ALL OF CREATION up to this point has been merely a prelude to what would happen at the end of day six. The creation of the human race was the central object of God’s creative purpose from the beginning. In an important sense, everything else was created for humanity, and every step of creation up to this point had one main purpose: to prepare a perfect environment for Adam.
The human race is still at the center of God’s purpose for the entire material universe. We know this because Scripture says everything else will eventually perish. It will all go out of existence. According to Jesus, there is coming a time when even “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (Mark 13:24–25). Ultimately, even the heavens will roll up like a scroll (Revelation 6:13–14). “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). In effect, everything that was created will be uncreated. Everything in this universe will cease to exist.
Except humanity. God created man to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. And when every other element of this universe is long gone, a vast multitude of the redeemed human race will dwell in the presence of the Lord forever.
In other words, the unfolding of creation establishes a theater in which the great redemptive saga can be played out. Man is the main character. God’s own Son even becomes a man at the climax of redemption’s drama. This is the purpose for which the entire universe was created: so that God’s grace, mercy, and compassion could be lavished on this creature whom God had created in His own image. In the end, the theater is destroyed. It is a profound and humbling thought.
Clearly, the creation of the human race is the main issue in Genesis 1. Everything culminates in this event, and Scripture devotes more space to describing Adam’s creation than to any other facet of creation. In fact, because this final act of creation is so crucial, all of Genesis 2 is devoted to an expanded description of it. (Genesis 2 is not a different story or an alternate account; it is an expansion of the description of day six from Genesis 1.) Genesis 1:26–31 simply gives us the basics about day six:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 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.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Bear in mind that the creation of Adam occurred on the same day all other land animals were created. All of this occurred in one twenty-four-hour period—one revolution of the earth.
Adam, as we see from the text, was specially and personally created by God. There is no way to do justice to the text and maintain the notion that Adam evolved from some already-existing form of animal life. Genesis 2:7 is explicit: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2 also describes how the first woman, Eve, was made from the rib of her husband (v. 22). So the man and the woman were each created individually—both of them by direct and immediate acts of God.
The genealogies in Genesis begin with a reaffirmation of this truth: “In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created” (Genesis 5:1–2). That verse opens and closes with references to a single day in which God made humanity. Repeatedly Scripture refers back to that momentous day (cf. Deuteronomy 4:32). It was day six of creation week—and this was God’s final, crowning creative act.
A significant change in the creation process occurs at this point. Verse 26 starts with familiar words: “Then God said.” That is the same formula used to introduce every previous act of creation (cf. vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24). But suddenly there is a major shift in the language. Up to this point, every occurrence of “Then God said” had been followed by the words “Let there be . . .” (vv. 3, 6, 14); “Let the earth bring forth . . .” (11, 24); “let the waters abound . . .” (v. 20); or “Let the waters . . . be gathered together” (v. 9)—always the language of fiat—“let it be done.” Those expressions are impersonal in the sense that they are mandates issued to no one in particular. They are sovereign, creative decrees that immediately brought things into existence ex nihilo. Never before has God said, “Let Us make” anything.
But now for the first time the expression “Then God said” is followed by personal pronouns: “Let Us make man in Our image” (v. 26, emphasis added). This speaks of the creation of Adam in terms that are uniquely personal. Scripture deliberately employs such pronouns in order to stress God’s intimate connection with this aspect of His creation. It establishes a personal relationship between God and man that does not exist with any other aspect of creation—not with light, not with water, not with the other elements or even the earth itself, not with the sun, the moon, the stars, or the stellar bodies—and not even with the other living creatures He made. He has no personal relationship with any of those things in the same sense He does with humanity. All those things were created by God through His fiat decree, and they began to exist because He ordered them to. But there is never a hint of any intimacy or personal identification between God and those things.
God’s relationship with humanity is unique in all of creation. And therefore at every opportunity, Scripture vividly portrays God’s personal involvement in the creation of man. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (2:7).
Here in Genesis 1:26, for the first time in the Bible, God introduces Himself with personal pronouns. Significantly, they are plural pronouns. Not, “Let Me . . .”; but, “Let Us make man in Our image,” and thus we are introduced to a plurality of relationships in the Godhead. Here is the first major, unmistakable evidence of the Trinity. The fact of multiple Persons in the Godhead has been hinted at in the Hebrew word for God that is used in twenty-one of the first twenty-five verses of Scripture, because elohim takes the form of a plural noun in Hebrew. But the plural pronouns of verse 26 make the point even more forcefully. It is by no means a full revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity, but it is an unmistakable reference to plurality within the Godhead, and it begins to lay the groundwork for what we later learn of the Trinity from the New Testament.
There was at least one other earlier hint of the Trinity in verse 2, where we were told that the Spirit of God hovered above the face of the waters. But now we see even more clearly that there is a sort of divine executive committee—a council in the Godhead.
The same truth is unfolded with even more clarity in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, which begins with an echo of Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1–3). That, of course, refers to the Second Member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ (cf. v. 14)—who was with God at creation and is Himself God.
By putting all those passages together, we see that all three Members of the Trinity were active in creation. The Father was overseeing and decreeing the work. The eternal Word was “with God” and involved in every aspect of the creative process. And the Spirit was brooding over the waters, which also suggests the most intimate kind of hands-on involvement in the process. So with the light of the New Testament shining on this passage, the plural pronouns of Genesis 1:26 take on a rich depth of meaning.
This is one of many Old Testament passages that indicate communication between the members of the Trinity. In Psalm 2:7, for example, we read, “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” There the speaker is the Second Member of the Trinity—the Son—and He is quoting words spoken by the First Member of the Trinity—the Father. This is the eternal decree that defines the intra-Trinitarian relationship between Father and Son.
Then in Psalm 45:7 the Father is speaking to the Son: “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.” (That verse is cited in Hebrews 1:9, where the speaker is clearly identified as the Father, and the one being spoken to is shown to be Christ the Son.)
In Psalm 110:1 the psalmist writes, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” There again the Father (“the Lord”) speaks to the Son (“my Lord”) and promises Him eternal dominion.
Isaiah 48 includes an even more remarkable passage. In verse 12 the speaker is plainly identified as “the First, [and] also the Last.” (This is a reference to Christ—cf. Revelation 22:13.) And in verse 16, He says, “I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.” So the speaker is God the Son, and He quite plainly speaks of “the Lord God and His Spirit” as different Persons in the Godhead.
Such references are found throughout the Old Testament. By themselves, they were not enough to give the typical Old Testament reader a full understanding of Trinitarian doctrine, but they were conspicuous hints of what would later be clearly revealed through the incarnation of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were clues showing a plurality in the Godhead.
Here in Genesis 1 the expression suggests both communion and consultation among the Members of the Trinity. “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (v. 26). It also signifies perfect agreement and a clear purpose. It is, as a matter of fact, a crucial step toward the fulfillment of a promise made “before time began” (Titus 1:2)—a promise made in eternity past between the Members of the Trinity. Wrapped up in that promise was the entire redemptive plan of God. In short, the Father had promised the Son a redeemed people for His bride. And the Son had promised to die in order to redeem them. All of this occurred in eternity past, before creation was begun.1
“So God created man” (v. 27). Man became “a living being [Hebrew, nephesh]” (Genesis 2:7). Like the animals, he moved and breathed and was a conscious life-form. But there the similarity ended. This was a creature who was unlike any other created being. Lower life-forms could never evolve into this. And the distinctiveness of this creature is perfectly reflected in the purposes for which God created him.
TO BEAR THE CREATOR’S IMAGE
First, man was created to bear the likeness of his Maker. “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (v. 26). The two phrases (“in Our image” and “according to Our likeness”) are parallel expressions. The second merely repeats the first in different but synonymous terms. Don’t imagine that there is a vital distinction between the “image” of God and His “like-ness”—as if one expression spoke of spiritual similarities between God and men and the other designated a physical likeness. Some commentators have mistakenly assumed that the coupled expressions have that sort of dual significance, but there is no distinction in the Hebrew language. These are parallel terms. In fact, the repetition is for emphasis. This sort of parallelism is a very common and typical construction in Hebrew. It is used for emphasis, not to make a contrast. And in this case, the parallelism is used to underscore the great importance of this truth: that man was created in the likeness of God.
What does that mean? Before we explore that question, consider the fact that whatever it means, it is something ineffably high and lofty. It is not a state into which lower creatures can evolve. This is not something that can be gained by a random mutation in the genetic code. It is not something that was brought about by a deviation in some higher primate’s DNA. It is, after all, the very thing that makes humanity different from every other created animal. It is what defines the human being’s unique identity. It is the whole reason God took such a personal interest in the creation of this particular species. It explains why the Bible places so much stress on the fact of God’s hands-on creation of Adam. He fashioned this creature in a special way—to bear the stamp of His own likeness. Man was made in the image of God. That sets him apart from every other creature in the physical universe.
What is the image of God? The Hebrew word for “image,” tselem, comes from a root that speaks of carving. It is the same word used to speak of graven images (Exodus 20:4). It almost seems to convey the idea that man was carved into the shape of God. It suggests that God was, in essence, the pattern for the personhood of man. That is not true of anything else in the space-time universe.2
Clearly, because the image of God is unique to humanity, it must describe some aspect of human nature that is not shared by animals. Therefore this cannot speak primarily of man’s appearance or biological makeup. We do in fact have many biological features that are common to other animal creatures. Naturally, because we share the same environment, it is reasonable to expect that we would have many of the same biological and physiological characteristics in common with animals. And we do. Our internal organs work in similar ways; in many cases our skeletal structure has strong similarities; and even the way we look on the outside bears a clear similarity to some of the primates. If “the image of God” were a reference to the way we are constructed corporeally—if this meant to suggest that we bear a physical resemblance to the Maker—then it would probably also be accurate to suggest that even chimpanzees have some likeness to God.
But this quite clearly is not a reference to the material part of man. It isn’t talking about biology or physiology. It certainly isn’t a reference to the way we look as creatures made of flesh and bone. After all, “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). And “a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39).
Clearly this deals primarily with man’s spiritual attributes—our self-consciousness, our moral consciousness, and our consciousness of others—especially our consciousness of God Himself. (Animals are conscious, but they are not self-conscious, morally aware, or able to have a truly personal relationship.)
Before the image of God in man was marred by sin, Adam shared in a pure and undefiled way all the communicable attributes of God (those qualities of the divine nature that are capable of being reflected in creatures). These would include holiness, wisdom, goodness, truth, love, grace, mercy, longsuffering, and righteousness. The image of God in man no doubt still includes certain characteristics that mirror some of the virtues of God we learn about through creation—such as an appreciation for beauty, creative abilities, and a love of diversity. Of course, it must therefore include our rational faculties as well. For example, the divine image surely encompasses our ability to understand abstract principles—especially moral concepts like justice, righteousness, holiness, truth, and goodness. And the divine likeness in man therefore seems to include the higher aspects of our intellect and emotions—our ability to reason and solve problems, and emotions such as sorrow, zeal, anger, delight, and joy (all of which can be observed in their perfection in various dispositions Scripture says belong to God).
But above all, the image of God can be summed up by the word personhood. We are persons. Our lives involve relationships. We are capable of fellowship. We are able to love other persons in a Godlike sense. We understand communion. We have an amazing capacity for language. We have conversations. We know what it is to share thoughts, convey and discern attitudes, give and take friendship, perceive a sense of brotherhood, communicate ideas, and participate in experiences with others. Animals cannot do those things in the same sense people can.
That is why when God created man He immediately said that it was not good for man to be alone. The image of God is personhood, and personhood can function only in the context of relationships. Man’s capacity for intimate personal relationships needed fulfillment. Most important, man was designed to have a personal relationship with God.
And this takes us back to the expression in verse 26. When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” He signified that He Himself is a God of relationships. And He created us in His own likeness so that we could enter into a relationship with Him.
Douglas F. Kelly writes:
God Himself has never existed as a single, lonely, solitary, or “cut off” individual. Rather, He has always existed in the fullness of family-like being (cf. Eph. 3:14, 15: “Father . . . of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”). Or, as the great St. Athanasius used to say in the fourth century, “the Father has never been without His Son.” The amazing mystery of the origin of personality is that the one God exists as three persons in one being or “substance” (or reality”). The one “substance” or being of God inherently involves personhood.3
And when God made us in His image, He therefore made us as persons—that is, He made us for having relationships, particularly with Him.
It is impossible to divorce this truth from the fact that man is an ethical creature. All true relationships have ethical ramifications. And it is at this point that God’s communicable attributes come into play—marred though our moral and ethical sense may be because of humanity’s fall into sin. We still know right from wrong in a basic sense. Even the most determined atheists still understand the concept of virtue and the need for morality.4 In fact, an inherent aspect of true humanity is moral sensibility. We know instinctively that there is a difference between good and evil.
And all of this is what makes us distinct from the rest of creation. It pertains first of all to the invisible part of man—the spirit. It is what makes us spiritual beings. It’s the part of our humanness that scientists will never find in our DNA. It is not programmed into our chromosomes. It is spiritual. And it is that true personhood which makes us like God, even in our fallen state.
Physically, we are made of earthly elements—the dust of the earth. And our bodies will eventually return to dust. That is not like God. But our personhood is eternal—and that does make us like God. The seat of God’s image is therefore found in our immaterial beings.
That is not to suggest that our bodily form is utterly devoid of anything relevant to the divine image. As John Calvin said, “The image of God extends to everything in which the nature of man surpasses that of all other species of animals. . . . And though the primary seat of the divine image was in the mind and the heart, or in the soul and its powers, there was no part even of the body in which some rays of glory did not shine.”5
Man’s very posture, standing upright, distinguishes him from four-footed beasts and creeping things. The animals’ natural posture directs their gaze downward, toward the earth. Man, on the other hand, is naturally positioned to look upward, toward the heavens, where he can contemplate the glory of God displayed there. This is one of many ways the glory of God is displayed even in the physical makeup of our race.
Our tongues, with their ability to form words and speak meaningful language, also reflect our likeness to God.
Even our faces, with their naturally expressive eyes and a host of meaningful expressions, are especially suited for relationships. So while the human body itself is neither the seat nor the primary expression of the image of God in man, even the body is specially made so that it can serve as a vehicle through which that image is manifest.
Henry Morris has written:
We can only say that, although God Himself may have no physical body, He designed and formed man’s body to enable it to function physically in ways in which He Himself could function even without a body. God can see (Genesis 16:13), hear (Psalm 94:9), smell (Genesis 8:21), touch (Genesis 32:32), and speak (2 Peter 1:18), whether or not He has actual physical eyes, ears, nose, hands, and mouth. . . . There is something about the human body, therefore, which is uniquely appropriate to God’s manifestation of Himself, and (since God knows all His works from the beginning of the world—Acts 15:18), He must have designed man’s body with this in mind. Accordingly, He designed it, not like the animals, but with an erect posture, with an upward gazing countenance, capable of facial expressions corresponding to emotional feelings, and with a brain and a tongue capable of articulate, symbolic speech.
He knew, of course, that in the fullness of time even He would become a man. In that day, He would prepare a human body for His Son (Hebrews 10:5; Luke 1:35) and it would be “made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7), just as man had been made in the likeness of God.6
It was not merely Adam who bore the image of God, but the woman did, too—as well as all their offspring. This fact is reflected in verse 26: “Let Us make man in Our image . . . ; let them have dominion” (emphasis added). The antecedent of the plural “them” is the noun “man,” used collectively in this case. It clearly refers not only to Adam, but to all of humanity. And the rest of Scripture affirms this. Genesis 9:6 forbids all acts of murder, “For in the image of God He made man.” And James 3:9 forbids us even to curse any fellow human being, because they “have been made in the similitude of God.”
The truth that humanity was made in the likeness of God is the starting point for a biblical understanding of the nature of man. It explains our spiritual urges. It helps us make sense of the human conscience. It establishes our moral accountability. It reveals the very essence of the meaning and purpose of human life. It is full of practical and doctrinal significance.
Yet the doctrine of evolution would utterly erase this truth from the collective consciousness of the human race. That is why the battle against evolutionary theory is one Christians cannot afford to abandon.
TO PROPAGATE LIFE
A second purpose for which Adam and Eve were created was to fill the earth. Genesis 1:27–28 says, “Male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.’” Here we see God’s perfect plan for marriage and procreation. From the beginning, God’s design was for permanent monogamous relationships between men and women. Genesis 2:24 makes this plain: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
The evolutionary lie has brought even this under attack, as society now seeks to justify and legitimize fornication, easy divorce, homosexual relationships, and other perversions that undermine the sanctity and uniqueness of the marriage relationship.
In our study of creation, we have seen throughout the plant and animal kingdoms that God produced all living species to procreate. But with the human race this takes on an especially sacred meaning. Keep in mind that of all earthly creatures, only man is created in the image of God—and the very essence of that image is the ability to have relationships. The marriage relationship is here established as the first and most intimate of all relationships between humans. The two “become one flesh,” uniting in a bond that is designed to supersede every other relationship, no matter how close (“a man shall leave his father and mother”). The bond between husband and wife is also designed to be lasting, unbreakable, and inexpressibly intimate (“a man shall . . . be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”).
So an interesting and ironic feature in Adam’s creation is the fact that he was first created alone. It appears from the language of Genesis that when God created other living species, he created them all in abundance. The sea swarmed with sea life and the skies were filled with birds. Although Scripture doesn’t expressly say how many He created of each species, the language suggests that there must have been multiple pairs of each.
But when it comes to the creation of human beings, Scripture is clear that He made only one pair. In fact, He began by making just one—Adam.
Of course it was God’s plan from the beginning that Adam would have a mate. (“Known to God from eternity are all His works”—Acts 15:18.) Don’t get the impression that Eve was an afterthought or a modification of the divine plan. Some people misread the account of Eve’s creation in Genesis 2 and imagine that she was tacked onto creation as an addendum to God’s original plan. That is not what the text means. It is true that Eve was not created until after God had instructed Adam to name the animals and given him time to begin the process. (One preacher suggested that God held off creating Eve so that Adam wouldn’t have to deal with a second opinion every time he named an animal. I doubt that.) But Eve was part of God’s plan from the beginning. Her separate creation merely stresses the fact of how special she was—and how uniquely suited she was for compatibility with Adam.
One thing stands out clearly. After each stage of creation, God pronounced His work good. “God saw that it was good” is the constant refrain of the creation narrative (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). The only time God pronounced anything not good was when He said, “It is not good that man should be alone” (2:18). Again, this is not to suggest that God had discovered a flaw in His original plan. Rather, the point is that the original plan was not yet complete with Adam alone. Man had been created for relationships, and he still needed a perfect mate for the marriage relationship.
So Scripture says, “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man” (2:21–22).
Adam, of course, was delighted. “And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’” (v. 23).
Eve was made to be a helper for Adam (vv. 18, 20). This is not talking about domestic help—someone to do his dishes, take out his trash, or make his bed. Adam could have managed such duties without a wife. But he had a more important duty for which he needed her help. He was to procreate, propagate the human race, and populate the earth with people. Obviously, he needed a partner for that.
As God brought animals to Adam and he went through the process of naming them each, he began to see that he was alone in all of creation. “For Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him” (v. 20). He must have known that he was not merely a glorified animal. He was made in the Creator’s image, and he needed a partner who was also made in the same image. So God made him a partner from his own rib. In other words, Eve’s genetic structure was derived from and therefore perfectly harmonious with Adam’s.
Genetic research has shown that one pair of human chromosomes, labeled X and Y, determine the gender of our offspring. All males have both X and Y chromosomes; all females have only a pair of X chromosomes. From a purely biological point of view, therefore, the Y chromosome is what determines maleness. If the offspring inherits an X chromosome from the father, it will be female. If the chromosome is Y, the offspring will be male. The father’s seed is the determining factor.
Genetically therefore, it is possible to create a female from a male. It would not be possible to extract a male’s genetic code from a female, however, because the female has no Y chromosome. That is perfectly harmonious with what God did here. Science, when it deals with facts rather than theories, always agrees with the biblical account.
The command, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth” (1:28) echoes throughout Genesis. It is repeated in Genesis 9:1, after the Flood. It also lay at the heart of God’s promise to Abraham (22:17–18). It is a unique and beautiful expression of God’s love for humanity, that He created us with the ability to procreate and thus produce more creatures made in His image. And not only did He want a world full of them, but He also designed men and women to partake in the joy of fulfilling that purpose. Children themselves are therefore a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). This is, in fact, one of the main ways God designed to bring gladness and enjoyment to the human race—which brings up yet another reason why humanity was such a special part of creation.
TO RECEIVE DIVINE BLESSING
Here is a third purpose for which God created the human race: We were created to be the recipients of joy and blessing from the hand of God. He made our race so that He could pour out His goodness on us. Genesis 1:28 says that after Adam and Eve were created, “Then God blessed them.”
“Blessed” here speaks of something more than a ceremonial consecration. God did not merely invoke some verbal formula of blessing. What this suggests is that He conferred well-being on them. He caused them to prosper. He made them happy.
That is still God’s design for the human race. He wants us to enjoy Him and to enjoy the rich goodness of His creation. The apostle Paul said God “gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). The Old Testament sage wrote, “It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).
And in Adam’s case, all the enjoyment and blessing in the world were his in a paradise untainted by sin or evil. He had all he could ever want, in a perfect environment, with a perfect climate, with an ideal partner, and with a mandate from God to enjoy and use everything (with just one restriction) freely. “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so.” (Genesis 1:29–30).
Notice that Adam, as well as every other creature in the animal kingdom, was a vegetarian at this point. There was no sin, and therefore there was no death. There could therefore be no carnivores. All the animals were tame, and even those species that are now carnivores were once pure vegetarians. But the world was filled with abundant food, and vast varieties of it. Everywhere Adam looked, food was literally hanging on trees. The whole world reflected the abundant goodness and generosity of God. After all, God could have made a brown sky, brown water, and a colorless world—with nothing to eat but plain rice. But instead, He filled the world with a vast array of wonderful fruits and vegetables. He created all these things for us to enjoy.
And he gave us senses to enjoy them with. Imagine how bland all life would become if we lost the ability to taste and smell. God has given us those capabilities to bless us—to enable us to enjoy to the fullest everything He made. And Adam and Eve were given full and unfettered freedom to enjoy anything they wanted in the garden of God.
Again, however, there was one significant exception. In all the vast array of fruits and vegetables God had created, just one tree was declared off limits. “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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’” (2:17). They were free to eat all they wanted from any other tree—including the tree of life. But they were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To eat what was forbidden would bring on them the judgment of God, resulting in their death.
As we shall see in chapter 10, they did exactly what God had forbidden. They not only brought judgment on themselves and the whole human race, but they also brought a curse on all creation. That which God had made for their pure enjoyment was spoiled by sin. Death entered the world, and along with death, sickness, weeds, hard work, and difficulties of all kinds (Genesis 3:17–19). Sin spoiled that perfect paradise.
But God had originally made it good. He had made it to bless humanity. That was one of His purposes in creation. And even in this sin-spoiled world, He still fulfills that purpose. His creation, even in its fallen state, is filled with blessings for us.
TO RULE CREATION
Finally, the human race was designed for and given a mandate to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. Immediately after saying “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” God said, “let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” In verse 28, God reiterates this purpose in His instructions to Adam: “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.” Man was intended by God to be the sovereign of the planet. He was literally instructed to subdue the planet, take dominion, and rule over everything God had placed on earth.
Of course this speaks collectively of the whole human race—not just Adam. This is made clear by the plural pronoun in verse 26: “Let them have dominion.” And the scope of humanity’s dominion over the earth was very broad, too. It was to include every living creature. God’s mandate to Adam expressly listed the creatures in the order of their creation: “the fish of the sea . . . the birds of the air . . . the cattle . . . [and] every creeping thing” (v. 26).
The first step of this dominion involved something very practical. Genesis 2:19 records this: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” That was Adam’s first task. He had to look at the characteristics of each creature and give it a fitting name.
Man was made in God’s image, so it was appropriate that God would delegate to man something of His own sovereign prerogative. Notice that God Himself had already named day and night (v. 5), heaven (v. 8), and the earth and the seas (v. 10). It is the Creator’s privilege to name what He creates, but in this case He delegated that task to Adam. It became Adam’s first duty as ruler of the world.
Another responsibility was assigned to Adam. He was made the gardener in Eden. Genesis 2:15 says “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Of course, this task was given to him before he fell into sin. That means there was no curse yet, so there were no weeds, and the environment was perfect. This was an easy and pleasant assignment for Adam. No doubt it was a source of great joy. And it was the only work he was given to do—if such an occupation can even be called “work” in a sweatless, weedless, curse-free environment. The garden was filled with every kind of fruit tree God had made. Water for the garden was readily available from a river that ran through it. And Adam’s only responsibility was to make sure that the trees and plants in this perfect environment had appropriate care. It was the most pleasant vocation any person could ever have.
Adam’s responsibility to subdue the earth and rule over it was perfectly complemented by his duty to tend the garden. In Douglas F. Kelly’s words:
The call to tend the garden and classify the animals provides a fine and fruitful balance in the relationship of mankind to the environment which God has placed under his derived authority. This healthy balance is not to be found outside the biblical faith. Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance, tend to neglect developing “the garden” (viewing it as a sort of God, not to be tampered with), as do some forms of Christian mysticism; materialist, technological industrialism tends to destroy “the garden” for short-sighted economic purposes, whether in the strip mines of West Virginia, the slag heaps of the English Midlands, or the dead rivers of Romania; and the ultra-environmentalists or “Greens” tend to elevate it above the legitimate needs and purposes of human society, thus losing their own significance and failing to bring to fruition what man could accomplish with the remarkable capacities of the created order. But the dominion of Genesis teaches man both to respect and to subdue nature, so as to shape it in a direction that will reflect the beauty, order and glory of its Creator.7
So Adam was given both dominion over God’s creation and the responsibility to care for it.
Unfortunately, when he fell, Adam abdicated some of his God-given authority. When he yielded to Satan, he forfeited the absolute dominion God had given him over the earth. It is interesting that Jesus repeatedly referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). That was supposed to be man’s role. But Adam’s willful sin in effect forfeited dominion to the devil.
Christ Himself will return to regain that dominion and establish Himself as the ruler of this world. He has already defeated the powers of evil at the cross: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). And upon His return to earth, He will receive His kingdom and establish it worldwide, reigning on an earthly throne in His glorified human body. And thus in the Person of Christ, humanity will finally have the full dominion God planned from the start—and more. Hebrews 2:8 celebrates this certainty: “ ‘You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’ For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him.”
The writer of Hebrews continues, “But now we do not yet see all things put under him.” We still live in a world that is under the curse of sin, so we cannot subdue the garden of God as we would like. Weeds, pests, harmful bacteria, harmful viruses, and other effects of the curse—not to mention fallen human nature—keep the task of subduing the earth constantly out of reach. It is ironic that man was originally given dominion over all of creation, and yet in his fallen state, even the tiniest microbes can bring him low.
And yet even fallen humanity has managed to take dominion over creation to an amazing degree, devising technology that allows us to cultivate only a fraction of the earth’s potential farmland and still grow enough crops to feed the world. Technology has permitted us to travel to the moon, develop amazing communications networks, travel across vast continents by air in a few hours, build dams to create large reservoirs, devise power systems that harness the energy in the universe and put it to humanity’s benefit, and develop medical technology that prolongs life. Even in his fallen state, the human being is a wonderful creature, still endued with the image of his Maker.
But we do not yet see all things subjected to him. There is still war and disease and poverty. Most of the technology humanity has developed has created new problems while attempting to solve old ones. Man sometimes has a destructive effect on his own environment. Above all, man is unable to subdue his own sinful tendencies.
Christ, the perfect Man, will do what fallen man has been unable to do. He will destroy all the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)—and even destroy the devil himself (Hebrews 2:14). That victory was already sealed when Christ rose from the dead. We are now simply awaiting its culmination. And that will occur at the end of the age. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For ‘He has put all things under His feet’” (1 Corinthians 15:24–27).
Scripture says the redeemed will reign with Christ in an earthly kingdom for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). The earth will be restored as a paradise. Major elements of the curse will be reversed. “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice” (Isaiah 35:1–2). The animals will revert to their pre-fall state, so that none will be carnivorous, and even the most fearsome predators will pose no danger to humanity or to other species (Isaiah 11:6–9).
Even sin and death will be mitigated in the millennial kingdom. “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20–21). In other words, infant mortality will be eliminated and life expectancy greatly extended. (It seems reasonable to think that many who enter into the kingdom alive might survive through the entire millennium.) Since those born in the earthly kingdom do inherit a sin nature, the effects of sin will not be entirely erased. Most people, it appears, will be redeemed. But those who persist in sin and unbelief will be judged with death. And humanity’s normal life expectancy will be such that if someone dies at one hundred years old (because of willful sin and persistent unbelief), he will be regarded as someone who died tragically young—as if he died in childhood.
During that millennial kingdom, humanity will finally get a taste of what life in Eden could have been. With Christ reigning and the effects of sin mitigated, earthly life will be as close to paradise as a world tainted with sin could ever know.
And finally, when the millennial kingdom is complete, the heavens and earth will pass away and be replaced by a new creation (Revelation 21:1). That world, untainted with sin or sorrow of any kind, will even surpass Eden in its delights. And a Man—the man Christ Jesus—will have dominion over it, with His saints finally sharing the perfect dominion man was originally created to enjoy.