As Image-Bearers, We’ve Got Work to Do

In Genesis chapter 1, we read of God creating the world in six days.

In the first three days, God created light, sky and seas, and land. Then in the next three days he fills these with their respective inhabitants, sun, moon and stars, then flying creatures and swimming creatures and finally land creatures. In the latter half of the sixth day, God created humanity.

In Genesis 1:27-28, we read that humanity was created in the image and likeness of God.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:26–28, NIV)

You Rule!

The text of the Bible indicates that there was a purpose for creating humanity as the imago Dei, “so that they may rule.” Some scholars contend that “the biblical picture reflects the ancient Near Eastern idea of images as statues representing the king and therefore partaking of his authority in some way. If that is true, the designation of Adam as the image of God might mean that he was intended to be God’s viceroy on earth.” (G. L. Bray, “Image of God,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, , p. 576)

J. Richard Middleton offers a fascinating conclusion, based on his study of the ancient Near Eastern context in which Genesis was written.

“Humanity is dignified with a status and role vis-à-vis the nonhuman creation that is analogous to the status and role of kings in the ancient Near East vis-à-vis their subjects. Genesis 1…thus constitutes a genuine democratization of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology. As imago Dei, then, humanity in Genesis 1 is called to be the representative and intermediary of God’s power and blessing on earth.” (J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1, , p. 121).

It makes sense, then, to translate Psalm 8:5-6 as,

“‎‎Yet You have made him (mankind) a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.” (NASB)

Some modern English translations favor the Septuagint’s Greek rendering of the word, changing it to “heavenly beings” (ESV) or “angels” (KJV, NIV). But, as H. C. Leupold states in his Exposition of the Psalms, the Hebrew word elohim in Psalm 8 “should be translated in its plain and regular meaning ‘God,’ a meaning which it has almost without exception,” especially in light of the apparent reference to the creation story of Genesis.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited sphere. Only so can they be persons.” (The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, p. 21)

Fulfilling the Cultural Mandate

Not only are humans to “rule,” they are also told to do other things. Michael Wittmer explains,

“God commanded his freshly minted humans to ‘be fruitful,’ ‘increase in number,’ ‘fill the earth,’ ‘subdue it,’ and ‘rule’ over the rest of creation. These five distinctives to govern and develop the original creation are what theologians call the ‘creation mandate’ or ‘cultural mandate.’ It is the first command God ever gave us, and he has never taken it back.” (Heaven Is a Place on Earth, p. 124).

Albert Wolters explains what the cultural mandate entails, writing,

“Although God has withdrawn from the work of creation, he has put an image of himself on the earth with a mandate to continue… People must now carry on the work of development: by being fruitful they fill it even more; by subduing it they must form it even more. Mankind, as God’s representatives on earth, carry on where God left off. But this is now to be a human development of the earth. The human race will fill the earth with its own kind, and it will form the earth for its own kind. From now on the development of the created earth will be societal and cultural in nature.” (Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview, p. 41-42)

So, We’ve Gotta Work!

Miroslav Volf makes the point that humanity’s calling in God’s image can only be fulfilled through work.

“The text does not mention work explicitly, but since human beings can fulfill their God-given task only by working, it is obvious that this locus classicus of Christian anthropology considers work to be fundamental to human existence.” (Work in the Spirit, ,p. 127)

How is your work the means by which you fulfill the “Cultural Mandate” and live as an image-bearer?

Image by Leland Francisco. Used with permission. Sourced via Flickr.