OUR PLACE IN
GOD’S PLAN
By Bryan Smith, Ph.D.
I
HAVE FOR MANY YEARS lectured across the country
on the subject of a biblical worldview. I often begin by
talking about Genesis 1:28. There God states, in the
form of a command, the reason He has made the human
race: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves
on the earth.”
I have found that these words resonate deeply with nearly
every audience. One reason is that this verse boldly asserts
what Christians want to affirm but increasingly feel they
cannot: this world belongs to God, and He has called us to
rule it in His name.
But any truth can be misunderstood, and when that
happens, faith can become a false hope. So more than once,
I have heard comments like these after one of my sessions:
“It’s time for Christians to rise up and take this world back
from the secularists!” or “God has already given us domin-
ion over these atheists and liberals, we just need to claim it.”
Finding Our Place
Such statements are uncareful applications of Genesis 1:28
and not properly informed by the rest of Scripture. God did
give dominion to the human race at the beginning of history.
But we have since fallen into sin, and thus into a dominion
that is twisted and troubled. It is true God has promised to
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restore us to a perfect dominion (cf. Gen. 3:15), but the Bible
reveals that God does not accomplish this restoration all at
once. He first restores the second Adam, His own Son, to a
triumphant dominion. Paul revealed that this was accom-
plished when God raised Jesus from the dead, “far above all
rule and authority and power and dominion” (Eph. 1:21).
But this is a restoration we have not yet been given. Paul
emphasized this truth repeatedly throughout his ministry.
Early on, he warned some of his converts that “through
many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts
14:22). Toward the middle of his ministry he told believers
they would share in Christ’s exaltation “provided we suffer
with him” (Rom. 8:17). Then, just before his own martyr-
dom, Paul wrote, “If we endure, we will also reign with him”
(2 Tim. 2:12).
There is a time for reigning but now is not that time. Now
is the time for us to suffer, just as Jesus was called to suffer
for a time. Of course, we are not to suffer for suffering’s sake.
We are to suffer with a purpose similar to Jesus’ own suffer-
ing (cf. Matt. 20:28; John 18:37). We are to suffer as those
who are called to bear witness to the salvation that God now
offers to all people (cf. Acts 5:31-33).
What is this life of witness and suffering to look like? The
Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) gives us a clue. In this
sermon, Jesus explains to His followers what the current
stage of redemption requires of them. There we learn that