forth.
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He burst forth on the third day as the first fruits of what we shall be.
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New humanity. Christ, as the last Adam, is now presently reigning.
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But there's still this progressive aspect to His rule. He's presently bringing all of His enemies and opposition under His feet until that coming day.
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And we reign with Him now. We will rule with Him. And we'll judge angels with Him on that day.
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We magnify His glory throughout a fallen earth as prophets, priests, and kings, as ambassadors of His kingdom, as citizens of the heavenly realm.
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We reflect the presence of His glory in the light of His life as new creations in an earth that is groaning and awaiting a final consummation.
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You could go as far as to say the goal of our salvation is not just to be forgiven of our sins or to escape judgment.
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The goal of our salvation is to be conformed to the image of Christ, the image of God.
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That is the purpose of humanity and therefore the purpose of saving humanity. And as such, we are restored to an unbroken fellowship of God's presence where there's joy and splendor at His right hand forever in which we dwell in a new heaven and a new earth as new humanity conformed to the likeness of the
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One who saved us, bowing and working and fulfilling a new calling without sweat or sorrow, without tears or death, in perfect communion with the
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Savior who loved us at the cost of His own life. And we'll finally know what it truly means to be human.
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He must reign until that day, until He's put all
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His enemies under His feet. That's the gospel. Let's pray.
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Lord, we are amazed to consider Your design. There's really no words to say just to break out in the praise and the wonder of it all.
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The depths of the riches of Your knowledge, of the counsels that You've made in eternity past before anything was made.
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Your design to glorify Your Son, to present to human beings that You would make what it must be to be a human being and giving
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Your Son as the firstborn of creation, preeminence over all, and that You would come and remedy our own sinfulness, our own rebellion at the expense of this
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One who loved so perfectly, who emptied Himself and took the form of a slave and died the cursed death upon a tree.
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And that You planted Him in the belly of the earth, in the stomach of the great whale that swallowed
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Jonah, that He could burst forth on that third day the firstfruits, a new humanity, a redeemed humanity, but at the same time, the everlasting intention for humanity, what
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You had always purposed for humanity to be. Not so that we could dwell as Adam and Eve once dwelt with Your presence, but an invisible presence, a presence manifested in different ways at different times, but rather that we could dwell with You as flesh to flesh and look into the face of our
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Savior, the true man and true God and see the face of the living
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Triune God. We're amazed at the design of Your salvation. We're humbled, if humbled is even the word, that You would choose us and appoint us to be partakers, co -heirs, joint rulers, images being conformed by degrees of glory into the likeness of this
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One who loved our souls at His own sake. Help us to understand,
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Lord, what it would mean for us to be restored in His likeness. Ways that we need to better mediate
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His presence and His blessing to others. Ways that we need to better come together and put off the ways of the old man and put away the flesh as we learn to conform to His image together in community and become therefore the light and the salt of the earth.
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Help us to rule with Him as we aid in our time, in our efforts, in our energy, in our resources to the advancement of His kingdom which shall know no end, though the gates of hell war against it.
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Help us as priests, a royal priesthood formed from His blood to mediate
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His Word and His blessing and His promises as well as His warnings to the world that's so lost and set against Him.
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Let us be His emissaries as prophets demanding that the nations, the kings, and the rulers bow and kiss the sun lest they perish in their way.
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Help us, Lord, each one of us, and collectively as a whole, to see the glory and the beauty and the calling of what it means to be conformed to the image of our