I’ve been struck recently by the connection that the Bible repeatedly makes between the purpose/role of human work and our identity as image bearers.
A few disconnected thoughts...
1) Creation - The human “job description” is rooted in who we are as image bearers
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1v26)
As men and women, we have the awesome privilege of being created to be vice-regents of the King of the universe! He is given delegated authority to rule over the earth in a manner consistent with the will of the King. And to do so in a way that reflects the character the King has already displayed in His creative works… To order and develop creation so that it might remain “very good”, and bring glory to God. Uniquely man can reflect God’s character and represent/enact His will because man is made in God’s likeness to be His image-bearing representatives.
It is as God’s image bearers that humans are called to rule over the created order (a connection reiterated in the next two verses).
So working and taking care of creation (2v15), filling and subduing it (1v28) is not a punishment for sin, but a right expression of man’s identity as image-bearing vice-regent. That role is worked out in a way that is consistent with the working, creator God whose character man images and whose will he is to represent.
2) Fall - Human sin twists the purpose of work and ruins our ability to carry it out.
When man seeks to exchange his vice-regency for autonomous rule, his identity as image bearer is forever distorted. His relationship with God broken, the controlling parameters for his work of filling and subduing become twisted. He proceeds ever eastward, bent on his own autonomy and glory (Cain, Lamech, Babel,...).
The mandate is preserved, but the context is distorted. After the flood, the cultural mandate is repeated (Gen 9v1-2), but the context for its outworking is now distorted. Whereas previously mankind was to “rule over” the other creatures1, now man inspires “fear and dread”. The picture is one of conflict inspired by claims to autonomy.
3) Redemption - Christ restores us as image-bearers to work
In Christ, we are renewed in the image of God: ...you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col 3v9-10, also 2Cor 3v17-18)
Work is to be done for the Lord (as vice regents): And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3v17).
Work is to be characterised by service (in the image of the servant King): It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4v11) (also Matt 20v26-28, Eph 6v7-8, 1Pet2v16...).
4) Consummation - work is glorified
God’s image is perfectly recreated in God’s people: “...we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Phil 3v21).
The cultural mandate will be perfectly enacted through Christ & His people: “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth”. (Rev 5v10)
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