The Kingdom of God: Created in the Image of God

So I wanted to write a post about Adam’s task in the garden, but I should spend some time on the imago Dei first since this gets into his demands of obedience anyway…

Just as creation was made good, but not complete, so too was the creation of man. Adam was made very good, but not complete. “Incompletion” is not something to fear regarding creation, nor does it in any way indicate imperfection. Creation before the Fall was a type of heaven; Eden was the shadow and heaven is the reality.  Eden looked forward to heaven.  Like Adam, Eden was perfect, but it wasn’t the end goal.  Adam’s creation had an end goal in mind, in other words, a greater perfection.  That’s the notion of consummated righteousness; Adam didn’t have this yet.

Creation ended with God’s 7th Day Sabbath rest, which is what all of creation looked forward to: heavenly eternity with God. Adam’s creation is the same way. The creation of Adam, in both his bearing the Image of God and the covenantal context in which he was placed, inherently looks for greater completion.

The remainder of this post will focus on Adam’s image-bearing, and the next post in this mini-Kingdom of God series will look at the Adamic Covenant of Works. Both the imago Dei and the Covenant of Works have eschatological fulfillment as their telos.

Adam was different from the rest of creation because he was created in the Image of God. Bearing God’s likeness, he was created with righteousness, holiness, and truth. All three of these moral attributes were evident in his creation and were necessary for the crisis moment that was to take place in Genesis 3.

(Side note: I really miss my professor.  Kline was incredible and having had the privilege of being in his last class at WSC will always be one of the ultimate highlights of my life.)

This is Kline’s understanding of the biblical data concerning the imago Dei:

1)  Dominion – Here Adam reigned and had dominion as a vassal.  This means he was to reign in the same way His King reigned.  Adam was to have dominion in the way God ruled over the world.  Adam was God’s representative in Eden.  In Genesis 3:22 the Lord states that man is like us “with respect” to understanding good and evil. This is using the same language as Genesis 1:26 saying that man is like God.  This type of understanding of understanding good and evil is traditionally a category held for kings.  Kings are the ones who know good and evil – and this is how man is becoming like God. God is saying man has entered into the judicial process of discerning right from wrong

2)  Ethical Excellence – We are not talking about merely ethical faculty, but ethical excellence. This is separate from the judicial process. This comes out in the re-creation. Man loses his moral excellence in the fall. But it was there in creation – he was made upright. But there was still a greater capacity – that he would have been to be confirmed in his ethical excellence (not able to sin). Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 are helpful with describing Adam’s moral qualities.

3)  The Visual Image – Adam’s physical body was a picture of the spiritual body he was meant to obtain.  I Corinthians 15:40ff says, “…there are heavenly and earthly bodies…more glorious in the resurrection, so we will be.” Philippians 3:21 says, “God will transfer our lowly bodies into glory like his.”

Adam had 1) dominion authority and 2) ethical excellence (in being made perfectly knowledgable, holy, and righteous), but he was yet to be confirmed and consummated in prefect righteousness which was a reward held out to him regarding his 3) visual image.

In other words, Adam was created in mind with a greater perfection to come, but it was contingent upon whether he would obediently and perfectly live out his dominion mandate and execute his ethical qualities in a way that rightly represented Him in whose image he was created, namely his sovereign King–God.  Adam was to rightly rule the Kingdom of God in Eden, so that he would be fit to enter into the eternal Kingdom of God in heaven as the perfect image bearer.

The Kingdom of God: Creation

The Kingdom of God is what I believe to be the major unifying theme of Scripture (with covenant theology as the structural backbone). Ultimately any discussion on the Kingdom of God leads us to Christ who is the central figure in the Bible. Because of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Kingdom of God lately. As always, a good place to start is at the beginning, which brings us to Genesis 1-2 and the Kingdom of God.

If you take a close look at Genesis 1, one of the central points of the passage is the sovereign reign of God. Genesis 1:1 begins with God’s absolute ruling power. God creates the heavens and the earth (or the invisible and the visible respectfully) by the word of His power. As He creates, God utilizes the fiat-fulfillment pattern. God says, “Let it be…” and so it becomes, just as a king of an ancient civilization made a command and it came to pass exactly as he had said. Genesis 1 is saturated with royal language of a Creator King; God says it and it happens.

The structure of Genesis 1 also speaks to the Kingdom of God. These are the first three days of creation:

• Day 1: Light is created.
• Day 2: Sky and water are created
• Day 3: Land and vegetation are created

Days 1-3 are all types of varying realms (or kingdoms).

These are the next three days of creation:

• Day 4: The luminaries are created
• Day 5: The sea creatures and winged-creatures are created
• Day 6: Animals and humans are created

Notice, in days 4-6 you have creatures related to the realms described in days 1-3. It becomes clearer if you take the two triads of days 1-3 and 4-6 and pair them up like this:

• Day 1: Light is created. (Realm)
  Day 4: The luminaries are created (Creature king)
  The luminaries rule the light.

• Day 2: Sky and water are created (Realm)
  Day 5: The sea creatures and winged-creatures are created (Creature king)
  The sea creatures rule the water and the winged-creatures rule the sky.

• Day 3: Land and vegetation are created (Realm)
  Day 6: Animals and humans are created (Creature king)
  Humans and animals rule the land and vegetation.

Adam, the first man, is created to rule over the land. Adam is special, in that, he was created in the Image of God. He was created as a reflection of who God is and what He does. Adam was to rule because God rules His good creation perfectly. God is a king, so Adam too is a king. Adam’s kingship stems from God’s rule.

The best way to describe Days 1-6 is to use the word “creation”. Creation is the totality of the visible and invisible realms spoken into existence. Again, who is creation’s king? Genesis 1-2 proclaims it to be none other than God the Creator. Day 7 is the key.

• Days 1-6: Creation (Realm)
  Day 7: Holy rest (Creator king)
  God rules His very own creation.

On Day 7 God enters into His eternal rest (not because He is tired from the work of creation) but because He will rule creation with goodness from His everlasting throne. Day 7 is unending because there is no morning and evening. The theological purpose of Genesis 1-2 is to present God as the King ruling over His Kingdom of Creation. But what makes Day 7 so special is that it begs something future, something better. Creation was good, even very good, but it wasn’t complete. God’s heavenly, eternal rest is the same rest that is promised to Adam. Adam too is to enter into this same sabbath rest. This sets us up for the next post.

But a final question must be quickly asked: So where is Christ in creation? Paul is clear in Colossians 1:15-17:

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Christ is the Creator King. The Scriptures begin with the Kingdom of God and this theme that Christ is King will run throughout the remainder of the Bible. I hope to show you that.

For a future post:

When you look closer at Genesis 2, the first major section of redemptive history (creation) is further described: the theocratic Kingdom of God in the Garden of Eden. With every theocratic kingdom, you have at least three things by way of definition (king, people, and land). In the parentheses are those characteristics true of the Garden of Eden:

1. A holy king (God the Creator)
2. A holy people (Adam the Vassal King)
3. A holy land (The Garden of Eden)

To be continued: Adam’s task in the Garden and the promise of eternal rest set before him.