Created To Rule

Created To Rule

God owns everything

Psalm 103:19 - The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 24:1 - The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.

God created the world and therefore He owns it and has authority and dominion over everything. He can delegate authority to others because He has the legal authority. Jesus legally received authority from God.

The earth belongs to Him and everything that is in the earth. God has made us heirs to everything that belongs to Him and we are co-rulers with Him over all that He owns.

He owns everything in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth. He currently has authority and dominion over all the earth, all nations, and all people.

When God created the earth, He had His kingdom in mind. His plan was to create something that He would rule over, and that man would rule together with Him. He does not rule over us but rather, we rule with Him.

The earth had to be brought under subjection and that is why He gave man authority to rule on His behalf in the Garden.

He also had a plan in place to redeem creation before it ever fell under the sway of sin. Through His Son, He would re-establish His righteous order over the earth and then appoint redeemed mankind to once again take their rightful place as rulers.

God’s Kingdom program included this earth and it included man ruling over the earth. Even though man fell, God did not change His mind about man and provided a way of restoration through Jesus Christ.

Created in His Image

Genesis 1:26-28 - 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."

God set up His Kingdom in the Garden and placed Adam there and gave him dominion to rule the earth. It was there that man would receive instructions from God and go forth and rule with his God-given dominion.

God created man to represent God on earth and rule over His wonderful creation.

Man did not just come to live here on earth without any reason at all. Man’s right to rule over God’s creation is linked to man being made in the image of God for a certain purpose.

God could have paid no higher compliment to the human race than to have created man in His own image and likeness. That means we are a mirror image of God. If you want to know what God looks like, look into a mirror.

Man is made in the image of God and therefore has the ability to understand, exercise, and respond to authority for the purpose of being obedient and faithful stewards of God on the earth.

God’s original purpose for man was:

• They were to be fruitful and multiply

• They were to subdue the earth

• They were to take dominion

God created man in His image which was marred by sin. However, that image was restored and transformed in Christ.

After God created animals, birds, and fish and filled the earth with vegetation, God created man who bore His own image. God chose to create a special being with the unique capacity to be like Him.

This creation would be able to reflect the glory of God, display the character of God, and have a special understanding of God, and even the capacity to love and worship Him. He has created us for Himself.

To be created in the image of God means:

• We have the ability to reason

• We have a moral sense

• We have the capacity for relationship

God has created us for what is sacred and holy and given us responsibilities for the earth and given us the power with which to accomplish them.

The fall

Genesis 3:1 - Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"

God created man to be a ruler and to exercise dominion upon the earth, but man listened to the serpent, and lost his dominion.