The Great Commission in Genesis 1:28

This is a sermon excerpt for Sunday March 21, 2010:

26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

What I want you to do is to see Genesis 1:28 as a prototype of the Great Commission. What is the Great Commission? If you ask any Christian what the Great Commission is they will most likely, and rightly so, make reference to Matthew 28:18-20.

18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:18-20).

That is the Great Commission as laid out in the NT, but for now let’s go back to Genesis 1:28. I want us to see how this is in sorts the original “Great Commission.” God commissioned i.e. he “blessed” Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” They were to rule together as husband and wife, but they each had a distinctive role to play. God created Adam, but then God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18). Ladies, lest you think that this is some sort of inferior role you must remember that this is the same title bestowed on the Holy Spirit. He too is a deemed a Helper. By helper God did not mean that Adam was going to need someone to pack his lunch. Hey, if Adam was hungry Eve could just say, “There’s some fruit on that tree over there. Help yourself.” I’m being silly, but I think you get the picture. Neither did God envision Adam needing someone to wash his clothes because God didn’t create him or her as needing clothes to begin with. Eve wasn’t depressed because she didn’t have enough shoes or outfits. Remember that God said to “them” (plural),

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28)

God commissioned them together to rule over the earth with each fulfilling roles distinct from each other. “God created [them] in his own image” so that they would “fill the earth and subdue it and [exercise] dominion.” God meant for Adam’s rule over the earth to reflect God’s ultimate rule over the entire universe. This is God’s purpose for creating Adam: that Adam live in such a way that he mirrors the nature and character of God in all that he does. This is what it means to glorify God. The New Testament isn’t charging us with anything new when it says,

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

This is something that goes back to the intent of the original creation. Imagine Adam and Eve in the garden and for the first time coming upon the fruit of a tree whose fruit was permissible to eat. Adam could have said, “Eve, come here. You have got to take a bite of this!” Eve would taste it and say, “Wow! That’s amazing!” and they would be in awe of God’s creativity in how he made different fruits, with different sizes, colors and tastes. This is only touching one small aspect of God’s original creation. This says nothing of their awe of the Sun during the day and the moon the stars that filled the night. Consider also what they may have thought of the animals among them and didn’t pose a threat to them. Imagine Adam using a lion to rest his head on or even a bear. There was no fear. The animals were subject to Adam.
Now about the food…God found himself pleased when Adam and Eve enjoyed what his own hand had made in the same way one of the best ways to pay a chef a compliment is through the pleasure one experiences when eating whatever they’ve cooked. Your enjoyment of the dish says much about the chef’s culinary skills. He is pleased by it. It is the same way with God. There is a God-designed and God-intended connection between enjoying God through enjoying his creation, but we must maintain the distinction between God and what God has made. And neither must place them against each other like so many tragically do.
What a tragedy that there are Christians who feel guilty about enjoying God’s creation because they feel they are being idolatrous. They don’t seem to make the connection that one of the ways to glorify God is to enjoy what God has made. I’m not saying that idolatry is not a legitimate concern, but it is certainly wrong to never enjoy anything for fear of idolatry. That’s a tragedy. This is the reason why it seems that people who don’t know the Lord seem to enjoy themselves better at the Lake or at the beach than legalistic Christians do. They aren’t weighed down with false guilt.