The Cultural Mandate of God

You may know, and I may have shared this with you in the last few weeks that I've been doing a few courses, few classes over the last few weeks on the issue of business and sustainability. So environment and looking after nature and sustainable practices. And recently, I had a conversation with someone about the philosophy behind this sustainability movement. You might be aware of this. It's a growing trend.

There's a lot of money to be made in sustainability, but there's also very passionate people that are very concerned about climate change and global warming and so on. Now this person operates in the business world. He wears a suit. He's got a nice, you know, haircut and so on. But he's a strong believer that human beings and corporations have a responsibility to protect the earth.

Now in this conversation, I asked why is it that you believe humans have this responsibility? Why do we have a responsibility? Where did we get this responsibility? If we are just part of the evolutionary process, we're a species that has sort of ground its way to the top of the food chain through survival of the fittest, we are cream of the crop.

Why do we now have to look after the rest? The man had been using the term stewardship left, right and centre when he was talking. We are stewards of the earth. And again, I asked him, why use that word? To be a steward means you have actually been entrusted by someone to look after something.

That is the definition of a steward. And the man was stumped. He knew that he had a responsibility, but he didn't know where it came from. And he comes sort of from an evolutionary worldview. Now this morning, we're going to be looking at responsibility and the responsibility that God gives to us as mankind.

But it goes further, much further than sustainability of the environment, and it moves to cover every important relationship that we have as human beings. In rough sort of terms, it covers the three most important relationships that humans have: the one of a relationship with the creator, with God, a relationship with humanity, and a relationship with the earth. And from these, we'll see the mandate or the command that God has given all of mankind, a responsibility that we can't shrug off, a responsibility that we can't ignore because it forms the very basis, the very foundation of our being. So we're going to have a look at that this morning, and it's going to be broad, it's going to be teaching, but I really believe it's some very fundamental thing.

So let's turn to Genesis 1. Right in the beginning, and we're going to read from verses 24 to the end of the chapter. And then after that, we skip a few verses to, we go to chapter 2 from 18 to 25. So firstly, Genesis 1:24. And God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.

And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in His own image.

In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Then God said, I give you every plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground, everything that has a breath of life in it, I give to it every green plant for food, and it was so. God saw all that He had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Then we go to chapter 2, and we read from verse 18 to 25. The Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. So far, our reading. I don't know if you picked up on this, but there are three relationships that are mentioned in the verses of the Bible and of the creation of mankind.

Firstly, God reveals to us that man was created to have a relationship with a relational God. Mankind, according to the creation account, was the crowning gem of creation. It was the last and the final act of creation, and mankind was given a place of prominence. We see a breakup in the structure of the creation accounts. If you remember, God will have a creative word, and it will come to be.

God said, let there be light, and it will so. And then it says, and there was morning and there was evening, the first day. And then it starts with the second day and God created. And this is a structure that's repeated over and over and over again. But when we get to the sixth day where God creates all the livestock, all the living animals of the field, there's a difference here.

There's a breakup in the structure of the creation event. God reflects after he creates all the animals on earth. He reflects that it was good, and the passing of a morning and evening is seen in verse 26. But then also, we see God's reflection and His contemplation of creating mankind. One scholar says that this contemplation, this reflection, this breakup in the structure builds a sense of expectation, almost a sense of deep contemplation and thought as God considers the outworking of His decision to create mankind.

God thinks carefully about what He's about to do next. And this scholar says that it's possibly revealing the great risk of creating something so unique and something so special as these human beings. These human beings who have the power of obedience to God's royal decrees or the power to disobey them. It's as if creation pauses. God created man, it says in verse 27, in His own image.

What does this image mean? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Does it mean we look like God? Does it mean we have hands and feet like God has hands and feet? Does it mean that God has a nose or eyes?

Does it mean we, perhaps, are spiritual beings? That God is spirit and we are spirit. Does it mean that perhaps we are rational? That God is rational? Does it mean creative?

It could be some of these things. Perhaps not the nose and the mouth thing. But scholars and theologians agree that more than anything else here, what we see is the image of God is a relational aspect. Because what we see here is the Trinity. God is saying, and in this contemplation, let us make man.

There's a plural that God uses here of Himself. And so what we see here, the Trinity as a picture of perfect unity and relationship with one another existing before time, before space, the Trinity in perfect relation with one another decides amazingly, amazingly to create another party, another entity to take part of this Trinity, this trinitarian relationship. It's an astounding act of grace. Creation itself is an act of grace. This Trinity, this ultimate perfect relationship that God has with Himself, within Himself, does not need the universe, does not need mankind, and yet God decides to make man in our own image, He says, of Himself.

A scholar, Gerhard von Rad, an Old Testament scholar, points out that man is created in the image of God to have significant relationship with Him. He points out that this relationship is not only with God, but to the rest of creation. Von Rad points out that in the ancient Near East, which was the context of Israel and where this creation account was written, deities and monarchs would have places, mountains or valleys or whatever, that would be claimed as theirs. And how they would claim that? So a king would claim a place, a city, by placing his statue there.

And that image of this king would say this is the king's soil. This is his claim. He stakes his claim by putting an image of himself there, and it helped the Roman Empire. It's like our modern day flags. If we claim a piece of Antarctica, Australia has a flag posted there.

This is our place. This is our piece of Antarctica. So what we see here when God says, I will create man in my image, mankind becomes the image bearer of God, and the original readers would have understood this to mean that God is maintaining His claim on creation through the representation of mankind. As God's image bearers and representatives, mankind is here to proclaim the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Verse 27, moving on, is a beautiful poetic stanza of God's creation of mankind.

It states three times. It states three times that God created humanity. And it signifies on the one hand, humanity's unity with the rest of creation. Humanity is no different necessarily to all the animals and the livestock that were created in day six. There's a unity with the rest of creation.

We are created along with all other things. We are not divine. We do not have a divine spark as some new age religions will tell you. We are not divine. We are created.

We are not above the rest of creation. In our very essence, we have animals like those we find in the zoo or the Kruger National Park. But likewise, on the other hand, the poetic stanzas also says that we have been created in God's image, and there's a special relationship there. Adam bears God's image, and it bears an image of a triune relational God. So we are created to have a relationship with this relational God.

That's the one aspect of the purpose of humanity and its creation. The second thing we see is that humanity, mankind, is given a purpose in how it's to relate to the rest of creation. In the next verses 28 to 31, God blesses mankind, and He gives them a purpose and a command. Mankind is to be fruitful, to increase in number, to fill the earth, to subdue it, and to rule over it. Part of the purpose of mankind being created in the image of God is answered in this very next verse that we read.

Of all the creatures that God has made, of all the creatures God has made, mankind alone is created by the hand of God. Everything else is created by God's spoken word. God said and it was so. God said and it was so. In Genesis chapter 2, which is kind of like the zooming in of these few verses we read in chapter 1.

In Genesis chapter 2, in verse 7, we see that man is formed out of the dust of the ground. Man is formed out of the dust of the ground. He is made out of carbon. We see mankind being made by God's hand, yet the rest of creation is made by God's spoken word. There is a uniqueness here.

There is a relational aspect again. Mankind is fashioned by God's hand, like a potter fashions an object out of clay, and yet, mankind is formed out of dust. Mankind is formed out of dust, which is integrally a part of creation. And so we see that there's a fine balance. There's a fine balance about this relationship with a supernatural God and a relationship with the natural earth.

Mankind is special and yet not special. Mankind is different yet dependent. This special creation called man is entrusted with a command. God says, be fruitful, increase, fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over it. The Hebrew words kabosh, which means to subdue, and radah, which means to rule, has been a bit of a difficult topic for scholars to talk about or to think through because the term usually carries the meaning to subdue at least, what someone would do in subduing a slave or something like that.

It's a it has a negative connotation, traditionally. But here we find, within the context and with other words used in context, the word actually means a protection and a nurturing. It's not in the sense of an exploitation. And our rule, therefore, is a delegated role. We rule under God's authority to exercise a rule that is modelled on God's rule.

By creating humanity to rule over creation, God hasn't granted us an absolute right to exploit the creation for our own ends. Rather, He has delegated us a responsibility to protect creation and to take care of it. So mankind is given the task to look after the earth as stewards or guardians. And this is where that idea of stewardship comes in. Guardians of the earth to act as God's representatives and image bearers.

Then moving on to the third and final purpose of mankind on the in the creation account, we see in that passage in Genesis 2 that we read, the account of Adam being given Eve. And that is another beautiful part of Scripture. Adam begins his task, the task that God gives him to rule over, to subdue the earth. Adam begins that task by looking at all the animals that God has made and giving them names. And you can just picture the amazing process that that would have been.

Adam discovers the amazingly creative work of God in His design of these animals. Imagine the colours that he would have seen. Imagine the sizes and the amazing noises that he would have heard. Adam begins to work through all the species. And perhaps in Adam's heart, there's a longing for a companionship, a relationship that would be different to the ones he had with the animals.

God says in verse 18, it is not good for man to be alone. It is not good for man to be alone. Now this is very jarring, again, for us as readers because everything else in creation had been deemed good. God created and it was good. God created and it was good.

And God saw everything that He had created and it was very good. And then it comes to Adam, and God says it is not good. It is not good for man to be alone. God gives Adam Eve. And with Eve, God creates human relationship.

God creates fellowship. And although many wedding sermons talk about the idea of a man being united with his wife that we find here in verses 23 and 24, the overarching proclamation that is made here is the beginning of friendship and of companionship between one human and another. This relationship could not have been found and wasn't found amongst any of the other animals. They say dogs are man's best friend, maybe that can only go so far. With Eve, the beginning of society takes shape.

With Eve, the beginning of society takes shape. And so what we see here with the creation of Eve is the third purpose and third relationship that God gives to humanity. The first is creating man to be a relational being with a relational God. The second thing is that God creates man out of the earth to be in relationship with the earth, to be dependent upon the earth. And the third, what we see is man is created to have companionship and fellowship with another person.

Adam and Eve, the Bible says, are both created in God's image and are therefore of equal status just as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of equal status. And yet, fleshing that out a bit more on another level, we see that men and women are created for different roles even as the persons within the Trinity are created with different roles, exist within different roles. Adam and Eve are created equally, but they are not identical. And that has far reaching implications as we deal further with these issues when we talk about race and when we talk about different people groups. So what we see and we're wrapping this up.

What we see about mankind, it is given a clear purpose. It is given a clear design. And this purpose can be explained in terms of three relationships. That is what mankind has been designed to be. Mankind is designed to have a relationship with God in worship.

Mankind is designed to have a relationship with man by fellowship, and mankind is designed to have relationship with nature through stewardship. On reflection, we can see that all of human culture, all of human culture is encompassed in these three relationships. Our religious practices come from worship. Our science comes from nature and our stewardship of that. Our kinship, our literature, our arts, fellowship.

All of these things are part of culture, what we call culture, and it's based on these three relationships. And it's for this reason that Reformed theologians talk about the cultural mandate of mankind being found here in Genesis 1 and 2. The mandate for humanity, the purpose for humanity, the command for humanity is to have fellowship with mankind, to worship God, and to have stewardship of the earth. Yet, we only need to flip over to the next chapter in Genesis 3 to see that this mandate, this purpose has been deeply marred and corrupted. When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, the beautiful purpose, the sanctity, the beautiful balance of those relationships was marred.

It was critically damaged. The relationship with God was broken. As Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, no longer would they have free access and intimacy with God, which they enjoyed in the garden. Now they could only approach God indirectly by ways of sacrifice and prayer, which we see later in Genesis 4. Some, even following the example of Cain who was Adam and Eve's son, choose to live away from God's presence altogether.

Man's relationship with fellow human beings is corrupted. Immediately following their sin, Adam and Eve experience a feeling of shame in their nakedness and their exposure to God. Adam blames Eve for his sinfulness. And then Eve blames the snake, the serpent, for causing her to sin. And perhaps the most drastic indication of sin's impact on human fellowship is demonstrated in the murder of Abel at the hands of Cain, his brother.

Fellowship between fellow human beings is marred. Man's relationship to the rest of creation is also spoiled. The earth is cursed. Thorns and thistles will come up now as a result of man's sinning. Surviving on the resources of the planet would become much harder.

Nature would become susceptible to chaos as drought, earthquakes, and floods wreaked havoc. Finally, in order to cover their sin and their nakedness before God, God kills an animal for its hide to cover Adam and Eve. And so from this point on, it's implied that food comes at the supply of food and clothing and even sacrifices would come at the expense of the life of animals. And so begins the long journey of man's battle against nature. And not only will it no longer be used to merely rule, but to dominate and exploit nature.

And that is the current predicament. Yet despite the terribly sad image of the early stages of our human history, a ray of hope is given as well. In Genesis 3:15, as God declares the result of Adam and Eve's disobedience, God also declares the hope of humanity. In punishing the serpent who would later be identified as Satan, God reveals in verse 15 of chapter 3. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel. Now this verse has been identified as a protoevangelion, the first mention of the gospel. There's a promise of an offspring. There's a promise of a descendant of Eve that would crush the head of the serpent. It is not until the New Testament that we learn this offspring is Jesus Christ.

But the amazing thing of the Old Testament and the whole Old Testament is the history of God preserving the line for this offspring. Noah, Abraham, David, and all the other ancestors leading right up to the Virgin Mary. We see the glimmer of grace displayed right at the beginning of our stories as human beings. When Christ went to the cross, He took on the righteous anger of a Creator whose love had been spurned, whose relationship had been broken with the ones that He had created. He saw people who kill and destroy His image bearers, who rape and pillage His world around them.

Even though humanity deserved to cease existing as it threw off its God-given privilege of being sons and daughters of God, the grace of Christ overcame to reconcile man to God and God to mankind. When Christ arose from the grave victorious and vindicated in the sight of God, He showed that He had crushed the head of Satan. He had destroyed the power of sin and death. At the cross, Christ reinstated the purpose of humanity, a new humanity, a people living for God again. At the cross, man can become reconciled with man.

Brother with brother, sister with sister, human with human. At the cross, mankind would rightly guard and protect creation. As stewards of the world, given to them by God, mankind will now develop and sustain creation as God intended. The promise is that the old nature has gone and the new nature has come. The promise is that all of this was from God who reconciled mankind to Himself through Christ.

And because of that, gave mankind the ministry of reconciliation, of reconciling nature with man, man with man, and God with man. And so we hear the story of humanity and its purpose. And we have a task to do, a mandate to keep. As Christians, we believe we have been restored to be able to do this correctly. Let God's people show the world how to worship God, how to have fellowship with others, and how to be stewards of God's creation.