Made to Reign

Genesis 1:26-31

Have you ever seen a handheld colander for fried foods? If you saw one, you probably wouldn’t know what it was or what is was supposed to be used for. What about an electric necktie iron or Sony Rolly, an electronic music player that dances to sounds as it plays?

While we may scratch our heads about various random and relatively unimportant inventions such as these, do you know what a human being is and what is a human’s purpose?
In an article published by Psychology Today, Mike Brooks (Ph.D.) makes the following claims about the purpose of life and human existence:

• Existence is a cosmic lottery we've won.
• There's no single "correct" answer to life's purpose.
• We are here to evolve, adapt, and grow.
• Happiness is a by-product of fulfilling our purpose.

In this article, he quotes a Canadian rock band called “Rush” as offering some wisdom:

Why are we here? Because we're here. Roll the bones. Roll the bones.

The famed American poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, says this about life:

No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains.

Statements such as these, by academic, professional minds by the world’s standards, reflect variations of a philosophy of life called “existentialism.” According to Verywell Mind, a psychology resource:

Existentialism is a philosophy of human nature that identifies people as having free will to determine the course of their lives. It emphasizes individual responsibility to create meaning rather than relying on a higher power or religion to determine what is important, valuable, or morally right. Existentialists believe that the nature of existence varies and is individualized to each person.

So, from this vantage point, human beings exist for no reason other than we have somehow come into existence through chance and evolutionary process. As a result, we have no predetermined purpose or reason for existence, so we must create and form our purpose as we go through life, a process that is entirely open-ended.

Anyone who accepts this philosophy of life reveals either an ignorance of what the Bible teaches or else a refusal to accept what Scripture says. And if we’re not careful, even we who are born-again followers of Christ may unknowingly follow such a philosophy ourselves – believing that we can somehow chart our own destiny, pursue our own dreams, and set aside what God’s Word clearly teaches when following God’s Word contradicts our feelings, preferences, and plans.

A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. (Prov 18:22)

When we follow this philosophy, we do so in order to be happy and fulfilled, failing to realize that true happiness comes not in charting our own destiny and discovering our own authentic self but in knowing the God who made us and fulfilling the purpose for which he made us. Said another way, we will find our greatest pleasure in seeking the pleasure of the God who made us.

who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Rom 1:25)

“The lie” here is that original lie which we will look at more closely in Gen 3, the great deception that we can be our own god, chart our own course, determine our own destiny. To use the words “worship” and “serve,” it is the lie that we will find true meaning and purpose in life as we acknowledge and respect our own self (worship) and as we seek our own pleasure and desires (serve). But the truth is the opposite, that true meaning and purpose in life is realized as we acknowledge and respect God above all (worship) and as we seek his own pleasure and desires (serve).

Gen 1:26-31 gives us our first, foundational glimpse at God’s purpose for making us, and the teaching of this passage should guide and govern our decisions, desires, priorities, values, and worldview in life.

By way of context, we should note that this was the sixth day of Creation. We will learn about the seventh day in Gen 2:1-3, a couple of Sundays from now, when we learn about sabbath rest. Then we cycle back to the sixth day for a more detailed, zoomed-in look at some things that happened on this sixth day in Gen 2:4-25.

But today, we will draw some foundational truths about our existence from Gen 1:26-31.

God created us with a unique identity.

As you may already know or have already observed, God created mankind on the same day that he created land animals. What’s more, he created mankind in a similar way to how he created land animals – from the earth. “Let the earth bring forth” he said of the animals (Gen 1:24), then “God formed from the dust of the earth” he said of Adam (Gen 2:7). Despite these similarities, we are not merely a higher form of land animal. We are different in significant ways.

First, we are “made in God’s image and likeness.” The word image refers to something like a carved statue, and the word likeness refers to something like a painted portrait. In both cases, the statue or portrait are not the thing they represent, but they resemble the thing they represent so closely that the thing they represent comes to mind.

In a similar way, we are made to reflect and reveal the goodness and greatness of God to all who see and experience our lives. Another way to describe this is to use the word “glorify,” which is a more “religious” term which we may fail to accurately understand. It means to “make large” or “make visible.” We do this when we magnify the details of subatomic particles through a microscope or when we zoom in on the details of objects in outer space through a telescope.

We know that the entire created world says something about the goodness and greatness of God, but nothing reveals the nature and reality of God more accurately and clearly as human beings. The one person who has done this perfectly, of course, is Jesus Christ.

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. (John 17:4)

Yet this is the reason why all of us have been made and now we have Christ to trust, to follow, and to emulate in doing so.

How are we different from animals in a way that makes us uniquely designed to glorify God? Unlike animals, whom God has given built-in instincts, emotions, and desires, we have been given the ability to know and understand God and his ways in a personal and relational way. This means that we are uniquely designed to not only to be like him but to carry out his will.

Animals do not have this ability because animals were not made “in the image and likeness of God,” a phrase which is repeated in both Gen 1:26 and 27 for emphasis. As Henry Morris observes:

man was to be more than simply a very complex and highly organized animal. There was to be something in man which was not only quantitatively greater, but qualitatively distinctive, something not possessed in any degree by the animals.

To understand what this phrase means, we can rule out our physical bodies, because God is a Spirit and does not have a physical body (John 4:24). Though our physical design and appearance certainly reveals something about God and his purpose for our lives, this is not the defining characteristic of being made in his image.

To be made in God’s image also cannot refer to any aspects of our being which are finite and limited, because God is neither finite nor limited. He is infinite, all knowing, all powerful, and present everywhere. He is also perfect and complete and perfectly complete in everything that he is and does. We are not.

So, from these limitations, we can conclude that we are uniquely like God in those abilities and qualities which God has given us alone and has not given to any other creation in the same way and to the same degree.

Unlike animals and the rest of the material universe, we are spiritual beings with the unique ability of exhibiting, experiencing, and expressing the communicable traits of God. These include qualities such as the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23): love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are personal qualities which other beings or creatures – except human beings – are unable to experience as God does.

We are uniquely capable of employing reason (intellect), emotion (feeling), and will (decision) to make moral decisions about life, relationships, and – most importantly – God. And we alone have been given the unique feature we call “the conscience” (Rom 2:14-16). This is why we are uniquely moral (or immoral) beings.

For an animal to injure another animal or a person is not a crime, for instance, except if the incident was the fault of a human, in which case it is a crime for the human and not the animal. But for one human to injure an animal or another person is a crime. Why? Because only humans have the moral capacity to understand right from wrong and the ability and obligation to understand and know God.

Our knowledge of and relationship to God is broken and flawed due to sin, something we will explore further as we go through Gen 3. But it is worth noting that when a person believes on Christ as God and Savior, they receive a new nature which restores and even further enhances his or her ability to understand and know God and his ways.

and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him (Col 3:10)

and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24)

So, from this New Testament (NT) teaching, we see that followers of Christ have been given a restored ability to live out the image of God – or to genuinely reveal and reflect the goodness and greatness of God (Col 3:10). Not only this, but this is something we must can and must choose to do (“put on”) in a personal and deliberate way, so that the right and holy character and nature of God will be seen through our personalities, behavior, and life choices. As commentator Allen Ross observes:

humans have spiritual life, ethical and moral sensitivities, conscience, and the capacity to represent God.

This is why is it so absolutely crucial that we know what God’s Word says first about God, so that we have an accurate and informed perspective about him, and then second about God’s purpose and will, so that we know how we should behave, make choices, and treat other people.

We must pursue a close relationship with God through Christ and his Word more seriously than we pursue any other thing, and we must be sure that we are approaching life from a mindset and perspective that is clearly guided and shaped by his Word and not intermixed with or altered by godless, worldly philosophy, psychology, and values – such as evolution, atheism, existentialism, or self-actualization and -expression.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:2)

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (Col 2:8)

One of the greatest challenges we face today is accepting a worldview and approach to life that is not truly governed by an accurate knowledge of God and a rigorous, devoted knowledge of his will from his Word.

One example of how we easily fail at revealing and reflecting God is in our view of God’s created, designed genders. According to Gen 1:27, God made human beings as either male or female. We will speak more about this when we examine the end of Gen 2, but we should acknowledge here that your gender and mine is both designed by God and assigned by God at conception. The distinctions in gender between male and female, man and woman permeate our entire being, and are unchangeable.

These distinctions, also, extend beyond physiology, design, and appearance to the behavior and roles we carry out in home and society. God has assigned certain roles and functions to men and certain roles and functions to women. Only as we both accept our God-designed gender distinctions and commit ourselves to God intended functions and roles, which are both equally important and significant, though distinct, as taught in his Word, do we reveal the goodness and greatness of God. When we refuse, we do not bring him pleasure and we do not bring him glory.

God created us with a unique purpose.

Now, moving beyond our unique identity in God’s creation, we must also acknowledge our unique purpose. Though we must know and glorify God, as we have already recognized, God assigns two specific roles and purposes for us to fulfill in the world. First, he intends for us to reign over creation, and second, he intends for us to reproduce throughout creation.

God intends for us to reign over creation.

Here in Gen 1:26-31, we read of God’s stated purpose for us to be, “Let them have dominion” (v. 26), “subdue [the earth]” (v. 28), and “have dominion” (v. 28). These words describe behavior that includes exploration and discovery, conquering and creativity, governing and guiding, leadership and service, and bringing things to their maximum potential.

What this means is that God created a good and perfect world with every good thing and necessary resource available to discover and explore, to care for and to improve, to develop and to invent. Such behavior not only permits but requires breeding and domesticating animals, mining and harnessing earth’s natural resources, exploring the depths of the oceans and expanse of space. It includes and even demands academic, agricultural, medical, scientific, and technological exploration, discovery, and advancement – so long as such exploration is rooted in God-honoring motives and remains submitted to God’s revealed purposes and will. And the scope of this dominion is vast – over everything else that God has made:

man was to have dominion not only over all animals but also over the earth (verse 26) from which he had been formed. (Henry Morris)

Such behavior entails evaluation, research, learning, exploration, planning, designing, creativity, investing, adapting, and more. As Mark Chansky observes:

Contrary to the environmentalists who depict man as a meddling intruder on the earth, the Bible identifies man as its rightful ruler …

Man spies a beautiful forest full of prime fir trees. He observes in this vegetation a valuable source of building material for homes, boats, and paper products. So man devises a method for clear-cutting the forest, and if he deems it geographically fitting, replants it with small saplings that his sons might reap a like harvest in decades to come. On the other hand, man may assess the area better suited for a shopping mall, where his fellow men that live in the area might find easier access to groceries, clothing, and lumber.

The environmentalists have it upside down. They’ve placed man under the feet of his environment. The Bible tells us right side up. God has placed our environment under our feet. It has been given to man as a possession. When we stroll through and manage our forests, we are not interfering trespassers, but rightful owners and stewards. We’ve been assigned by God to subdue them, rule over them, and use them for good.

I underscore that word “good.” Godly stewardship over the creation requires that we subdue and rule not recklessly, but nobly, with a good end in view. We’re to imitate the example of the blessed Maker who designated his six-day wonderland masterpiece as very good. We dare not thoughtlessly vandalize his workmanship. Rather, we’re to wisely cultivate it, rearrange it, and develop it in such a way that it lovingly nurtures our fellow man (Matthew 22:39), kindly regards created beasts (Proverbs 12:10), and tastefully highlights our Heavenly Father’s glory (Psalm 19:1; 104:24). This exciting errand calls for prayerful reflection.

One amazing way that we are doing this today is through the NYC zoo system, a network of our zoos and an aquarium within the five boroughs of NYC. In the early days of the zoo system, they acquired rare animals from other parts of the world in the wild. This was criticized by many, but today these very endangered animals are now being bred in U.S. zoos so that they may be returned to repopulate their native, wild habitats and reverse the trend of their endangerment. Neat, right?

In what way are you “reigning” over creation in a way that reveals the greatness and goodness of God and extends his goodness and greatness to the world and people around you?

As distinct genders working closely together in our unique, God-given ways, men are to extend God’s rule and reign to the world as men and women are to do so as women.

Then, beyond these and as extensions of these gender-specific roles, we each as individuals extend God’s reign to the world in special, personal, God-intended ways through our unique personalities, skillsets, and abilities given to us by God, both by nature and through learning, training, and education.

Beyond this, key takeaways from this God-intended purpose of “reigning” over creation must include the following, each of which are valuable points of discussion and personal reflection:

• As we discover, explore, plan, and act in God’s creation, we must do so in submission to God’s nature and will as revealed to us in Scripture. We must not be like the kings of Old Testament (OT) kinds of Israel who were, in fact, kings over God’s people. As kings over God’s people, they were to conduct themselves in a godly way and were to lead out in God’s will. When the kings of Israel ignored, neglected, or misunderstood God’s Word, they reigned poorly. When they acknowledged, obeyed, and respected God’s Word, they reigned well.
• Since God has called us to reign, this means we must be proactive not passive. This means we must not be idle and lazy. We must not take a laissez faire approach, just letting life come to us and reacting as necessary. We must assess and evaluate, make plans, and put those plans into action. This truth and approach applies to all aspects of our lives, from daily routines, to family and financial planning, to short-term and long-term planning, to small and large goals and priorities, including eternal priorities.
• Furthermore, this responsibility to “have dominion” means that we must take responsibility in life for our choices and responses to things. We should refuse to accept a “victim” mentality, viewing ourselves as helpless effects and results of difficult circumstances and people. We should, instead, view our personal challenges and difficulties (whether circumstances or people) as opportunities to learn, grow, progress, and overcome. As the children’s song goes:

We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,
We’re going to catch a big one,
I’m not scared
What a beautiful day!
Oh look! A deep, dark cave.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We can’t go around it,
We have to go through it!

We live in an evasive, blame-shifting, victim-minded culture who has learned to blame everyone and everything else (incl. God) for their problems. Then we wonder why life is seems so empty, hollow, and unsatisfying. The reason for this disappointment is that we don’t tackle challenges, we run from them. We don’t have difficult conversations, we avoid them. We don’t maintain difficult relationships, we break them off. And so on. But as people called to have dominion, we must take responsibility, find solutions, solve problems, and be the difference maker, not an excuse maker.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might (Eccl 9:10)

God intends for us to reproduce throughout creation.

Finally, we must acknowledge another clear emphasis and purpose in God’s creation and design of human beings. To reproduce. This purpose includes marriage, giving birth to children through marriage, and then caring for, raising, and preparing those children to do the same – more specifically, preparing those children to know God and to carry out his will in the Earth.

To marry, give birth to, and raise children in a loving, faithful, Christ-centered, Bible-guided home is becoming increasingly rare these days. Consider the following statistics:

• The median age for marrying continues to rise, meaning that people are delaying marriage until later in life. In the early 1970s, the median age was 23 for men and 21 for women; this increased 5 yrs. to 28 for men and 26 for women by 2009 and another 1.5 yrs. to 29.5 for men and 27.4 for women in 2017. By 2021, the median age had become 30 for men and 28 for women.
• Then consider how childbirth rates have changed over time. Since 1957, the U.S. fertility rate has generally declined, from 122.9 births (12%) per 1,000 women ages 15–44 to less than half this, at 56.1 (5.5%), in 2022. According to a study in 2021, U.S. women are now projected to give birth to 1.64 children on average. This is not only the lowest rate recorded since government tracking of these stats began in the 1930s, but it’s well below the so-called “replacement-level fertility” of about 2.1.

Why are these trends the case? Why are marriages increasingly delayed and why is childbirth and raising families increasingly diminished? Though there are certainly many factors, a simple answer must certainly be that we are living in an increasingly godless, selfish culture that knows God and values God’s purposes and plans for humanity less and less. Faithless scientist claim that our planet is going to be overrun with people, yet as believing scientist Henry Morris observes:

Even at the present level of man’s technological knowledge, the earth could support a much larger population than it now holds. Obviously, it could not continue to grow indefinitely, without limit, but God no doubt has made adequate provision for such an eventuality.

As followers of Christ, we must value marriage, pursue godly marriages, work hard and depend upon God for selfless, sacrificial existing marriages, value bearing and raising children more than other personal achievements, and in this way seek to have dominion, subdue, replenish, and fill the earth. “To be fruitful” means to produce. “To multiply” means to be numerous. “To fill” means to make full. If we know God well and understand this clear teaching of his purpose and will from his Word, then we will make this priority in our lives even if that means sacrificing other things and costs us financially and in other ways.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. (Psa 127:3-5)

So today, is it your life purpose to know and a glorify God through your life? And are you seeking to expand his reign, preparing to pursue a godly, fruitful marriage, and supporting others as they do? This is God’s original heart and purpose for creating us! And those who know Christ as God and Savior as best positioned to do this well. And today, perhaps more than ever, the need and opportunity for this kind of mindset is greatly needed. This, God said in the beginning, is VERY GOOD.