The first 3 chapters of the book of Genesis may be the most important chapters in all of literature, let alone the Scriptures. Misunderstanding these chapters skews the rest of the Bible. We must understand what our original design was, what our stewardship is, and how we can fulfill it to the glory of God. Genesis 1 and 2 lays out the plan God intended for us as stewards of His creation.
God creates the world.
In the beginning, God speaks into existence all things. In six days God creates the world and all things in it. As Creator and as God, He is sovereign over all the universe. He is above His creation but not separate from His creation. We read in Genesis 1:2 that the Spirit of God was hovering over the void and emptiness of the earth.
God is above His creation in that by His power He spoke all things into existence. He made everything from nothing by His will and wisdom. Yet we see that God is not separate from His creation because He also speaks to the man whom He created (Genesis 1:28). Genesis 3:8 says that God walked in the midst of the Garden of Eden.
Everything God created was good, yet God created man in a way unique from all other creations. Man is made in the image and likeness of God. We are not the image of God, rather we are created in His image, after His likeness. There is an important distinction to discern here. The Hebrew word for image means resemblance. When you see mankind in his original design, you see what God is like.
Jesus is called the express image of God in Hebrews 1:3. This Greek word for image is uniquely attributed to Jesus. It means an engravement, an exact copy. In other words, when you see Jesus, you see God (John 14:9).
Man, created after the likeness of God, failed to fulfill his purpose to glorify God in stewarding God’s likeness. Jesus, who by nature is God, was made in the likeness of man to save mankind, redeeming what man lost to sin and restore the image and glory of God in mankind.
In God’s original design, Adam was created in God’s image, which is our point of reference by which we enjoy fellowship with Him. God walked with man in the garden. Adam was created to steward the glory of God and fellowship with God in the administration of this stewardship.
Man is created in God’s image for the purpose of stewarding the glory of God.
From the dust of the earth, man is formed and given the breath of life. This makes him distinct from all other created beings. He was created out of the earth but given life by the breath of the Spirit.
Man enjoyed perfect fellowship with God and had the perfect capacity to reflect the glory of God. Mankind’s great dichotomy with the animal kingdom is not only found in his essence but also in his purpose. God gave man a body, mind, and nature superior to animals in order to subdue them. He designed and gifted man with a will, a spirit that makes him uniquely fitted to his created purpose.
Man was created with a nature capable of fulfilling the stewardship of creation.
Although man’s nature had limitations, his is superior to that of all other creatures on earth. As David reminds us in his Psalm that man was created a little lower than the angels. Being made in the image of God does not mean that man shares the attributes of God. Man does, however, share some of the nature of God. The desire to fellowship, a work ethic, and a heart of love motivated to provide for and protect the work of his hands are some of the characteristics man possesses by nature.
God gave him a body to do the work and a mind to subdue creation. To fulfill his stewardship, God gave man a nature that has two primary drives: a drive to work and a desire to reproduce. However, these basic drives can also be found in the animal kingdom. So what makes man different from the animals? It’s the part of man that is made after the image of God.
What makes man unique from the animal kingdom is his mind and will. There we find the image of God.
The will of man is what makes the nature of man uniquely different from the animals. The will of man is what the Bible calls the spirit of man. Modern-day scientists and psychologists attempt to explain the two natural drives found in both man and beast as being the result of our evolutionary development. What they fail to distinguish is that animals do not have a will. Animals are driven by instinct to fulfill what was put in their nature. Instinct in animals is the motivation for their behavior. That motivation is self-preservation and survival (individually and as a species). Animals both work to feed themselves and reproduce to guarantee their survival.
Man, however, was created with a will to control those drives and submit them to the design of God’s will. He was not given his nature primarily for self-preservation or survival. He was given a nature and the two principle drives of that nature to fulfill his God-given stewardship.
He was given a body to accomplish that purpose. God’s pleasure, His glory, and the fulfillment of his God-given stewardship are man’s great motivation. God provided the trees in the garden for food (survival), and God provided a wife to Adam for self-preservation (reproduction). Man did not have to worry about survival. God would take care of him as long as he willfully submitted to God’s command.
God commissioned man with stewardship.
God commissioned man to care for the garden on His behalf and commanded him to expand his dominion throughout all of creation. He created man with a nature designed to work and to reproduce. In other words, He didn’t place man in the garden and say, “If you work and fulfill my command, I will bless you.” There was no covenant made in the garden, as some theologians speculate. In a perfect world, a covenant is unnecessary where the nature of the subject involved is designed to one particular function.
Here is a simple illustration: I do not buy a toaster and then covenant with it that if it will toast my bread, then I will keep it around. The toaster was designed and commissioned to do one thing- toast bread.
God placed man in the garden and commissioned him as a steward of creation. The stewardship included the oversight of God’s garden and the development and expansion of man’s dominion in the rest of the earth. A commission is not the same as a covenant. A commission is an authority given by another authority to those who qualify (have a nature) to fulfill the task commissioned unto them.
For example, world evangelism is not a covenant God made with the church. It is a task that Christ commissioned the church to fulfill because of her nature as witnesses (Acts 1:8). Adam was created with a nature designed to fulfill its purpose, just as born-again believers are by nature of the new birth witnesses of Christ.
God gave man a body.
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 soul
Genesis 2:7
Adam’s body was formed for a specific purpose. His body was created capable of fulfilling his commission as the Steward of Creation. Man’s body was designed with strength to work and an ability to reproduce after his own kind.
The Sovereign Creator designed man’s nature and body to fulfill the stewardship to which he would be commissioned. Both his nature and his body were declared good by the Lord. This is important because understanding this concept will help us avoid dualism, false eastern philosophies (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.), and Gnosticism.
God provides a helpmeet for Adam.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him
Genesis 2:20
In order that Adam might perfectly fulfill his stewardship responsibility, God provides Adam a wife. Adam’s will, having been created in the image of God, was perfectly submitted to the Creator’s order. Man’s body and nature were perfectly suited to his stewardship responsibilities. Man’s will was perfectly suited to reflect the glory of the Lord. In congruence with the unique nature of man and because he was made with a desire for fellowship, God established marriage.
The first covenant God established was the covenant of marriage. Marriage is the cornerstone for adequately fulfilling the Stewardship of Creation and the foundation of every healthy society and civilization. The marriage covenant between a man and a woman is the only way we can fulfill our God-given purpose as stewards of the earth. Destroy the institute of marriage, and you destroy any hope of man reflecting the glory of God. No wonder the most severe judgments are reserved for those who corrupt sexuality and marriage.
NOTE: This does not mean that a single person cannot fulfill his stewardship. Christ took a bride, and in Christ, we will steward the earth as his helpmeet!