Question #1

What was the purpose for the creation of man?

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In brief, God’s plan for mankind has never changed from the day man was created in the Garden of Eden, and the day is soon coming when it will be fulfilled.  The plan was for man, in partnership with and in dependence upon God, to rule the earth.  By God’s decree, Adam was to have dominion (rulership) over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28); but by wrongly exercising his will, he fell into sin and forfeited his right to this rulership.  This allowed Satan, the “god, ruler, and prince” of this world, along with his angelic hosts, to continue in their present positions of rulership (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2; 6:12).  But God’s purpose for man will not be thwarted.  God executed a plan of redemption for man in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and He is presently acquiring a bride that will soon be united with Christ for the purpose of together reigning and ruling during the Messianic Era, a thousand year period of Theocratic government upon earth (Revelation 20:4-6).

For more detail regarding God’s purpose for man, note the comments by the following commentators of the Word:

Joseph C. Dillow[1]

Man was to rule!  It was the lesser creature who would be crowned with glory and honor.  It was the inferior creature who would be placed in rulership over Satan’s world!  The glory, honor, and sovereignty that Satan had stolen in independence and unbelief would be regained by the inferior creature living in servanthood and faith!  In this way pride is rebuked.  It was God’s purpose that the lesser creature living in dependence upon God would obtain a higher position than the superior creature, who had stolen his by independence and unbelief.  Years later the Savior would say, “he who is least among you all will be great” (Luke 9:48).

God intends to humble the proud and independent in a unique way.  He intends that the lower creature, man (created lower than the angels and hence lower than Satan), should achieve the highest position (“all things in subjection under his feet” [Hebrews 2:8]).  Thus, the lower creature would achieve by dependence upon God a higher position than the higher creature, Satan, achieved through independence.  For “He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels” (Hebrews 2:5).  Out of the least, God will bring the greatest.  It was as MAN that the Savior defeated the enemy.  It was as MAN that He silenced the principalities and powers.  It will be as MAN that He will reign over the future kingdom of God upon this earth.

This future kingdom is the subject of hundreds of passages in the Old Testament.  It is a glorious reign of servant kings that extends to “all the works of His hands.”  (This may suggest that one day mankind will rule the galaxies!)  The lion will lie down with the lamb, universal righteousness will reign, and there will be no war.  Disease will be abolished, and the world of Satan will be placed under the rule of the Servant King and His companions (Hebrews 1:9).

One day, the Scriptures everywhere affirms, the struggle of fallen man will finally come to an end.  This consummation will not be achieved by social engineering or by the successful implementation of any human ideology.  Rather, it will be accomplished by a supernatural intervention of God in history, the second coming of Christ. 

Finally, history will achieve a worthy outcome — the kingdom of God.  Page after page of Scripture speaks of this glorious future and the possibility that those who are Christ’s servants now can achieve positions of honor in that future glory then.  These positions of honor are an important aspect of the believer’s future inheritance.

The divine drama of universal history has been played out upon a stage called “earth.”  It was on earth that the fall of man occurred.  It was on earth that Satan lived and ruled.  It was on earth that the Son of God came and answered Satan’s lie.  It is therefore fitting that it will be on earth that the final resolution of universal history will occur.

However, there are intimations in Scripture that the future reign of the servant kings will embrace the universe as well.  We are told, for example, that the saints will one day not only rule the world but will also rule over the angels (1 Corinthians 6:1-3).  Since the domain of the angels extends far beyond terrestrial boundaries, we may assume that the kingdom of those who rule over them does so as well.  David reflected upon the divine commission in Genesis to “rule and have dominion” in Psalm 8:4-6.  While David [in this passage] . . . refers to things on earth, the writer to the Hebrews expands that concept . . . . (Hebrews 2:8).

It is clear that the reign of the Messiah extends to heaven and earth.  Since the metochoi [His companions] are co-heirs with Him (Romans 8:17), their reign by virtue of association with Him will therefore extend to the cosmos itself (1 Corinthians 15:28; Philippians 2:20; Hebrews 1:1, 2).  We are told that the entire creation waits for the future reign of God’s servant kings (Romans 8:17-21).

It is evident that this future kingdom embraces the entire created order.  One day mankind will conquer the galaxies!  While it is true that one purpose of the heavens was to “declare the glory of God,” it seems that they were also created to be place in subjection to man.  Perhaps the future kingdom with its reign of universal righteousness and perfect government will result in a technological explosion as well as a spiritual one. 

Then, and only then, in submission to the King will man be able to achieve his fondest dreams, to rule and have dominion.  The future kingdom will witness the greatest explosion of human creativity and useful work in the history of man.  Man will finally be what God intended him to be.

Gary T. Whipple[2]

God’s plan has always been for man to rule the earth.  This privilege was first revealed in Genesis 1:28 when God gave to Adam dominion (rulership) over the earth.  Adam however, fell in sin and as a result forfeited this right to Satan.  Since God’s plans and purposes cannot be thwarted, this plan will be fulfilled in the future, in the person of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).  This will happen when He returns to earth, disposes of Satan, and rules with His Bride as the “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

In order for this to take place in the future, Jesus Christ had to first qualify to rule and reign by completing His redemptive work for man on the cross (Hebrews 12:2).  This occurred at His first coming.  Man must also qualify to rule and reign with Him through faith in Him and His finished work on the cross, and by a continuing faith through His Word.

Nancy Missler[3]

Man was originally called into existence to rule and reign over all the earth (Genesis 1:26-28).  He was created in the image of God so that one day he could become a “servant-king” alongside the true King, Jesus Christ.  God intended that man would replace Lucifer — the god of this world — who had rebelled against His divine power and authority.  Lucifer, however, was determined to hold on to his position at all costs and thwart God’s plan in any way he could.  He came up with a scheme to deceive Adam and Eve, the first Mr. and Mrs. Man.  At his prompting, Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s rule and as a result, they died spiritually (Genesis 3:23, 24).

God’s purpose for redemption is to place us back in the position for which we were originally created — to be joint-heir with Christ and to rule and reign with Him over the world (Genesis 1:26).  Since God’s primary purpose for mankind was not fulfilled at the beginning of time because of Adam and Eve’s sin, God has determined to accomplish His purposes in the coming kingdom where man will occupy a regal position over a restored earth (Acts 3:21).

Arlen L. Chitwood[4]

The First Man; the First Adam

Though Satan’s fall and disqualification to rule resulted in a portion of God’s kingdom being reduced to a ruin, God had plans for the earth as a province within His kingdom that would far exceed anything seen during Satan’s rule.  This province would be the place where an individual created in the image and likeness of God would one day rule.  Further, and foremost as the rulership relates to man, this province would be the place where God’s Son (as the second Man, the last Adam, the Head of a new order of Sons) would likewise one day rule.  And then, ultimately, this province (actually, the new earth) would be the place where God Himself, along with His Son and man (redeemed through His Son’s finished work at Calvary), would rule the universe.

To realize all of this though, the earth must first be restored and a new ruler brought forth.  And that’s what the opening two chapters of Genesis are about — the restoration of the earth (1:2b-25), the creation of man as the earth’s new ruler (1:26-28; 2:7), along with the removal of the woman from the man to reign as consort queen with him (2:21-25).

Thus, the person eventually brought on the scene to take the scepter was not of the angelic creation.  Rather, this individual constituted an entirely new creation in the universe.  He was created uniquely different — in the image and likeness of God; and not only was he created uniquely different but he was also created for a revealed purpose, a purpose that had to do with the government of the earth. 

Man was created to replace the incumbent ruler, to take the scepter that Satan held — “let them have dominion [i.e., ‘let them rule,’ which, of necessity, would have had to include the man and the woman together, for the woman was part of the man and completed the man]” (Genesis 1:26-28).

(In line with the previous, there was both a near and a far purpose for man’s creation.  The near purpose had to do with rulership over the earth [which will be realized during the Messianic Era], and the far purpose had to do with rulership within other parts of the universe [which will be realized following the Messianic Era].)

The ruined earth over which Satan ruled following his fall was restored with a view to man taking the scepter (Genesis 1:2b ff).  However, Satan, knowing what God was in the process of doing through the restoration of the earth and man’s subsequent creation, immediately sought to bring about man’s disqualification.  And this is exactly what he did through deceiving Eve, which resulted in Adam having no choice but to also eat of the same forbidden fruit Eve had been deceived into eating.

Adam fell as the federal head of God’s new creation, man; and this not only resulted in man’s disqualification (placing him in a position wherein he could not assume the scepter) but it also resulted once again, as before, in a ruined kingdom (the earth brought under a curse but not ruined to the extent that it was uninhabitable for man).

However, unlike events following Satan’s fall, redemption entered the picture when man fell.  God not only provided immediate redemption for Adam and Eve following their fall but He also foretold the ultimate victory (over the incumbent ruler) of mankind’s coming Redeemer (Genesis 3:15, 21).

Thus, redemption was to be provided for man, with a view to his ultimately realizing the purpose for his creation.  Man was to be redeemed so he could, as God intended, one day take the scepter and rule within God’s governmental structure of the universe (first over the earth, then throughout the universe itself).

The Second Man; the Last Adam

Galatians 4:4-7 perhaps outlines the entirety of the matter about as well as any similar passage in Scripture.  First, there is Christ’s first coming in order to redeem man (vv. 4, 5);  and the stated purpose for redemption is then said to be adoption and heirship, which have to do with events surrounding Christ’s second coming  (vv. 5-7).  This, of course, is the heirship previously mentioned in Galatians 3:29:

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (cf. Genesis 22:17, 18)

Christ came as the second Man, the last Adam, for He must not only redeem that which the first man, the first Adam lost in the fall but He must also occupy the headship that Adam possessed.  Only through so doing could God one day give His Son “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,” something that the Son is presently inviting redeemed man to share with Him in the position of co-heir in that coming day when He receives the kingdom from the Father (Daniel 7:13, 14; Revelation 11:15; cf. Romans 8:16-18; Revelation 2:26, 27; 3:21).

The first man, the first Adam had a bride taken from his body who was to reign as consort queen with him.  And so must it be with the second Man, the last Adam.  The matter has been set within God’s activities surrounding the man whom He brought forth in Genesis, and it cannot change within His activities surrounding the Man whom He is about to “again” bring into the inhabited world (Hebrews 1:6, 9; 3:14; cf. Ephesians 5:30-32).

A husband-wife relationship of this nature is seen in Scripture at three different points within God’s overall revelation to man — past, present, and future.  It is seen in the past in the relationship that existed between Adam and Eve, and it is seen in the future in the relationship that will exist between Christ and His bride.  Then it is seen between these times, during the present, in the relationship that exists between a man and woman within the bonds of marriage.

A man leaves his father and mother, is joined to his wife, and they become “one flesh,” as in the beginning.  The man and woman, in this position, as “one flesh,” then become “heirs together of the grace of life.”  And the whole matter is said to be a great mystery surrounding “Christ and the Church,” pointing to a relationship that will exist yet future (Genesis 2:21-24; Ephesians 5:25-32; 1 Peter 3:7).

(Note:  The preceding is why husbands are “to love their wives as their own bodies” [Ephesians 5:28, 29].  The woman originated from the body of the man.)

The man and woman in Genesis were to hold the scepter together; they were to rule and reign as “one flesh.”  The Man and woman yet future (Christ and His bride) are also to hold the scepter together; they are to rule and reign as “one flesh.”  And during the present time there is a sense, on a spiritual plane, in which the man and woman are to “reign in life” (holding a scepter) as “one flesh” through being “heirs together of the grace of life” (cf. Romans 5:17-21; 1 Peter 3:7).

The latter would, of necessity, have to be the case, for that is the way in which God dealt with matters in the past, establishing an unchangeable pattern that continues into the future (at which time the relationship will be realized in its fullness).  And a husband-wife relationship of this nature during the present time could only be looked upon as the highest possible form of the spiritual life within that relationship.

It is a God-designed apex upon which the marriage relationship should exist and function.  This is something that Adam and Eve lost in the fall, this is something that a man and woman can possess on a spiritual plane today, and this is something that will be restored (in its fullness) within the relationship Christ and His bride will possess yet future.

God has set aside an entire dispensation, lasting two millennia, during which He is calling out a bride for His Son.  This is the time in which we presently live (typified by events in Genesis 24); and God has set aside this rather long period of time, for this one centrally revealed purpose.  In order to bring matters to pass within the person of the second Man, the last Adam, which matters were begun in the person of the first man, the first Adam, a bride must be acquired for the Son.

Salvation made available to man through Christ’s finished work at Calvary is for a purpose, and that purpose is to be realized within the framework of man having a part in God’s governmental rule of the universe.  Man’s destiny is to rule and reign, but he must first be redeemed.  And during the present dispensation — with the thought in mind of redemption for a purpose, having to do with rulership — God has directed His activities toward the acquisition of a bride to rule as co-heir with His Son. 

Thus, salvation during the present dispensation is with a view to ascending the throne with God’s Son as His bride, which will be realized during the coming Messianic Era.

(For a full discussion of the work of the Spirit during the present dispensation, in the preceding respect, refer to the author’s book, Search for the Bride.)

Today we are living very near the end of the dispensation, very near that time when the Church (Christ’s body) will be removed from the earth, the bride will be seen removed from the body (following issues and determinations surrounding the judgment seat), and the bride will be presented back to Christ (with a view to the Messianic Era).  The two will be “one flesh,” as in the Genesis account; and the two, as “one flesh,” will take the scepter and exercise the “dominion” that the first man, the first Adam lost in the fall.  Seated on the Son’s throne, holding the scepter, Christ and His bride will, together, rule the earth for 1,000 years (cf. Revelation 2:26, 27; 3:21).

Scott Crawford[5]

Central to all biblical thought is the sovereignty of God.  God is the creator and sustainer of all things (cf. Colossians 2; Revelation 4, 5).  He is absolutely supreme and orders all things according to His liking.  All creation is thus subject to His dominion.  Since creation was made for God’s pleasure, it is subservient to His plan and purpose.  Revelation chapters four and five provide a picture of the ultimate worth of God as well as the ultimate purpose of creation.  The apostle John reveals the purpose for creation is to honor and magnify the Creator.  All things were created by Him with all things created for His pleasure.  Throughout all eternity, creation will worship and praise the Creator.

The crowning achievement of God’s creation was mankind.  Man was made in the likeness and image of God (cf. Genesis 1:26).  Being made in the likeness of God means man shares similar attributes of God, namely love and holiness.  Man was created as a moral being in innocence.  He was given a will with the ability to choose. 

Further, man was created by God for a specific purpose – to have dominion over the earth.  Hence, man was made to rule over the earth by serving God as an administrator over the Creator’s handiwork.  “God’s grand design is to reproduce Himself in human personalities, especially His traits of love and holiness. . . . He sought to relate to them by love, not coercion. . . . With this in mind He made Adam and Eve partners in His rule.” (Stanley Ellison)

God placed Adam and Eve in the garden for two main reasons:  firstly, to have fellowship with them while enjoying an exchange of love; secondly, to test their competency.  If man was going to rule over God’s creation, he must be qualified.  God sought to test man by allowing man to prove his ability as well as his willingness to submit to the will of God.  If man had passed the test, he would have enjoyed eternal rulership over God’s kingdom on earth.  Man would have been able to eat from the tree of life, and sin would not have entered the human race.

The Bible records the cosmic problem of sin (man’s sin and angelic sin) and how it relates to God’s kingdom, namely His kingdom on earth.  The orderly rule of God’s kingdom is what God plans to restore.  This theme of God’s kingdom, specifically the earthly kingdom, is central to Scripture.  God’s will is for mankind to worship and serve Him as a sovereign in His kingdom.  Throughout all eternity, man will worship God by reigning forever and ever in the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 22:5).

It is for the purpose of man’s reign that God instituted His mission to save man, thus restoring man to his proper position in the kingdom of God.  Ultimately, the mission of God finds its fulfillment in man’s worship and service to God in His Kingdom.