A Framework of Grace (3)

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  Genesis 1.27, 28

Made to rule
When God created Adam and Eve, His covenant already existed as the framework for all creation. This is clear from Genesis 1, when God paused at each stage of His work of creation to pronounce the progress thus far “good”. 

The cosmos was created good, that is, according to the goodness and grace of God, and unto the goodness and grace of God. Into that world of goodness and grace, God introduced the man and the woman. From the beginning, God’s people have existed in a good and gracious environment in which to know, enjoy, and serve Him.

But as the image-bearer of God, human beings need something to do more than merely exist and reproduce. People are not animals. They are like God – creative, moral, spiritual, purposeful, cultural, social, and made to work. God could have done with Adam and Eve what He did with all the animals, that is, set them in the garden and leave them to eat and reproduce, without any larger sense of purpose.

But that would have been a most unsatisfying existence for beings made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, within the framework of God’s gracious covenant, God articulated a purpose for their existence. That purpose was to rule.

And in this mandate to rule, we see the first manifestations of what will become increasingly clear throughout the Old Testament and into the New: Within the framework of His gracious and all-encompassing covenant, God is establishing an order for His people, within which they can develop and extend His goodness and grace. He is establishing His Kingdom.

The Kingdom calling
A kingdom defines the boundaries within which a sovereign has authority – over people, resources, lands, and all the rest. Adam and Eve were charged with exercising dominion over the earth and all its creatures. They were appointed to rule the good and gracious creation of God, by their efforts bringing it to ever higher states of goodness. Implicit in that appointment is that they should apply themselves to whatever was necessary to preserve, extend, develop, and improve that goodness, beginning in the garden of Eden.

In Genesis 2, the charge to rule is further elaborated, and the ever-expanding scope of that rule is indicated by the mention of rivers and lands beyond the garden, resources buried in the ground, and the intimation of cultures to be created in days to come. Adam was appointed the two-fold task of working the garden and guarding the garden. He worked the garden first by imposing order and structure on it, giving names to the animals, and, we may suppose, to the plants as well, though this is not explicitly indicated. Adam worked the garden by serving each creature, according to its purpose and potential, so that the goodness inherent in individual creatures could be multiplied through their offspring.

We can only imagine how this exercise of rule would have spread from the garden to the ends of the earth, as Adam and Eve bore children to join with them in extending their appointed rule.

But Adam failed in his mandate to guard the garden against whatever might undermine the purposes of God. Nevertheless, the mandate to rule, and to work and guard the earth for the goodness and grace of the Lord, continued after the fall, as we see in God’s mandate to Noah (Gen. 9.1-17). In Noah’s case, God explicitly linked the mandate to rule and the covenant God was keeping with all creation, even giving Noah the rainbow as a sign and reminder that his mandate to rule is carried out within a covenantal framework of grace, overseen and sustained by God Himself. God would handle the covenant; Noah and his sons must take up the mandate to rule.

That mandate to rule was still in force when David was king in Israel (Ps. 8), and it remains into the time of the New Testament and the beginnings of the Church (cf. Heb. 2.5-9). The present state of this dominion is not what it will one day be. However, by focusing on Jesus, considering Him in all His beauty, goodness, and truth, God’s people today resume that dominion mandate, confident expectation that their good and faithful labors, within God’s covenant, will result in their realizing the promises of that covenant unto the good of everything entrusted to them.

A Law
The mandate to rule and bring forth goodness throughout the earth is an exercise of divine grace – special grace, as it is appointed only to human beings and, more specifically, to those who look to God as Lord. And as with Adam and Eve, so with those charged with this mandate to rule: God defines the terms of our rule, as well as its ends and means.

Thus, we fulfill our calling to rule as we look to God for instruction and guidance. Blatant or incautious disregard for God’s Word opens the creation up to corruption and the decaying power of sin, and frustrates the purpose of our rule. We must be always circumspect in how we use the time God gives us, lest we lose moments and opportunities to that which intends neither good nor grace for the creation (Eph. 5.15-17).

God’s Word, beginning with His instructions to Adam and Eve, and developing in greater fullness through the Law, the prophets, and the apostles, points us to God’s King – Jesus Christ – showing us in Him how we may fulfill the counsel of His Word and thus be fruitful in our calling to exercise dominion.

The mandate to exercise dominion is the foundation stone of the larger Kingdom of God, the nature, scope, and character of which unfolds throughout the Scripture, until it arrives at the Prime Interpreter and Architect of the Kingdom, even our Lord Jesus Christ.

For reflection
1. Is the mandate to rule the earth for goodness and grace still in force for believers? What are the implications of this?

2. Within God’s covenant, focusing on His precious and very great promises, His people are charged with working and guarding their own “gardens” – their Personal Mission Fields. What does this entail?

3. What happens in the part of the “garden” entrusted to us when we fail to look to Jesus and the Word of God?

Next Steps – Transformation: Meditate on Hebrews 2.5-9. How does seeing Jesus help us to bring goodness and grace to our Personal Mission Field? What are some specific ways you can improve in this work of ruling? Share your thoughts with a Christian friend.

Grace flows from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The better we know Him, the more His grace will do its work in us. Our book, To Know Him, can help you in drawing closer to Jesus and increasing in Him. Order your copy by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.