In a previous post, we looked at the topic of meaning and purpose – something that we all desire and strive to find. The question could be asked: why do we have this striving and desire? What is it about humans that separates us from the other animals in this regard? There is something different about humans from the rest of creation in this way.
In the first chapter of Genesis God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” It continues: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:26-27) What does it mean to be created in God’s image and what does that have to do with conveying the gospel?
There are many ideas as to what the author meant by being created in God’s image or the Imago Dei as it is called in Latin. Some believe that it means that God instilled us with a mind, moral natures, a will, emotions, and other features that allow us to be in relationship to him and with each other. Whatever the proper meaning and understanding, it gives the idea that we are to reflect some aspect of God, his nature, and his character in this world.
We get a hint of this in the command that he gives in these verses to ““Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” We are called to spread God’s image throughout the earth and in doing so, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. In other words, we are to bring the earth under God’s rule as his vice-regents. We are to serve, as Adam was commissioned, as priest-kings.
This idea of being fruitful and multiplying was also given in the Abrahamic Covenant where Abraham was told, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them” (Gen. 15:5). Later, God told Abraham, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly…I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you” (Gen. 17:1-2). So the promise to Abraham was to spread to many nations.
Though man fell and failed to carry out the commission that God gave us, Jesus came and perfectly fulfilled the commission. He lived the perfect life and died a death on our behalf, so we might be reconciled to God and, ultimately, brought into the new heavens and new earth to live out what God promised in the garden. Christ does the work to restore us to the purpose for which God called us to begin with.
More on that in future posts. Next time, we will look at the Fall and the effects on man, our commission, and our world.
