God’s purpose is NOT to bring man into heavens – He wants to gain the earth! God created the earth for His purpose, and He created man to express Him on the earth and rule over the earth.
In Gen. 1:26-28 we see that man was created in the image of God and according to God’s likeness so that man would express God and would have dominion over all the earth.
God desires a man who rules upon the earth, a man who subdues the earth and rules over the earth for God. This is why we were created, and this is what God will obtain!
Christ will return to recover the earth and rule over the whole earth! Praise the Lord!
Man was created in God’s image
Man did not evolve from monkeys, no matter how much the scientists are trying to prove this. Man has the image of God. The Triune God had a council and He decided to create man “in Our image, according to Our likeness”, and so “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Gen. 1:26-27).
The image of God is Christ, who is the embodiment of God and the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells. Man was created in the image of Christ – man looks just like Christ, who is the image of God. Especially when man has God’s life inside and exercises his spirit to enjoy God, man looks just like Christ and expresses God!
God ordained that man would rule over the earth
God’s purpose in creating man is that man would rule over the whole earth. The earth was created by God and it was pure and good for God’s purpose. But at one point, one of the archangels – an angel of light, Lucifer – rebelled against God and became the devil, the day star became the enemy of God (see Isa. 14:12-15).
God Himself is too great to deal with one of His creatures – He therefore created man in His image and gave man His authority to deal with His enemy. God wants man to rule over the earth and express Him, and especially God desires that man would rule over Satan and eventually fully defeat him!
In the Psalms we see that God desires the earth – He wants to recover the earth and bring it fully under His dominion through man. When Christ will return the second time, He will recover the earth to its prestene and pure state that God had initially created it!
We shouldn’t hope and desire too much to “go to heaven, where there are no problems and no sufferings” – God wants to gain the earth, and He wants man to rule and reign for Him on the earth! In the Psalms the word “earth” appears 190 times! Here are at least 12 main points concerning the earth as we read the Psalms:
- The earth was created by God – Psa. 24:2 says, For it is He who founded it upon the seas And established it upon the streams. God created the earth.
- The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness – Psa. 24:1 says, The earth is Jehovah’s, and its fullness, The habitable land and those who dwell in it. Hallelujah, the earth is the Lord’s! All the fullness of the earth belongs to Him!
- The earth was given to Christ as His possession – Psa. 2:8 says, Ask of Me, And I will give the nations as Your inheritance And the limits of the earth as Your possession.
- Christ will come back to take the earth – Psa. 96:13 says, Before Jehovah, for He is coming; For He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.
- His name will be excellent in all the earth – Psa. 8:1 says, O Jehovah our Lord, How excellent is Your name In all the earth, You who have set Your glory over the heavens!
- Christ will reign over all the earth – Psa. 72:8 says, And He will have dominion from sea to sea And from the River unto the ends of the earth.
- Christ will make His saints princess in all the earth – Psa. 45:16 says, In the place of Your fathers will be Your sons; You will make them princes in all the earth.
- The earth will return to Christ, as a response – Psa. 22:27 says, All the ends of the earth Will remember and return to Jehovah, And all families of the nations Will worship before You;
- The earth will remember Christ – Psa. 22:27, All the ends of the earth Will remember …
- The earth will worship Christ – Psa. 22:27, … all families of the nations Will worship before You;
- The earth will praise Christ – Psa. 98:4 says, Make a joyful noise to Jehovah, all the earth; Break forth, and sing for joy, and sing psalms.
- The whole earth will be filled with His glory – Psa. 72:19 says, And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may His glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
Christ will return to recover the earth
The people on the earth today are in utter rebellion against God, and the earth is not under the rule of man. When the Lord Jesus came the first time, He solved man’s individual problem by bringing in salvation and the divine life. Today in the church life we learn to overcome man’s collective problems – the territorial problems, the racial problems, the economical problems, the social injustice, etc.
But when Christ will return the second time, He will solve all the problems in the world – He will deal with them in a thorough way – and He will recover the earth! The earth does not belong to Satan – the earth is the Lord’s!
Do not look at the situation today in the world and do not try too much to “fix this world” and make it better. Our hope is in the second coming of Christ – He will solve all the unsolvable problems of humanity, and He will recover man to the position of ruling over all the earth! Christ comes back to reign over the earth together with man and through man.
There will be no more ecological problems, no more territorial problems, no more racial problems, no more political problems, no more social injustice, no more violence and crime – no more problems! Christ and His overcomers will reign over the earth, thus fulfilling God’s purpose in creating man!
Lord, thank You for creating is in Your image and according to Your likeness! Thank You for creating us to express You and have dominion over all the earth for You. Lord, save us from desiring anything else. May our focus not be the material things, our sustenance, and not even going to heaven. Lord, do recover the earth. Lord, gain the earth to be the proper place for Your expression. Our hope is in You and in Your second return to recover the earth!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, the The Glorious Church (by Watchman Nee, chapter 1), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 23.
- Hymns on this topic:
# O Lord, our Lord, how excellent / Thy name in all the earth!
# God in His own image / Hath created man, / That he may be able / To fulfill His plan;
# Man’s Creator has a purpose / For our being here on earth. / In His image we’re created, / To express His rule on earth.
