(Genesis) 4 - Man and the Cultural Mandate — S. Lewis Johnson

The scripture reading for this morning is Genesis chapter 1 verse 20 through Genesis chapter 2 in verse 3. So will you turn to Genesis chapter 1 in verse 20 where Moses writes,. Then God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.

And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the water swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

And there was evening, and there was morning a fifth day. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind.

And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after it creeps on the earth, or the ground after its kind, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, 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.

And God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so. And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. The heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

And by the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. The seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

May the Lord bless this reading of his inspired. Our subject for this morning in the continuation of our series of studies in the book of Genesis is man and the cultural mandate. A sudden transformation of the majestic creation narrative takes place at the point at which we have come in our studies.

I am sure that in the reading of the word of God you have noticed the impressive, almost ponderous, phrases and clauses that have characterized the first part of the first chapter. And God said. The most monotonous order has been maintained.

God saw, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day or the third day. But now something very different, something very startling, something rather strange takes place. Instead of and God said, God created.

Now the infinite and eternal God changes his course and engages in dialogue. And it is a dialogue within himself. It's not a monologue, it's a soliloquy. Let us make man, he says, in our image according to our likeness.

So it is clear that at this point the creation account reaches higher ground. There are some very humbling things for man's meditation here. He's the king of the creation, but he's to eat like the animals.

He's to have glandular secretions and hormones like the lions and tigers, and like the cats and dogs too. Lashed by the same kind of desires, he shall receive the same command from the creator to be fruitful, fill the world.

The animals and man be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The psalmist says, O Lord, thou savest, translated in some versions, preservist, man and beast, and thus links together the destiny of man and creation.

And I think there must be some really significant thing about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings, also a man, was cradled in an animal's feeding trough when he was born. Now there are some grand things about this creation too.

This man is to rule over the earth, he's to fill the earth, he's to subdue it, he's to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves over the earth.

The essence of the divine intention has been called the cultural mandate. Now that term raises some questions. What is culture? Well, one can speak of culture in different ways. One can speak of the culture of plants, the culture of flowers, the culture of bees.

Generally, however, we refer the word to human beings, and in this context it refers to the resulting improvement that comes from mental, moral, and social training. It connotes education. The man who is educated is thought to be a cultured man.

It has to do with taste and experience, and often it has to do with family background. And from a fine family background, education and some taste in the arts is thought of as a cultured man. Now to some it's merely a veneer of the real thing, polish.

There are some men who have polish but have no real basic deep down kind of culture. But to most it is more than all of this. It's all of these things plus something almost indefinable. It includes the love of the arts, the love of paintings, the love of portrait, the love of music.

But really from the biblical standpoint, these are just stepping stones to the real culture. To put it biblically, culture is the fulfillment of the mandate given in the Garden of Eden to man. What did God say to men there?

He said, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it. The cultural mandate is the accomplishment of that great command that God gave to men. It's the execution of man's divinely given stewardship over the creation, for we are the kings of the creation under God.

It includes the development and the improvement of the creation that is about us. And then, ideally, when this improvement and development takes place and is accomplished by the enabling power of God, man lays the whole thing down before the feet of him who is king of man and of nature, and in whose image and for whom man and all things are created.

So wrote one of the great thinkers about the passage we are to study contains some of the Bible's opening shots at some very important and interesting questions. Of course, the question of evolution is still before us here.

Does verse 26, let us make man in our own image, teach the doctrine of the Trinity? What's the meaning of the expression, the image of God? What does it mean to be created in the image of God? And the Bible, incidentally, makes it very plain that though the fall has taken place, the image of God in man still is there.

It is marred, but it's still there. Looking about upon other men, what is there about other men, such as we are, that enables the scriptures to say they are in the image of God, but intend for humanity to be bisexual or trisexual?

Is there some other kind of sex than male and female? And what is the relationship between the male and the female? What about the population explosion? Has God never heard what our scientists have said, that we are in danger of overpopulating the earth?

He said, fill the earth, multiply, be fruitful. And then after the fall, he repeated those things in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis. He told Noah and the ones who survived the flood to go out, to multiply and fill the earth.

Does not God know the dangers that face us? Well, now, of course, God does know the dangers that face us, but he's also seen West Texas. And if you've seen West Texas, you know there is no danger of the earth being filled up at the present time.

Creation of Marine Life and Birds

Now we turn to the fifth day of creation, and here we have the creation of the marine animals and birds. And let me read again the command of verse 20 of chapter 1. And God said, let the waters team with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.

One of the scientists who has written on the book of Genesis has said, the first introduction of animal life was not a fragile protoplasm that happened to come together in response to electrical discharges over a primeval ocean, as evolutionists believe.

The water swarmed with swarms of living creatures. But we're not to think from this statement, let the waters team with swarms of living creatures, that it is the waters that have brought forth these creatures.

It is evident that they are the product of the word of God. It is not they, the waters, who have created, it is God who has created. So when we read, then God said, the power of this creation rests in the word of the Lord God.

So the creation is from God, but as a result of his word, the waters team with swarms of living creatures. Isn't it interesting too that we read in the 21st verse that God created the great sea monsters.

The term sea monsters would appear to include all the large sea animals, even the monsters of the past that are now extinct, unless there is one swimming around in Loch Ness. Now the Japanese have a scientific expedition that has gone to Loch Ness to look for the monster of Loch Ness, and others also have been there with their cameras taking pictures of strange things in the waters.

They told us in Scotland, when we went to Loch Ness, that we were much more likely to see the monster in Lake Loch Ness, that we might see something if we did that. The use of the term here suggests something else too.

You'll notice this is the second time that we have it in this account. In the first verse, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And now we read, and God created the great sea monsters.

And also all of these things are created after their kind, pointing to the programming of the reproductive systems of the animals in order to assure the fixity of the feeding systems are fixed by the DNA molecule.

But here it is evident that while there may be variations within a kind, variations beyond the kind, and I think that that is the state of our scientific knowledge at the present day. The section concludes with the divine blessing, and God be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas.

And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. The divine blessing is intended to secure the perfection of the work of creation and of the ecological balance and the exactness of function in the biological world.

God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. Everything is arranged for the good of the creature of man who is to come as a result of the divine creation in just a moment. These things that the Lord has provided for man remind us, of course, of some of the statements the Lord Jesus made which are recorded in the Gospels.

We read in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 26 that the Lord Jesus said, look at the birds. They don't sow, they don't reap, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And are you not worth much more than the birds?

And then in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew he says, are not there two sparrows and not a one of them falls to the ground or hops about on the ground, if that's the meaning of the text there, without our heavenly Father?

So he cares for everything in his universe. He provides for everything. And you can see as you read this account that he has made beautiful and sufficient preparation and provision for the man who is to come from his creative hand.

The Creation and Nature of Man

The sixth day and the account of it then follows. And here we have the creation of the terrestrial animals and man. Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures. Now you'll notice the word creation is not used of these animals.

It may be the intention of the author to suggest by that that there was some inorganic substance that the Father used in the creation of these terrestrial animals. And if you turn to chapter two, verse 19, you'll read there on the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky.

So perhaps we are to think from this that just as man was created with the use of the dust of the earth, so the animals also. There are three kinds of animals in verse 24. We read, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind.

And then there follow the three kinds, cattle, creeping things, beasts of the earth. Now the cattle refers to the domesticated animals, the creeping things to other small animals. Incidentally, that word creeping probably covers a much wider range than the word normally covers in our English speech.

It's used of animals, which are animals, but their legs are not the prominent part of them. Creeping. And then he mentions, and verse 24, and beasts of the earth. And evidently these are the game animals.

What we would call defecation has no correlation with the kind of system that our scientists use today. They speak of amphibians and reptiles and mammals and insects, but what we have here is probably a more natural kind of system based upon man's own interests.

So it is looked at from the human standpoint. Probably also this term beasts of the earth includes the large mammals, such as the lions and the elephants and the creep and also those extinct animals, such as the dinosaurs, which we do not have any of today.

Now you'll notice that there is here another statement that touches on the question of evolution. You do not find any evidence here of any kind of evolutionary struggle for existence among these animals.

This is before the fall, and consequently the animals evidently live together in perfect harmony, and in a moment we shall see that they lived by means of vegetation. It is a rather interesting thing that many of the animals today that live by meat can, if necessary, live by vegetation.

The original state before the fall. Then we come to man. In both the opening chapters of Genesis, Genesis chapter 1 and then next week we'll look at Genesis chapter 2, man is portrayed as in nature and yet at the same time over it.

He is portrayed as continuous with the creation, and yet there is a discontinuity. He is made of the dust of the earth, but at the same time God breathed into him the breath of life. Part of his being is from the creation, part of his being is from God directly.

The Divine Image and the Plural “Us”

Now let's look at the opening words of verse 26. Then God said, let us make man. You know when you read the Bible, you need to read it meditatively. Never approach the Bible and say, well today I've got to get through five chapters.

Just reading all of the words, but not thinking about the things that you're reading. It's much better to read meditatively. You notice immediately a contrast between verse 24 and verse 26. Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures.

But here, then God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. Notice the note of self-communion, let us make man. And the impressive plural number, let us, not let me, but let us make man.

This marks out the creation of man as a momentous, different kind of step in his creative work. It marks out the divine decree as proclaiming a distinctiveness and a preeminence in connection with man over all of his other created beings.

Over against the animals, it is said that man shall rule them. He shall govern them. He shall even give them their names. So he has given a great mandate over them. He has his origin in the breath of God and that leads to the crowning glory of man, his communion with the creator.

Something that the animals do not enjoy. That's right, your own pet, your own cat, or your own dog, not worship. Speaking last night at Pine Cove to the conference down there on the subject of the charismatic movement, 15 years after, and I was reading in a recent book written by a well-known preacher who received a letter from a woman who said that as a result of the gift of tongues, been given the power to bark in an unknown bark.

I assure you that that is, she said she trained her dog to do that and I could probably believe that. It's evident that that is not encompassed in the divine gift of tongue. Now what is meant by let us make man?

That calls for attention because of the word us. What is meant by that? Now that has been debated for a rather lengthy period of time. You know, I sometimes think that when we talk about differing interpretations that we are really wasting our time.

In fact, to be honest with you, after the message at 8 .30, that's what my wife told me. She said, you're wasting your time to talk about these different interpretations. Because after all, it's what the Bible says and the proper interpretation that matters.

And of course, she's right to a point. But then there are a lot of us, a lot of us that are exposed to other people who have heard all of these interpretations and they want to know an answer for them.

And so that is why I do refer to the interpretations of men such as Professor Funrott, who is so highly regarded by liberal scholars. Now remember this, liberal scholars are not anxious as a rule to find the meaning of the text of the Bible because their own basic approach to the word of God is negative.

They do not believe that the Bible is the word of God. They do not believe what the Bible says about man. They do not believe that they are sinners. They do not believe that Jesus Christ is the divine sacrifice for us sinners.

They do not believe that we must rely upon him and him alone for our salvation. So when they spring to bear on the study of the scriptures, their great learning, and many of them have great learning, they're not anxious to support the orthodox interpretations of the word of God.

More often than not, they seek to find an interpretation that is plausible that will be contrary to the orthodox interpretation of the Bible. Now Professor Funrott, for example, looks at this plural and says it's a reference to the Lord and to the angels.

That what he is saying is, let us, that is the Lord speaking with and to the angels, let us, the Lord and the angels, make man in our image after our likeness. Does not the Old Testament call angels the sons of God?

The answer to that, of course, is yes, it does call angels the sons of God. We shall deal with that when we get to Genesis chapter 6. It also calls man the son of God. Adam is called the son of God. Now there are other views.

In addition to Professor Funrott, some see this as a plural, this plural as the survival of an early polytheism. That is, the writer of the book of Genesis, thinking about the fact that there are many gods, has said, let us, these various gods, let us make man after our image.

And the us is a reflection of a view that there were many gods, not just one God. Some, on other grounds, look at this us and say this is a plural of majesty. That is, that you tend to speak in the plural if the figure who speaks is a majestic figure.

Now if I should speak to you this morning and should have an overblown view of myself, I might say, this morning we are preaching to you from the book of Genesis. And you would understand by that that I am such a majestic figure that I am reckoning myself to be more than one.

We are speaking to you. Now I'm not talking about the editorial we, but this is the plural of majesty. So it has been said. Others have said it's the plural of fullness of attributes. Now that is closer, I think, to the interpretation.

It's rather the plural of the fullness of persons in the divine Godhead. Some have said it's a plural of deliberation. That there is deliberation within God and he speaks as if he's deliberating within himself.

Let us make man after our image. You know, the most plausible interpretation is so often the most accurate and the most supportable. And the most plausible interpretation of let us make man is that there is plurality in the Godhead.

Now I would not want to affirm that this is a clear revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity. Because we do not have the clarity of the revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity until we come to the New Testament.

And there we learn that there are three gods and three persons who can be called God and only these three. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three persons who subsist in one essence. So we can speak of one God, but we can also speak of this Godhead as being a triunity.

So the Christians speak of their God as a triune God. Now as for Professor Von Raad's view, popular with many liberals, it lacks the support of the Word of God. Where in the Bible do you ever read concerning the creation that God called a conference or a committee of angels together and thereafter consultation with them decided to together with them create man?

Where do you ever read in the Bible that man is created in the image of angels? Well these rhetorical questions you know the answer to. You never find these things. And furthermore, in the remainder of the Old Testament, as the writers of the Old Testament reflect on the creation and remind their readers of what God did then, they always say there was one person involved.

In fact, in Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah challenges these people who follow the gods of the heathen and says, Where were they when God did this? Who was with him when he did this? He especially says there was no one there.

And you know if you read the account carefully here, my wife may be more right than I think. In verse 7 we read in chapter 2, listen,. Then the Lord God formed men of dust from the ground. And then in verse 22,.

And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man. It stresses the fact that it was the Lord God who created man and who created woman. Now the plural is probably a plural of fullness, but not a fullness of attributes, though of course that is true.

It is a plural of the fullness of persons. Now some of you theological students, if you want to know the technical term for this, it is the plural of hypostases, the plural of persons within the Godhead.

At this point, we have the doctrine of the Trinity only in germ form, not a formal or full proof of the teaching. But we do get a hint here that in the Godhead there is plurality. Let our image after our likeness.

Don't be afraid of Professor Von Roth. Don't be afraid of others who interpret the Word of God contrary to the general teaching of the unity of the Bible. There are always flaws in their interpretation.

And if you study the Bible enough, the Holy Spirit will bring home to you the conviction of the truthfulness of the Word of God. And generally, the most plausible interpretation is the simplest. Well, the make is further explained in verse 25 as create.

The verse 27, I should say, and God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. I want you to notice that there are three occurrences of the word create in this passage. In verse 1, God created the heavens and the earth.

That's the passage from nothing to inorganic matter. Then in verse 21, God created the great sea monsters. And there we have the passage from the inorganic matter to organic life. And here in verse 26 and verse 27, God created man in his own image.

We have the passage from organic life to human life. So at three critical points in the record, the word create by Ra is used. Now, the reference to the creation of man in the image of God has also created a great deal of discussion.

Looked at from the outward side, how is man in the image of God? Well, it is said he stands upright, not like the animals. They crawl around or they move on their four legs, on all fours. But man stands upright.

Furthermore, he gazes off. And because of the sphericity of the globe, he always looks at the heavens. And so his appearance is of a person who stands upright and he always looks toward heaven. That ought to make sense to any Texan because there are no trees in the way.

I refer you again to West Texas. In West Texas, you always look at the heavens. Furthermore, man is able to display emotions on his face. Now, I know you think your own pet animal laughs and cries. Man who particularly has the expressions that reflect the inmost being.

It is man who blushes. An animal does not blush. And most of all, it is man who talks. Now, if we were looking only at the outward side of things, we would say in these respects, man has been created in the image of God.

It's likely, however, that the Bible speaks from the inner side of things rather than the outer. Because in the New Testament, that is the stress that is made upon the interpretation of the image of God.

In the New Testament, putting this with the Old Testament, you learn that man is in the image of God in three ways. He's a rational being. His being, he is rational. This is something given him by God.

When men are irrational, they are not truly men in the fullest sense. But he is a rational being. He has a unique endowment that ultimately enables him to know God. He's able to worship God. And of course, he is also a person who has a moral nature.

He's able to receive the holiness and righteousness of the truth as is expressed in those passages in Ephesians and Colossians. I suggest, incidentally, that you look them up. And finally, he is the person who possesses the regal office.

And the consequence, that consequence of the image of God means that he rules over the earth. He is the image of God in his rational nature, his moral being, and in his regal office. And even though the fall has caused this image to be marred, it is still a possession of man.

First Corinthians makes that clear. Genesis chapter 9 makes that clear. James chapter 3 makes it clear as well. So in summary then, the image of God in which man was created has to do with all those aspects of human nature that are foreign to the animals.

Knowing the Creator Who Is Wholly Other

Now we turn to some other things. And before I do, I want to make a comment concerning things that are often said concerning this God about whom we're speaking by liberal interpreters. Some of the liberal interpreters, and some of those that you might not classify as liberal but Barthian, make a great deal over the fact that God is the Holy Other One.

Sometimes you will see that in capital letters, that he is the Holy Other One. Holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, not H-O-L-Y. The Holy Other Being. Making a great point over the fact that he is different from us and wholly different from us.

And therefore we can never really know anything definitely about him. We can only have some analogies of the knowledge of God. But let me assure you that while there is a sense in which that is true, for example, he is infinite.

We are finite. He is omnipotent. And even with all of the power given man as a creature of God, he never has omnipotence. He has other powers that we do not have. And he has some of the same virtues that we have but in the infinite sense.

And so in that sense, he is always the Holy Other One. But nevertheless, by reason of the fact that he has created us in the image of God and has breathed into us the breath of life, there is a contact between man and God and it is possible for man to have fellowship with God.

So there is a vastness of difference between the nature of the Creator and the creature that can never be bridged, but there is also a likeness which can never be lost. And we can know God and know him truly, though he is incomprehensible in his fullness.

Now we all know that. We know many things that we cannot know fully. And our knowledge is true knowledge. I know my wife. I'll never know her fully. In fact, sometimes I think I'm losing out. I don't seem to have quite as much knowledge as I used to have.

And I'm sure that she feels that way about me. Lewis, I just don't understand you. I've heard that sentence more than once, I assure you. And yet, we've lived together for 40 years. And I went with her eight years before that.

That is a lengthy period. I should know everything about her. Females, females. They are too much for us males. Now, the regal office has been given man, as the words rule and subdue indicate. And these are the consequences of the image of God.

I wish I had time to turn to Hebrews chapter 2. A man has lost Christ. The King of Kings has come and regained that regal office for man by virtue of the blood that was shed on the cross at Calvary. I suggest you read Hebrews chapter 2.

Male and Female in the Image of God

But now we have a new note in verse 27. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And female. Humanity is defined as bisexual, not trisexual.

As contemporary culture and thought, it often seems, would have it. We do not read in the Bible, God created Adam and Eve. Male and female, created he them. Let me say something about this. Homosexuality is an awfully big issue today.

But the Bible speaks very... Homosexuality is sin. It is sin and brings the judgment of God. But let us not forget that it is not the only sin. We are all sinners. But homosexuals are sinners in their homosexuality.

And just as there is deliverance for sinners, so there is deliverance for the sinner who is a homosexual. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians, said that certain types of people would not inherit the kingdom of God.

And he listed in the sixth chapter a series of sins, among which there were these vile sexual sins. And then he adds, and such were some of you. But you have been justified. You have been sanctified. You've been washed in the blood of Christ.

So that redemption is available for homosexuals. It is not true that a homosexual cannot be saved from his homosexuality. The Bible makes it very plain that it is a sin. A heinous sin. It is a sin that God hates.

But it can be redeemed. And female, he created them. Incidentally, you'll notice if you read that verse carefully, that man and woman were not androgynous in the beginning. As some have said. In the image of God, he created him.

One might say, well, man here is used in the generic sense. And it is. Incidentally, feminists, please note, man is the name for man and woman. The generic name. We are mankind, not personkind. But now notice what he says.

God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. But then he says, male and female, he created them. In other words, man originally was not a person with both male and female characteristics.

He was created male, androgynous person. And then the separation. But male and female, he created them. So the singularity of man and the plurality of the sexes is set forth. Now, the filling of the earth and the subduing of it emphasizes the cultural mandate.

Christians and the Cultural Mandate

This is a very much neglected narrative among evangelicals. Too often in the recent past, we have abandoned the task of subduing the earth to the unbelieving pagan world. And the result has been that the unbeliever, who is dominant in sciences, literature, philosophy, and politics, is the one who is the force to be reckoned with in all of these areas.

Evangelicals have unfortunately abandoned this earth to them. But let me remind you that when God said to man that he was to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it and to rule over it, that is part of the mandate that is given to men.

It is the cultural mandate. Everything in this creation as it was is to be developed, ultimately rendered to our great God in heaven for his glory. Now, that means that we shouldn't look, when we look at the sciences and see men who excel in sciences, we shouldn't have to look to the unbeliever in science.

We should have believing scientists. And they alone have the full capacity for understanding sounds, for understanding philosophy, for understanding the arts, for understanding literature, for understanding all of human activity.

It is they who have the capacity for true understanding of the creation of God. The Christians should not be satisfied to eat the crumbs falling from the cultural tables of the unregenerate. It is because we have abandoned our task.

If you're a businessman, an insurance man, you should be the best in your business. If you're a scientist, you should be the best in your business. Or if you're an artist, you should be the best in your business for God.

It is the work of us as men to study the creation, to come to understand the creation, to learn the principles by which God has put this universe together, and then use that information for the blessing of men.