James Jordan begins his Primeval Saints (Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis) by establishing the significance and glory of this new creature called "Man." Because he is made in the very image of the Creator God, Jordan says:
God caused light to shine on a dark world, then he began to work with it. That is what man is like...the kind of understanding man is created to have.
God laid hold of a formless world and gave it form. That is what man is like...the kind of world-shaping thing man will do.
God laid hold of an empty world and filled it. That is what man is like...the kind of productivity he will have.
God reorganized whole oceans and planted vegetation. That is what man is like...the kind of thing man will do.
God flung the sun, moon, and stars into space. Could it be this man will even do such things as this?!
Man is not a worm, but a son of the King, not a bit player on the stage of human history, but captain of the whole of God's earthly creation.
Man is given the task of imitating God by cultivating and serving the garden where he is placed. He is to beautify and transform it, as well as the wider world, into a glorious garden-city of God. Thus:
As Adam and his posterity undertook to change the earth to God's glory, they themselves would also change, growing and maturing from glory to glory.
Greater projects would require greater time and planning. As he matured...his heroic task for world-transformation would take on an "epic" quality...he and his descendants would come to see themselves as part of God's great design for history, with each contributing his or her part to the tapestry of universal glorification.
Such was the glory and destiny of man when he was created!!
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