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.
Behind God’s purpose in creating man is His conflict with Satan and the fallen angels. Before he fell into sin, Satan was in the Garden of Eden. It is possible that Satan, before his fall, ruled an earlier earth under God. When he rebelled and led a number of angelic forces with him, God brought a judgment on that original creation, resulting in the chaos, emptiness, and darkness.
In the recreated earth, God’s purpose was to have man on earth reflecting His image and having dominion over the earth under His sovereignty. Even if we do not accept the “gap theory,” it is clear that God placed man on the earth to reflect His image and to rule over the creation and to have dominion in place of Satan. That is why he is intent on destroying the lives of people, because they are made in the image of God.
The fall of Adam is a historic fact. The fall of the human race in Adam is the only satisfactory explanation of human history.
Satan and his demons were opposed to God’s plan from the time man was created. Satan entered the Garden in the form of a serpent to destroy God’s plan for mankind. God’ plan was for Adam to exercise authority over the kingdom of darkness.
According to the Bible, Adam was made in the image of God and was perfect. He was a responsible moral agent with a thinking mind and powers of choice and action and able to commune with God and respond to Him. He could love and worship God.
What Satan did to Adam and Eve was very similar to what he had previously done to a large number of God’s fellow angelic creatures. He convinced them to reject His authority.
By deceiving Adam and Eve, the devil not only had control over a large part of the angels but he now also had gained a measure of control over the earth that he once ruled.
Adam forfeited a large measure of mankind's dominion over planet earth. As they walked out of the Garden Adam and Eve entered a world characterized by pain, toil, and ultimate physical death. It was also a world where the devil’s influence would be great and pervasive.
Although Satan had brought man down to his level, God already had a plan to restore mankind fully through the blood of His Son Jesus.
God has seen fit to endow mankind with qualities and characteristics which adequately reflect His image and which totally distinguishes man from any other created being including the devil.
The animals are amazingly well designed, but do not carry God's image. The angels were created for specific and lofty purposes, but they are not in God's image.
Satan must have resented the special attention God gave to Adam and Eve. He so much wanted to be like God, but could never become like God because only man was made like God.
Because he could not defeat God, the devil focused his wrath and hatred on those who were made in the image of God.
When man fell into sin, God’s purpose for the earth was temporarily thwarted as Adam and Eve came under Satan’s rule. Thus, for the present Satan is recognized as the ruler of this world. However, God regained dominion through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God gave the right of dominion over all living things to man. The command to subdue it implies that there was work involved, even in the perfect setting of the Garden, to bring the creation under man’s rightful dominion. This dominion involves a stewardship of the earth and its resources under the sovereignty of God.
Adam failed in his mandate over Eden and from then on, it became a struggle for man to exercise dominion. Satan continues to deface God's image in man and block God's intention to have loving fellowship with mankind.
The devil wants to achieve worldwide dominion of the earth just as much as God does. This means that Satan will try to achieve dominion over all aspects of our world.
Even after the fall of man, God continued to deal with man concerning the issue of authority. God introduced covenants to give Him legal access to operate on the earth. God implemented covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc. God provided blood sacrifices to cover sin so that His people could be counted as being righteous and in right standing with God. Through covenant relationships, God’s people could operate in a measure of His delegated authority, rule, and dominion.
Redemption
Jesus came to fully restore authority over the earth to God’s people. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, He declared that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him.
Matthew 28:18 - And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Jesus was the Redeemer who was sent by God to reverse Satan’s works and ultimately restore God’s plan for man to rule and reign upon the earth. The purpose of redemption is to restore us back to our original relationship with God and the earth.
The following breakdown outlines the sequence of man’s restoration as a ruler:
• God created man in His image and gave him dominion on the earth
• Man falls into sin and away from God
• God predicts a coming Redeemer to restore man to his place under God
• God sends Jesus the Redeemer
• Jesus begins to delegate authority to His followers while on earth
• Through Christ, man is ultimately restored back to fellowship with God and His purposes
• The Kingdom message testifies to the restoration of man’s God-given dominion on the earth
Today, those who are redeemed are called to go out and take dominion over every aspect of life and culture, bringing all things back into submission to the Kingship of Christ.
Just as Adam could not rule without Eve, Christ does not rule without His imperfect Bride, the church.
Revelation 11:15 – Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
Jesus reigns as King forever. The born-again believer is destined to reign on the earth through King Jesus and the Kingdom of God which supersedes and has dominion over the kingdoms of this world.
History has shown repeatedly that the governments of men may increase for a while, but eventually they fall or diminish.
Isaiah 9:6-7 - For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
The gospel of the Kingdom is important, because this is the gospel that must be preached in all the earth before the end can come.
Matthew 24:14 - And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
With the gospel of the Kingdom comes the right to represent King Jesus in the earth as His ambassador. The King has designated His servants to do His will. As shown in the Garden of Eden, the Lord’s will is for His people to have dominion over the earth.
One day Jesus will return and rule the earth, but for now He is not physically present on the earth. Christ’s dominion is to be exercised and God’s image is to be reflected through the church. It is through the church that Christ is regaining that which was lost in the fall.
The manifold wisdom of God is now to be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places in accordance with God’s eternal purpose.
Romans 5:17 - For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
We are not subject to the evil effects of a fallen world. We can choose to live in victory every day of our lives and allow God to rule through us.
As we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us we bear the renewed image of Jesus every day.
Having been created in the image and likeness of God and having been redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit, let us live each day joyously manifesting the Christian life.
1 Corinthians 6:11 - And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
