Are You in Adam or in Christ? - Adam's Race

ADAM’S RACE

Gen 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." NKJV

Let’s inspect these some of words in detail- “OUR IMAGE” and ‘OUR LIKENESS” – the same root Hebrew word stated twice and translated as two different words in English -resemblance, representative figure, from an unused root meaning to shade. So man is made to resemble God, to be God’s representative. This is repeated for emphasis. Let’s not miss the point. We are created to resemble God. When everything false is taken away, that is who we are.

“DOMINION” – to subjugate, to come to have dominion, to prevail against, to rule over, to take. We are to be in charge of every other living thing, we are equipped to handle the responsibility for the governance of all life on earth. Wow!

“IN HIS OWN IMAGE” and “THE IMAGE OF GOD” – Yes, these are the SAME two words as at the beginning of these verses. Repeated twice and repeated twice more. We really need to get this. Man is made to resemble God, to be God’s representative on earth, we are to rule over every other thing. Life on earth is our responsibility. We are in charge, God told us.

“BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, FILL THE EARTH FRUITFUL - bear, bring forth (fruit), (be, cause to be, make) fruitful, grow, increase.

MULTIPLY - to increase in whatever respect. Bring in abundance, bring up, grow up, and heap.

FILL THE EARTH - to fill or be full of (literally or figuratively), satisfy, take wholly, replenish. We are the ones that cause the earth to produce what the earth is designed to produce. We are to do this until everything is complete in every way - until there is satisfaction - until the earth is full of fruit.

“DOMINION” – It’s the same word as before, another repeat for emphasis. We are in charge, we are to take this thing and rule. God has given it to us to do. He’s delegated His own authority to us, by design, on purpose. Apparently the earth cannot just go along on its’ own and produce the “fruit” God intents. He has told us to take it. There is giving from God here, and there is receiving and accepting the job responsibility on our part. It is not just a done deal. God repeats the instructions – “This is the way you are built – take this – be in charge- bring this thing to fulfillment – till all my plans are satisfied. “

The Bible tells us that God is Love. As His representatives, we are to be displaying His nature and character until the whole earth is filled with His glory. Good enough.

1 John 4:16 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. NIV.

Further. The bible gives many descriptions of what Love look like.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. NIV

So, God’s plan is for us to be in the overseers of things on earth, and everything will grow and prosper until such a time that everything displays Love, and there is no more left to do. We say, “ Thanks God for all the great stuff, we’ll take over, just like you said, and it will all work out.” But it doesn’t work out, it a big mess, there’s murder, starvation, wars, pestilence, storms, earthquakes, atrocity after atrocity, and on and on. We blame God for all this because it was His idea in the first place, and we think that maybe God isn’t as good and powerful as He claims to be. Maybe this whole thing was a little more than what God can really manage and He’s lost control! We think that we had better just look out for ourselves, after all we are only human and the best we can hope for is a little happiness. What’s so wrong with that? We begin to think that God doesn’t care if I am satisfied.

We begin to think that God is just looking for our failures so he can keep us out of heaven, whatever that is; maybe we are supposed to make our own idea of heaven. What’s the difference, what’s the big deal?

After all I am just trying to survive….