We must understand that when God forms a purpose, he never abandons it.
Sin and Satan may delay the outworking of God’s purpose, but they can never ultimately frustrate it.
Paul says this very clearly in Ephesians 1.11, speaking about our place and relationship to God in Christ. He says, in him, Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
That’s good news, isn’t it? That we are in line with the plan of a God who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
In the end, everything is going to fall in line with God’s purpose and God’s will. And this applies to God’s original purpose in creating man.
Sin and Satan have delayed it, but they will never ultimately prevent it. God isn’t so concerned about time. God is patient. He’ll take many years, many centuries, even many ages, but he’ll always ultimately work out his purpose and his plan.
So, let’s look at God’s original purpose for man, stated there at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26.
Then 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 sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
We notice that God speaks about man first in the singular, and then in the plural. He says, let us make man, and then he says, let them rule.
In other words, he’s talking about his purpose for the whole human race, not just for one individual man.
There are two main purposes clearly revealed in this statement of God.
The first is that man is to show forth God’s likeness. He’s made in God’s image and God’s likeness.
In the record of creation given in the opening chapters of Genesis, God created man on the 6th day and then he rested, he had his Sabbath on the 7th day.
I believe this brings out something in the mind of God. God would not rest until he brought forth his own likeness.
Everything else in creation was building up to that one supreme objective, that God should reproduce his own likeness.
And that, I believe, is equally true in the new creation. God will not rest until he has reproduced his own likeness.
So that’s the first purpose of God for man, to show forth God’s likeness.
The second purpose is to exercise God’s authority through man. He said of man, let them rule. And he said, over all the earth.
Man was intended to be God’s designated ruler, exercising God’s authority on his behalf over all the earth.
Now, man’s sin frustrated both these purposes of God.
In the 1st place, God’s image in man was marred by sin. After Adam fell he produced children after his own fallen likeness and image- Genesis 5:3.
Secondly, man who was destined to be a ruler became a slave, the slave of sin and of Satan. He fell from his position of rulership to a position of slavery because of his sin.
But in 1 Corinthians 15: 45 Jesus is called the last Adam.
This directly relates the purpose of his coming to the original purpose of the creation of Adam. Jesus came as the last Adam to seal up and to terminate the evil inheritance of sin and corruption in the original Adamic race, and then to fulfill the two purposes of God which had been frustrated by Adam’s disobedience.
Those 2 purposes are to show forth God’s likeness and to exercise God’s authority.
Concerning the showing forth of God’s likeness, Jesus says of himself in John 14.9, He who has seen me has seen the Father. In other words, he perfectly showed forth the likeness of God.
Concerning the exercise of God’s authority, Jesus said in John 14.10, The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works, that is, both the words and the works of Jesus received their authority from the Father, speaking and acting through Jesus.
Jesus perfectly demonstrated the Father’s likeness. He perfectly exercised the Father’s authority on his behalf, thus fulfilling the truth.
Two purposes for which Adam had originally been created, but which he failed to fulfill because of his sin.
After his death and resurrection, Jesus became the second man and commissioned his disciples to do the same for him as he had done for the Father.
In John 20, verse 21, on the resurrection Sunday evening, when he appeared to the disciples in a group, he said this, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me. I also send you.
Those are words of tremendous importance. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.
In just the same way as the Father sent Jesus, Jesus, in turn, sends his disciples.
For what purpose did the Father send Jesus?
To fulfill the purposes frustrated by Adam through his fall, to show forth God’s likeness, to exercise God’s authority. Jesus did that.
And now he commissions his disciples to do the same for him in turn, to reproduce his likeness, to exercise his authority.
That is God’s purpose for the new man, to fulfill the purpose which was frustrated by Adam through his disobedience.
Let’s look at our responsibility to reproduce Christ’s likeness. In Romans 8.29, Paul says this, for whom he, that is God, foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
There’s a statement of God’s purpose, God’s destiny for the new man, to become conformed to the image of his son, that he, the son, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God’s purpose was to bring forth many children, all children of God, but all children reproducing the likeness of God’s oldest son, his firstborn, his only begotten, Jesus.
So that’s our first responsibility in the new creation, in the new self. It’s to reproduce the image of God’s son, to reproduce God’s likeness.
Our second responsibility is to exercise Christ’s authority on his behalf. In Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20, again after his resurrection, Jesus said to his disciples, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
We need to see the point of the, therefore. Jesus says, the authority has been given to me, but I’m sending you to exercise that authority on my behalf as my delegated representatives.
So, our responsibility is to exercise Christ’s authority on his behalf by making disciples of all the nations.
There is a battle for planet earth going on. We are the ones who are supposed to take Authority over the earth until all the kingdoms of the earth become the kingdom of God. Then Jesus comes back and hands the kingdom over to the Father.
And this is the second commission given to those in the Kingdom age, in which we are living now, the kingdom is now, it is here- Mathew 25:18. We are supposed to make disciples not just every person, but every nation.
The first commission was given to those who lived in the church age which ended when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed- Mark 16:15.
These commissions are expressed in two things that Jesus tells his disciples to do, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, when we use the name of the triune God, it indicates that the authority of the triune God is behind all that we do. And in the second commission we are to teach them to observe all that I’ve commanded you, because the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost baptizing them in the Holy Spirit and fire, which removes all the work of the enemy in us.
Our teaching is the expression of the delegated authority of Jesus Christ. We are not commissioned to teach anything that we please, but we’re commissioned to teach the same that Jesus taught his first disciples.
And this process is to go on to the end of the present age we are living in (the last days, the last hour is talking about the church age that ended with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem).
For Jesus then says, lo, I’m with you always, even to the end of the age.
There’s one more important fact that I need to bring to your notice, and that is that these two purposes for the new self cannot be fulfilled completely by any individual believer but require the collective new man. Christ has relinquished his individuality and is now a many member body-1Co 12:12.
In Ephesians 2: 14 and 15, Paul says, He Himself, Jesus, is our peace, who has made the two one that’s Jew and Gentile, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two.
So, the new man is one collective new man comprising all the people of God. And this new man operates through a collective corporate body.
Speaking about our relationship to Jesus as believers, Paul says in Ephesians 4.16, From him the whole body, joined together and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
So, we are to be one complete corporate body expressing one new corporate man. This new man reenacts Christ’s earthly ministry and in this way fulfills God’s 2 purposes. He shows God to the world, and he exercises God’s authority on his behalf.
Unfortunately the body of Christ is divided, many denominations, many movements, but when a move of God will not go forward, and persecutes the next move of God, it becomes part of religious Babylon and God calls his people to come out of her, because they will never come to the fullness of the truth being a member of that church. We only grow to the extent of what the leaders of that church have attained.