The First Great Commission
Genesis 1:26-31
Dissociation and Futility
One of the reasons technology has wrapped its tentacles around our lives is because we long for an escape from the hard things. We often use technology, which is not bad in itself, to dissociate from reality.
Jay Stringer says that this is something that most of us have been doing since childhood. He says, “Think about the hours of TV, video games, and Internet you consumed growing up. For many individuals, the distractions of technology were more consistent than a deep, loving engagement with meaningful relationships.”[1] For me, it was locking myself in my room to play my Sega Genesis on the weekends I would visit my dad or watching endless amounts of sports at my mom’s house. Dissociation, however we do it, seduces us out of the present, painful moments, and promises us a world of carefree distraction.
One of the reasons we’re so easily seduced is because the seeming futility of our lives is too much to bear. We sense that our lives are useless and pointless so we seek to escape that painful feeling however we can.
This is not surprising when we remember that God cursed the ground after Adam and Eve sinned against him (Gen. 3:17-19). This curse means that our lives will be marked with futility. There will be pain and heartache and trial and trouble in everything we attempt. We work hard but don’t see results. We get our education but don’t get the job we want. We pursue a romantic relationship but come up empty-handed. We do everything we know to do to shepherd our children and they still rebel. We pray and share the gospel and yet don’t see much fruit. We make tremendous effort to change our lives but end up only more discouraged.
The Answer for Futility
Have you resigned yourself to a hollow existence because the losses just keep piling up? Do you feel like you’re beating the air at work or school? Do you ever wonder why you’re even doing the things you do, or whether your life has any meaning at all?
I have good news for you! God tells us that our lives are inherently purpose-full, that there’s intrinsic meaning to our existence, that he created us to fulfill specific and wonderful purposes on the earth.
You’ve undoubtedly heard, “God has a plan for your life,” but you may be unclear about what that actually means. Thankfully, at the end of the first chapter of the Bible, God tells us that our lives have a beautiful design.
In Genesis 1:26-31, we learn that God created us for a specific purpose, that he gave us a specific promise, and that he spoke a specific pronouncement over us. In these verses, we’ll see God’s plan (vv. 26-28), God’s provision (vv. 29-30), and God’s pronouncement (v. 31).
The main point of this message is that your life is not meaningless because God created you and gave you work to do on his behalf and with his help.
God’s Plan
First, in verses 26-28, we see God’s plan. God made us in his image to rule his world for him. He created one humanity in two genders who together reflect his righteous rule over the world and who together are meant to relate to him as sons and daughters. We were made to rule for God while we relate to God.
That’s verses 26-27. Then in verse 28, God blesses his image bearers and speaks to them, giving them specific instructions on what they’re made to do. They must multiply themselves and “subdue” and “have dominion” over the earth.
This is often called the “creation mandate.” Adam and Eve were commanded to subdue and fill the earth. This is God’s plan for them and all who come after them. This is God’s will for our lives. This is “The First Great Commission,” the first mission God gives to his people.
Creation Mandate
But what exactly does it mean? We talked several weeks ago about the “multiply and fill the earth part.” Today I want us to look at the “subdue and have dominion part.”
First, we need to understand that the Garden of Eden was only a small part of the created world (2:8). The command in 1:28 is that they would “fill the earth” and “subdue (the earth)” and “have dominion…over every living thing that moves on the earth.” So God’s design is that mankind start in the Garden (2:15), but then extend out beyond the Garden.
Why would God only make part of the world a Garden, put Adam and Eve there, and then tell them to fill and subdue the whole earth? Couldn’t he have just made the whole world like Eden?
The reason is that God wanted Adam and Eve to participate in the ordering of his creation. They can’t create like God did – out of nothing. But they’re called to join God in bringing order to the world, to form and fill the earth just as God did in the six days of creation.
After the six days of creation, creation is complete and incomplete. All of its spaces (days 1-3) and populations (days 4-6) are in place, but humanity is called to continue the work of bringing order to the world. Like God, we’re called to separate, set limits, and fill up the spaces of the earth.
Saying that the earth was “incomplete” doesn’t mean that the earth was imperfect. Just because Adam and Eve are given a mandate to cultivate the earth doesn’t mean that the earth was badly or poorly made, or that God needed help finishing the job. Verse 31 says that God saw everything he made, and “it was very good.”
That the world “was very good” doesn’t mean that it was everything that it could be or would be. There will one day be new heavens and a new earth, so the earth will one day be better than it is now. But at the end of the sixth day, it was exactly what God wanted it to be at that moment. He didn’t forget anything. He didn’t get tired or lazy. He made exactly what he wanted to make.
So why did God make a world that was “very good” and yet in need of more filling and subduing? Because he wants us to join him in his forming and filling work in the world.
Do you understand what this means? It means that the God who can speak anything he wants into existence left some things undone because he wanted to give us the privilege of joining him in his work.
It’d be like a king or queen putting you in charge of all their riches. It’s not your stuff, but theirs. But they turn it over to you to create with, steward, and enjoy. If they just put you in a security guard booth and told you to protect their warehouse of wealth, but you could never touch it, you’d be miserable. But if they took you to the warehouse and said, “Take all this and do something amazing with it. Enjoy it, multiply it, and create with it,” you’d be thrilled!
What a privilege it is to manage God’s wealth. The earth and everything in it belong to God, but we were made, not hired, to partner with God in his filling and forming work in the world.
This means, as Augustine pointed out, that God made a world full of potential. God didn’t create a static world, but a world bursting with possibility. This is why governments who seek to impede or even crush the entrepreneurial spirit of mankind will not prosper. God made us to make something out of what he made.
Can you imagine living in a static world where nothing ever changed or could change? Can you imagine how dark and boring the world would be if everyone and everything was the same all the time?
Nature and Culture
In the six days of creation, God began to cultivate his creation. Then he mandated humans to continue his work, which is why verse 28 is also sometimes called the “cultural mandate.” The Latin word cultura means “the tilling of the land, or care bestowed on plants.” So to cultivate something is to enhance it, to help it grow and develop and improve and flourish. This is where we get our word “agriculture,” or bringing order to the land, developing it for its own flourishing and for our good.
We were made to cultivate nature. This means that there shouldn’t be a dichotomy between nature and culture. God made nature to be cultured, or cultivated. Both are good and from God. We don’t need to pick one over the other or say that one is better than the other. Pitting nature and culture against one another can lead to the belief that everything “natural” is better than everything “artificial” (which we’re seeing in the rise of holistic medical care). It can also lead to a disregard of the natural world in order to create the ultimate human environments where we’re in complete control of our surroundings, untethered to any idea of a God-given goodness in nature or call to steward the natural world. Is this where we’re headed with the “metaverse”?[2]
Genesis 1 and 2 know of no dichotomy between the natural world and the cultural mandate. God made the world “very good” and he calls us to fill it and form it. As theologian Christopher Watkin says, “Neither the dream of a ‘return to nature’ nor that of a utopian techno-future fits at all well with the Genesis 1 and 2 accounts.”[3]
God began cultivating the earth and then made us to continue what he started, so neither nature nor culture is inherently bad, though both groan under the curse of sin. Nature is “very good,” and we’re called to make something of it. Going camping is a great way of being reminded of God’s power and beauty in nature. But using the raw materials of nature to build houses and apartments to live in shows us the power and beauty of the imago dei at work.
How We Rule Is Important
God’s plan is that we join him in forming and filling the earth. How we do this is just as important that we do it. The language of “subduing” and having “dominion” over the earth could lead one to think that we have permission to conqueror creation however we want. So we must remember that we rule on behalf of Someone else. We represent God’s rule so we must rule in a way that reflects God’s character.
As Christians, we take our cues from Jesus Christ. A Christian understanding of ruling the earth looks to Jesus and remembers that Jesus shows us that “the one who rules is the one who serves.”[4] We’re therefore called to serve, not as slaves, but as agents of God to whom much is given and from whom much is expected.
The way we represent God’s rule is by ruling according to his character. The way God’s rule is seen in the world is through our lives. This is why, at the center of Israel’s worship, unlike the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures around them, there was no image. At the center of their worship was a box with a book. It’s no accident that the Ten Commandments were in the ark of the covenant which was in the holy of holies which was the center of Israel’s worship. God’s character was meant to be imaged, or embodied and revealed, through lives shaped by God’s word.
The Bible shapes how we cultivate nature, setting parameters and giving us instruction. It tells us that we’re called to care for the world, not exploit the world. It shapes us into the kind of people who’ll rule God’s world in God’s way.
The Image of God and the Local Church
Where do we find these people? In local churches! As one scholar points out, “The idea of the ‘image of God’ in Gen. 1:26-29 and in Jesus of Nazareth is not an idea which lives in a cosmological vacuum. It is an explicit call to form a new kind of human community in which the members, after the manner of the gracious God, are attentive in calling each other to full being in fellowship.”[5]
In other words, it’s in local churches where we can fully realize what it means to be made in the image of God and be formed into a new kind of community where we call one another to be who God made us to be.
As a church, we do this as we practice meaningful membership and church discipline. Every person who claims to follow Jesus should be following him with other Jesus followers and is in an accountable relationship to other followers in a church. This is why God gives churches elders to teach and instruct and lead and guide and correct members who aren’t imaging God’s righteous rule in the world. A healthy local church is where the world can see what imaging God in the world really looks like.
We’re All Culture-Makers
When God tells Adam and Eve to fill and form the earth, he’s telling them to make culture. “Culture” is more than art and movies and literature and music. Culture is “any way in which human beings intervene in the creation to subdue it, order it, and enhance it.”[6]
This is God’s plan for your life: to order and enhance God’s world. You may think that you don’t do this, but if you do anything, through work, school, retirement, or recreation, that brings order and enhancement to the world, that shapes or fashions, that fills or forms, you’re obeying the creation mandate. Factory workers, farmers, nurses, artists, firefighters, architects, engineers, information technology specialists, code-writers, chefs, baristas, writers, pastors, homemakers, doctors, city planners, students, and business owners are all doing the same thing: ordering and enhancing the earth (Col. 3:23-24).
The world would have us believe that the only important work is visible work. But the Bible says that every person is a culture-maker, that every person’s work (as long as it’s not obviously sinful) is equally dignified. There are no inherently more valuable jobs. See sermon, “What is Work?” on website for more on this topic.
God’s Provision
Second, in verses 29-30, we see God’s provision. God’s plan includes his provision. God will accomplish his plan for his world by feeding his creatures. We can’t do what we’re made to do if we don’t eat!
Verse 29 tells us that God gave food to Adam and Eve. Verse 30 tells us that God gave food to all the other creatures on the earth. Humans and animals were created on the same day and eat at the same table. Both were initially given plants for food. Meats would be allowed later (9:3). But before sin comes into the world, nothing with the “breath of life” would die.
This is perhaps the primary reason why Christians shouldn’t accept any form of evolutionary theory. If death comes into the world through sin, then there can’t be any death before sin.
Killing animals for food wasn’t part of God’s original plan, but it was clearly allowed later. Christians are free to eat however they want, recognizing that being an herbivore or a carnivore or an omnivore doesn’t make anyone inherently more spiritual or holy or healthy.
Whatever our diet is, we’re called to be thankful for God’s provision of food. Paul says that some people will “require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” But Christians should remember that “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:3-4).
One way to do this is by pausing to pray before a meal in order to thank God for it. Constant reminders of where our provision comes from are good for us and those around us.
God’s plan comes with God’s provision. Part of his plan is that we’ll have the food we need to do the work he made us to do. This is why Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about…what you will eat or what you will drink…For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:25, 32-33).
Jesus says that God knows that we need food. Therefore, we should pursue his work in the world knowing that he’ll provide what we need.
God’s Pronouncement
Third, and finally, after God’s plan and God’s provision comes God’s pronouncement in verse 31. Each individual thing God created was declared “good.” The details were “good,” but now the whole is declared to be “very good.” This applies to everything that God has created, “And God saw everything that he had made.” The harmony and perfection of the heavens and earth reveal the goodness and glory of God. Like a master artist, at the end of day six, God steps back from his canvas, takes a deep breath, exhales and enjoys the beauty of what he made.
A New World Will Come, and Has Come
Of course, the earth didn’t remain in the condition it was in at the end of day six. The first man and woman disobeyed God’s word and believed the lies of the serpent and the whole earth fell under the curse of sin. God says to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you.” Because of sin, all our efforts to cultivate the earth are painful and toilsome and not as fun as they could be, and one day will be.
You see, the seed of the woman has crushed the head of the serpent and will one day make a new heavens and new earth. This new creation has already started to creep into the world. But where? Anywhere the people of Christ are gathered and living out his word. As Peter Gentry says, “The new creation begins in the midst of the old: when God raised Jesus from the dead, he was the first man in the new creation. And anyone who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith is new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). This happens first in the inner person and later, at the resurrection, in the outer person.”[7]
Christians are therefore called to live lives that reveal the new creation that’s within them. Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” And Colossians 3:10, “Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Those who’re in Christ begin to start looking more like Christ, begin to reveal the kingdom of Christ in their lives and churches, begin to show the old world what the new world will look like. In the first creation, God made the place and then the people to live in it. But in the second creation, God is first making the people and afterward will make the place for them to live.
The problem is that we don’t deserve to live in a new world. We haven’t even followed God’s instructions in this old world. We prefer to cultivate the earth for our glory, not God’s glory. We’re prone to exploit, not enhance, the earth. We’re quick to compete with instead of cooperating with other image bearers in forming the earth. We judge people based on what they do rather than on what kind of person they are, assuming that we’re better if our job ranks higher in our culture’s arbitrary ranking of professions.
This is why God himself had to step into the world to show us what imaging him is supposed to look like. Jesus, “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), died to cover our sin-soaked nature with his righteousness. He rose from the dead to defeat death and Satan once for all and to secure the resurrection of all who’ll trust in him.
Those who do are united to him in his death and resurrection and will live with him in a new world forever where they’ll be able to cultivate creation without toil and with unending joy. Those who’re united to him start to look like him. They join him in being baptized in order to demonstrate their union with him and his people, then join a church and grow with his people.
Wrestling While We Wait
The creation mandate of Genesis 1 isn’t the main point of Genesis, or even of the Bible. But it does shape who we understand ourselves to be and how we understand what we’re supposed to do. God’s plan, provision, and pronouncement are clear.
Your life is not meaningless but meaning-full because God created you and gave you work to do on his behalf and with his help. God created you to join him in cultivating his world. Because of sin, we will wrestle with futility, but while we wrestle with futility in this world, we long and wait and hope for the next one.
[1]Jay Stringer, Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2018), 91.
[2]https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prepare-metaverse/
[3]Christopher Watkin, Thinking Through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of Cultural Critique (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017), 106.
[4]Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 33.
[5]Ibid., 34-5.
[6]Watkin, 107.
[7]Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 237-8.