“Man's Covenantal Work in Creation - Part II”

Sermon Text

Please turn with me in your Bible as we look at our sermon text which is Genesis 1:26-2:25. But, let us now focus on the work of man and read again the Dominion Mandate in Gen. 1:26–28 and the Cultural Mandate in Gen. 2:15.

Hear, now, God’s holy, inspired Word:

Genesis 1:26–2:25 ESV

26 Then 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “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.” … 15 Yahweh God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

[You may be seated.] Let’s pray…

Opening Prayer

Sovereign God, our blessed heavenly Father,

Oh LORD, we pray that you would shape and fashion us by Your Word Inscripturated that we might be reformed according to the Image of the Word Incarnated, the true dominion man, the Image of the Invisible God, Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our true Prophet, Preist, and King, through whom we pray. Amen.

i. Introduction

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Have you ever been given a task or a job without having a defined role, without knowing the reason or the rules for the job, and without having the proper tools to do it? Have you ever been thrust into a job because they need more “bodies,” but they don’t have the time or the patience to train you, to teach you, and equip you. I have!

How frustrating it can be! It just feels like your spinning your tires, endlessly. Moving but never getting anywhere. When this is the case work is toilsome. It’s a burden, and it quite often leads to despair or apathy.

But, equally as frustrating is when you have on of these aspect without the others. When you have a very basic, general understanding of the job, but you know neither your role in teaching that end or have the tools to get do it. And fancy tools mean nothing if you know not what they are for, or how to use them.

Indeed, without knowing the purpose and rules of your work, your role in that work, and having the material to complete the job, work is drudgery.

And my concern, beloved, is life feels this way for far too many Christians. Because we do not understand the purpose and rules for life, our role and job, we are unable to use our time, treasures, and talents profitably.

Sure, many of us, especially in Reformed circles, have heard many sermons on our identity in Christ, and the purpose of life,

which is, children… “what is man’s chief end?” [TO GLORIFY GOD AND ENJOY HIM FOREVER].

I fear we have not sufficiently connected those dots to man’s work in the world.

And let’s be honest, as Reformed evangelicals, work can be a scary word!

We’re the “grace” people! We’re not the works people!

But, to say that is to utterly misunderstand the purpose of the marvellous grace of God. The reason for which we are saved, which is brilliantly stated in Ephesians 2:8-10:

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For [what purpose?] we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus [Reborn in Christ, renewed in him] for [what purpose] good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Reformational doctrine of vocation (of calling, of work) was central to the dynamism of the movement, which reformed every area of life and society where it took root.

Yet, a misunderstanding of our role in the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) has severely weakened, and frankly neutered the Church of Jesus Christ in our day.

Its for this reason the Session thought it wise to go back to the beginning in our study on the Book of Genesis, and correct many common minsunderstandings, that we might lay a solid foundation from which to build as a church.

And over the first 3 weeks of our series, Elder Forsythe has done a wonderful job laying that basic foundation, namely:

That God is. He is a se. This one divine being known as Yahweh is the Maker and sustainer of everyone and everything. And though He has unity of being, He eternally exists with diversity of three divine Person–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And these three divine Person eternally exists in a divine dance of peace and harmony and love, setting forth their purpose and accomplishing it.

The this Triune God created the heavens and the earth. In the span of six ordinary days, He created everything from nothing, for His good pleasure, first forming it and then filling it. Making a suitable habitation for the Himself…

And, as the final act of HIs creative genius, man whom He formed out of the dust, in HIs own, and to whom He breathed His animating Spirit life into. This Creator God, is both the God of Creation and of the God of Covenant, as we have already seen from our text last week.

So, whereas Elder Forsythe focused last Sunday on Man, as Imago Dei.

A biblical anthropology.

I want to focus on the latter part of the two-part sermon, namely, Man’s Covenantal Work in Creation

man’s purpose, his teleology, and build from that, a missiology.

ii. Exegesis

So, with that, let’s look at our text.

While time, obviously, doesn’t permit to do a verse by verse exegesis of our text, by examining our text as a unit, we can begin to see more clearly our task as God’s Imagers.

So let’s begin by looking at Chapter 1, vs. 26–28. What many refer to as the Dominion Mandate.

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

26 Then 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “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.”

Here, we see man created as the pinnacle of creation.

Up until now, we have seen all creatures made according to their own “kind,” but, now, in these verses we see man is made after the likeness of God.

And God maid man for a specific purpose. In these verses, we see see clearly that God created man to rule over creation, over the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the earth, “every living thing that moves on the earth.”

These verese are rightly known as the Dominion Mandate, because in them, we see clearly the concept of ruling expressed multiple times.

2x we see God articulate the purpose of man, to take “dominion” or reign/rule over creation. How? By subduing it, or making it subservient to there ends, the glory of God.

In this way “man’s relationship to the rest of creation is analogous to God’s relationship to the whole of creation.”

That is we Image God, the ruler of creation, by ruling over creation.

Indeed, the rule of man over creation as God’s vicegerents, it is not ancillary (or secondary) to his identity it is a essential component to who man is as the Image of God.

Man’s identity is intrinsically linked to his purpose.

The image of God in man consists directly of those qualities that equip man to be Lord over the world, under the Lord of the whole Cosmos, Yahweh God.

But that’s not all! Man’s task is not merely ruling over creation, he is to fill and subdue it. This is known as the Cultural Mandate.

Man has an obligation to both conserve the creation which God has graciously given him to rule over, but to progressively and profitably act in and upon creation in such a way to turn creation into culture that glorifies God, through obedient, worshipful work as sons of God.

Thus, work beloved is our calling as God’s Imagers. Thus, work is (1) good; (2) and essential to man’s purpose.

And through this work, we pick up the banner, the standard, of God, as his vice-rulers, his vicegerents.

And, In the exercise of his lordship over creation, what we are calling “the covenantal work of man,” man analogously reflects the Lordship attributes of God: His authority, control, and presence.

He does this through the faithful exercise of his munus triplex (threefold office) as Prophet, Priest, and King.

And this is what I want us to consider as we think about our work as Imagers of God. Today, we are going to look at man as God’s (1) king, (2) prophet, and (3) preist.

Indeed, while most of you might be familiar with these three offices as it pertains to the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ and how Christ saves us according to His work in these three offices…

It is essential that we realize that they do not originate with Him.

Christ, as the Second Adam, the perfect Image of the Invisible God, is the one who perfectly fulfills these offices, yes, but he does so as the anti-type, the God-man. It is Adam who is the prototypical man.

And, as Adam’s progeny, we too are given the same mandate.

So let us first consider man as the King over creation.

(1) Man as King:

I want to start here, with man’s kingly office, because it is the most near the surface of our text. We’ve already talked about how man is maid to have dominion or rule over the earth.

The concepts of dominion and subjugation are intrinsically linked to sovereignty.

Mankind as the special crown of creation, is given the crown over creation. As king, man ectypally reflects God’s archetypical lordship attribute of control.

Importantly, however, man as king, is under the ultimate authority and control of God. The authority given man to control creation is delegated by God, for God’s purpose and under God’s authority. God alone is King of Kings.

Thus, and this is important, man cannot rule as a tyrant! He must rule and reign as a under-shepherd, as a servant, God’s deacon, to borrow the language used in Romans 13.

Right, “True kingship,” according to Christ, in the words of James Jordan, “is by service, and is never apart from service.”

And Jesus makes this plain, take a look with me at Mk. 10:42–45. Jesus, in response to an argument about which of the disciples will rule with him, has this to say about authority.

Mark 10:42–45 ESV

42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Thus, man (Adam) as the son of God, came not to be served, but to serve. Man’s authority as king and ruler is a trusteeship. God entrusts man as His image to serve his purposes by ruling over creation, not as a tyrant, but as a loving shepherd.

In the Kingdom of God, authority is conferred not by title, not by empty words and rhetoric, but through actual service. In the Kingdom of God, authority comes through service.

Biblically speaking, Kingship is inescapably linked to covenant. The King is the Federal Head, the executive, the representative, the one who stands for the many.

God is the suzerain (the sovereign) who cuts a covenant —a solemn life or death bond with attendant blessings and curses — with his vassal-king, man.

But, we must understand that man as God’s vassal is not a slave, he is a son!

Indeed, man’s kingly office is vitally connected to him being the son of God. Right, Kingship is passed down to sons. Thus, despite what many think, covenantal kingship is not at all antithetical to sonship, but rather is a feature thereof.

However, and this is important, the son may only inherit the blessings of the covenant through faithful obedience, not by way of mere hereditary lineage.

Right? And the concept of the King as the Son of God, shouldn't be hard for us to understand when consider Christ who came as “the Son of God King of Israel” (Jn. 1:49). And, I remind you, Israel itself was called God’s son (Exo. 4:22–23). Christ came as the Son of David (Matt. 1:1, 9:27), son of man (ADAM), a designation that Jesus uses of himself over 80 times in the NT. He is also directly called the son of God, a title given toHim around 40 times.

And, finally, Kings rule by exercising wise judgment, and in the fear of the Lord.

This is a constant theme in the Scriptures, the best kings rule in the fear of the Lord, through examining the world in light of God’s Word, and making judgments accordingly.

Right? This is what the whole book of Proverbs is about wisdom given from a father to his son, from a wise King to his Prince.

Thus, Adam executes his kingly office as the uniquely created crown of creation, the son of the Father, who bears His image, represents all those put under his control through serving them by providing for and protecting them as and under-shepherd, ruling with wisdom according to God’s Word.

Adam as the prototypical human representative , then, shows us how we are to exercise our kingly office.

Now, let’s consider man as prophet.

(2) Man as Prophet:

Man in his role of prophet mirrors God’s authority by ruling by his word, according to the Word of God!

We’ve seen over and over again through our study of Genesis 1, 2 that God speaks and something manifests. God spoke and creation lept into being. God rules by His Word! Right?…

John 1:1–4 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And this Word is the image of God, who governs the universe by His Word, Heb 1:3:

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

3 He [that is Christ, the Word of God] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

God’s control over creation is exercised by the authority of His Word.

And lo and behold, in our text we see , man image God by doing exactly that.

Look at Genesis 2:19-20:

Genesis 2:19–20 ESV

19 Now out of the ground the Yahweh God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

Here Adam mirrors God in the exercise his kingly office by ruling over creation by directing and controlling it by his word, through naming creation, by His scientific taxonomy of the creatures under his authority and control.

Just as God speaks and it happens throughout chapter 1. Now Adam speaks and it is so: And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

And this is the task of the Prophet. The prophet is God’s mouth piece who is to authoritatively speak the Word of God as it is spoken to Him.

As the heraldic counsellor of God who speaks His Word to others, the prophet’s main task is to speak of God and point to Him, and Adam does this not only linguistically, by his word, He does so ontologically.

As God’s Imagers so far as He reflects God’s image correctly, we preach a word about God.

And children, this is why sin is so heinous, because when we sin we preach a blasphemously perverted word about God whose Image we bear.

And while, unlike his kingly office, we don’t see Adam specifically designated as a prophet, the text implies that he is when we see that, what God told Adam in Genesis 2:16–17

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

16 And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

This commanded, which I remind you is a solemn oath with attendant blessings and curse—a covenant— was communicated to Adam, prior to the special creation of Eve.

Therefore, by way of implication, God expected Adam to prophetically pass this word on to his helper, which, in Genesis 3, he did.

Thus, man’s task as prophet to rule over creation and develop culture through the whole earth is by teaching the whole of creation to obey the revealed Law-Word of God, God’s normative standard for all of life.

While man’s physical uniqueness and might gives him de facto control over creation, it is the divine pattern of his speech that makes his rule de jure (as a matter of law, or right). Power is might but authority is right.

By setting forth and observing God’s Law-Word, his normative rule, man, in the words of Dr. John Frame, “shows himself to be the legitimate ruler of the world. His prophetic office and work legitimize his kingly office and work.”

And do we not know this to be the case, the CEO of a company doesn’t exercise His rule by doing all the tasks, but by directing and telling.

Same goes with parenting, does it not? Right, we are more impressed with a parent who can rule by their word, rather than having to rule by physically dominating their children (although sometimes that is need).

And is this understanding not what led Jesus to marvel at the faith of the centurion in Matt. 8:5–13

Matthew 8:5–13 ESV

5 When [the] centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But, notice the centurion’s response… he replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 … “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Here we see that, the ultimate sign of authority then is not rule by coercive control, but through the persuasive power of the authoritative Word. And we as God’s Prophets are to rule faithfully according to God’s Word of Power!

Finally, let’s consider…

(3) Man as Priest:

Similarly to Adam’s role as prophet, the text nowhere explicitly designates Adam as a preist; however, if we pay close attention to the details of our text, and with a little help from later revelation, it is obvious that Genesis 1-2 portray Adam as a type of priest.

In fact, when we look closely at our text, we see something rather astonishing. , Look with me at Genesis 2:4–15, when we examine these verses, it becomes clear that:

The creation is God’s cosmic temple.

Right, track with me. In the midst of God’s good world, He sets apart a land bursting forth with abundance, you could say, a land “flowing with milk and honey” — Eden, the holy place.

This is seen vividly when you compare the features in the telescopic view of creation the creation account in Genesis 2 which we are looking at to the features of the tabernacle and the temple.

The Gold and precious stones which adorn Eden in vss. 11–12 are also found in the tabernacle/temple. The sacred trees of Eden in vs. 9 correspond to the lampstand. The abundant food available to Adam, Gen 1:29-30 and 2:9, parallels the continual provision of showbread. The menorah, standing outside the holy of holies, represented the tree of life through its tree-like form with a central shaft and branches, decorated with almond blossoms symbolizing life’s renewal and the light of God. And I could go on.

I suggest you read Hebrews if you want to know more.

But, look with me also at Chapter 2 verse 8, in the midst of this holy place God plants a garden, an inner sanctum, God’s holy of holies, and, this is important…

Genesis 2:8 ESV

8 Yahweh God put the man whom he had formed…Where? In the garden! In the holy of holies!

Beloved, who alone could enter the Most Holy Place? The High Priest!

Adam, then, in this respect is God’s High Priest.

In fact, when we look at Genesis 2:15, which says:

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 Yahweh God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

We see that Adam’s functions to “work and keep” the garden matches the Levites’ identical duties at the tabernacle.

Numbers 3:8 ESV

8 They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle.

We see here, then, that God gave Adam a priestly task.

In fact, the word work here —(עֲבֹדָה avodah)— can also be translated “minister,” or “serve.”

The point is that Adam fulfills the main function of the priest which was to mediate the knowledge and presence of God in the world primarily undertaken in man’s cultural mandate to fill or work and keep or guard, God’s temple.

The role of the priest then is to exercise the office of the keys, guarding the holy things of God as God’s angels.

All told…

Man (Adam), then, is God’s prophetic priest-King.

As King, his representation is primarily horizontal, acting as the federal head of all under his domain in his jurisdiction ruling according to God’s Word;

As Preist, his role is primarily vertical representing, interceding and mediating the presence and knowledge of God to man.

And, he is to exercise both of these offices under the authority of God’s Law-Word, as God’s mouth piece, His herald, His ambassador.

This is man’s covenantal work in creation.

This is why we were created, and faithfully undertaking these tasks according to God’s Word, and doing it joyfully out of love for Him and love for our neighbour is how we glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

God’s Amazing Grace

And while we have, over the course of the last two weeks, focused our attention on Man, we must not lose sight of God’s amazing grace in all of this.

Genesis 1:26- 28, God freely chose to create man, and exult this creature of the dirt to a high a noble position.

Genesis 1:29, 2:16-18, God gave man His authoritative word revelation through speaking with Him.

Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15, God clearly gave us a role and articulated our purpose.

And, Genesis 2:9-14, God furnished us with abundant provision to fulfill our God ordained role, and notice, Genesis 1:28, “God blessed” us in our work. How amazing is that!

God is a truly awesome boss who gives us exactly what we need to fulfill our God-ordained duties.

And chief amongst the provision of man, we see that God made, man (Adam) an עֵ֫זֶר נֶ֫גֶד הוּא (ezer-neged-hu). Literally, a helper corresponding to him, a help-meet.

And this is a truly amazing part of our text Genesis 2:18–25.

While the narrative moves quickly along from one thing to the next, all of a sudden it slows down.

And it slows down with a startling phrase, vs. 18:

Genesis 2:18 ESV

18 Then the Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;”

This should hit our ears abruptly like stoping a record [screech].

Up until this point God has consistently given his benediction to all of His created works, but all of a sudden we get Yahweh God’s first malediction: “It is not good that the man should be alone!”

2. After all, man apart from woman cannot fulfill his God ordained role.

a. And God shows Adam this stark reality vividly by parading all the host of the earth before Him.

And as the king of creation names all his subjects, he realize that he himself is missing something.

Unlike the animals, he does not have his mate. It is as though he is a King without a crown.

b. God is so gracious, He is so good! He answers the problem by anesthetizing Adam, putting him in a deep sleep, and cutting him open, and creating from his side, His perfect help-meet, the crown on the crown of creation!

i. And as the brilliant Bible-commentator Matthew Henry once said:

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

What glory! What goodness! What grace!

3. And, in Genesis 2:23, we see Adam’s glorious response, at the site of His bride, his help-meet, he can help but to burst out in poetry: “at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

4. With the special creation of woman, mankind, individually and corporately, both male and female, is now complete:

fully enabled to take dominion over God’s good creation as prophets, priest, and kings, creating Godly culture for the glory of God according to His Word, turning all of creation into the glorious Garden-City of God – the Kingdom of God.

Beloved, do you see how glorious this is? No wonder Psalm 8 marvellous at the grace of God in the special creation of man.

Psalm 8 (ESV) O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Praise be to God!

iii. Application & Conclusion

Sadly, beloved, despite our exalted estate, we as God’s creatures have squandered or inheritance.

As we shall see in detail next week, due to Sin, the image of God in man has been broken, the work of man frustrated, and the creation over which he is to rule corrupted.

But, thanks be to God, that through the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read last week from Rev. 21, God is “making all things new.”

Christ, the Second Adam, the truly perfect man, the truly perfect Prophet, who is the very Word of God incarnate who upholds all of creation by His Word; the ture High Priest who intercedes between God and man; and the true King who, as the Good-Shepherd provides for and protects all in His care and represents them before God; in Him, God is reversing the curse.

How? By redeeming man. By giving him new birth.

Not just to punch his ticket to heaven one day, and escape punishment in hell. No!

God is renewing man after the Image of Christ, that he might fulfill the work for which he was created to act as God’s agent of transformation — His prophet, priest, and king.

Beloved, this is our task today!

The Dominion and Cultural Mandates, while frustrated, have not been done away with because of the Fall!

Not only are they reiterated in the Noahic, post-Lapsarian (post-Fall), covenant, they are recapitulated post-resurrection context in the Great Commission.

The dominion mandate finds its fulfillment through Christ in the Great Commission, establishing a fundamental continuity between God’s original creative design and the church’s contemporary calling.

Look at the language of the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The Authoritative Word of God is the King of the Cosmos and He re-commissions us as his vicegerents, his under-kings to… 19 Go therefore and make disciple the nations, to subduing them and bringing them under the control ofChrist the King, and as Priests baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them [nurturing them]. And as Prophets “to observe all that I have commanded you,”to obey the Word of God!

Do you see how the great Commission fits with the pattern of our text? Right?

God puts man in a garden on a mountain in the east of Eden, which is a copy of the heavenly throne room of God.

He then tells him to take dominion, first in Jerusalem representing the holy place the sanctuary of God;

Then, thirdly, to come down the mountain to do so in Eden, in the land

and then, finally, to the ends of the earth.

This is the same pattern picked up in the temple architecture and its various concentric circles of holiness, and in the fact it is\constructed on top of Mt. Zion, descending into Jerusalem and out into the world.

This same imagery used in Isa. 2 with regard to all the nations coming to Christ. And finally, as we see in Acts 1:6–8, the Great Commission begins in Jerusalem (where the temple was, the Garden) and works its way out throughout Israel/Samaria (the land/Eden) to the ends of the earth.

This is the process of heavenizing earth, in fulfillment of the Lord’s Prayer, thath God’s “kingdom [would] come, [and His] will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

This is how the leaven permeates the hole loaf, and the smallest seed grows into the biggest tree.

The Kingdom of God flows downward from heaven, to God’s holy mountain sanctuary, out to the land, and then to the whole earth. This is how God progressively sanctifies the world and reverses the curse.

And, thankfully, beloved, weak as we are as creatures of the dust, we do not undertake this task by our own strength, and in our own authority. No!

Hear, now, the comforting Words of Christ.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

How is the ascended Christ with us, beloved? Through the Holy Spirit!

Here is the amazing part: As I preached at Pentecost, God is accomplishing this work in Christ, by His Spirit, through His Church.

But, we do not work to take dominion and create godly culture for the glory of God in our own strength but in the Power of God through resting in Him and upon him!

This is the pattern we work out what God works in us, we work from the rest that God has given us as signified by the Sabbatical rest of God in Genesis 2:1-3.

We as the New Humanity, resting in Christ, are restored to our original purpose as God’s Imagers, as prophets, proclaiming Christ , as priests stewarding creation as expressions of God’s comprehensive lordship. In this way, we, as God’s people, are enveloped into His work of redemption.

Christ, the true image of the Invisible God, the Second Adam, fulfills the dominion and cultural mandates in the Great Commission with the help of His Bride–the Church.

Do you see, beloved! This is our joyful task!This is the Covenantal Work of Man!

Let us, therefore, beloved, as God’s agents of transformation, as prophets, priests, and kings, take up the banner of Christ and press forward His crown rights into all the earth, for this is why we were made!

For our life’s work is worshipful service to God.

“All of Christ for All of Life!”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Sovereign God,

Lord, take hold of us, Your Church, break us apart, and reconstitute us. Reform us ever to your Image, that we might better bear the Image of Your Son, the express Image of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And, Lord, in reforming our persons, in renewing our hearts and minds, Lord distribute us into the world, that the works of our hands may be a faithful witness to the renewed life that we have in Christ, that we might shine forth brightly as the Theopolis–the city of God–the New humanity that You have created in Christ Jesus by Your Spirit according to Your Word for your eternal glory, that we may truly bear your image as your prophets, priests, and kings.

Oh Lord, help us do so with all boldness and gladness even amidst the tumult of this age and the threats of our enemies; through Christ our Lord, AMEN.