Page 138 - Through New Eyes

E L E V E N

MAN: THE AGENT OF

TRANSFORMATION

Man is the crown and captain of creation. Celebrating man’s
exalted position, the psalmist sings,

When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the
moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man,
that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that
Thou dost care for him? Thou hast made him a little lower
than God, and dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou
dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast
put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:3-6).

The Bible affirms the greatness of man in his very creation,
for God said,

Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the heavens and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth (Genesis 1:26).

A survey of Genesis 1 will show us the great things that God had
already done, and that His image would also grow to do. God
had given structure to a formless world, and filled an empty
world. He had organized the oceans and the lands, and estab-
lished ecologies. Such things as these would man, ruler of crea-
tion, also do.
God’s intentions for man are set out in Genesis 2:15, “Then
the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of
Eden to cultivate (serve) it and to guard it.” There are two tasks
here, and we shall call them man’s kingly (or basilic) and priestly

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