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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-28; Psa. 8:3-9; Heb. 2:5-9, 16
The burden of this book can be expressed in the following five statements:
Man is the center of the universe.
Christ is the meaning of human life.
The church is the expression of Christ.
The church life is the real communal life.
Go therefore and disciple all the nations.
The Bible is the divine revelation. It unveils to us not only God but even more, the purpose of God. In fundamental Christianity most of the messages are concerning man’s personal salvation. It is difficult to hear anything on God’s purpose. I hope that all of us can see what the purpose of God is.
If we want to see God’s purpose, we must come to the divine book, the Holy Bible. The center of God’s eternal purpose is man. According to the Bible and even according to scientific study, it is clear that man is the center of the universe. The universe is composed of the heavens, the earth, and millions of things created by God. The sun is the center of our solar system, but this solar system is just a small part of one galaxy, and there are millions of galaxies in the universe. We have to realize what the center of God’s universe is. From God’s Word we see that the center of God’s universe is man. If there were no human life on this earth, the universe would become meaningless.
The Bible says in Genesis 1 that God first created the heavens and then the earth. After this He created all the things of life. He began with the creation of the things of the lowest form of life, the life that is without consciousness, which is the plant life. Following this, God created the animals. The animal life is higher than the plant life because the animal life is a life with consciousness. Eventually, God created the human life. Therefore, we have the plant life as the lowest life, the animal life as the higher life, and then the human life as the highest life of all the created things.
Suppose that there were no life in this universe — no plants, no animals, and no human life. What kind of universe would that be? Would you like to live in a place without any green things or without any animals? Surely no one would like to live in such a place. Without life, the universe would become meaningless. God, however, created all kinds of life — the plant life, the animal life, and the human life. The different kinds of plant life — the trees, the flowers, and the grass — are for beauty. New Zealand is really a beautiful land because it is so green. It is beautiful because of the abundance of life.
In addition to the plant life, there are the different kinds of animal life. The plant life is for beauty, and the animal life is to satisfy man’s interest. This is why many people like to have a dog or a cat in their home. Without the human life, there would be no one to enjoy the beauty of the plant life and the stimulation of the animal life. Man is the one who manages and enjoys these created lives. This is why God did not create man first. He first created the plant life and then the animal life. Then He created man to enjoy and to exercise dominion over all things. By this we can see that man is the center of the universe. Without man, there is no meaning in the whole universe. The heavens and the earth, with the plant life and the animal life, become meaningless without man as the center.
Man is the center and meaning of the universe because God has fully entrusted man with His purpose. God did not commit Himself to any of the millions of other created items. He committed Himself only to man and entrusted man with His purpose. After He created the heavens and the earth, with the plant and animal lives, God had a conference in Himself with the three persons of the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, Let Us...” Notice the plural pronoun Us. This is very meaningful. There is only one God, but God said, “Let Us.” This indicates that there was a conference in the Godhead. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” God had this kind of conference only for creating man. In this conference of the Godhead, a decision was made to create man in His image and according to His likeness.
The second half of Genesis 1:26 says, “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” This shows us that the decision made in the conference of the Godhead was not only to create man in God’s image but also to give man the divine authority, the dominion, the ruling power, the reigning authority, over all living things. Moreover, God gave man the authority to rule over the earth and even to subdue and conquer the earth (v. 28).
We should declare, “Hallelujah! I am not a small thing, because I was created according to the counsel of the Godhead. I was created in God’s image, and I have His authority entrusted to me to rule over all things.” You should tell the animals that you have authority over them. If you do this, you will see yourself according to God’s viewpoint. This does not mean that you will be proud, but that you will respect yourself as a person who was made in the image of God to have His divine authority over all things.
We human beings forget who we are. We do not regard ourselves as being higher than the animals, as those who have authority over the animals. But we have to realize that we are higher than the animals. We can tell all the animals, “I am much higher than you. You don’t have the image of God, but I do. You don’t have the authority of God, but I do. Not only so, I have the authority over you. You have to listen to me.” We should praise the Lord for His creation of us in His image and His entrusting us with His authority. What a wonder this is!
God’s purpose is to make man first His expression and then His representative. The image of God is for us to express God, and the authority of God is for us to represent Him. We are the expression of God and also the representative of God on this earth. What a position and commission we have! Especially the young people among us have to stand on this position and realize God’s commission to man. Then they will know that they should always conduct themselves as God’s expression and God’s representative. We are the image of God and have the divine authority over all things. This shows us that man is the center of the universe. We need to go to the Lord to praise Him for His purpose with us. We need to praise Him for creating us in His image so that we may express Him and for entrusting us with His divine authority so that we may represent Him.
What are you doing here on this earth? If you realize that you were created in the image of God to express Him and that you have been entrusted with His authority to represent Him, this will revolutionize your whole life. Your life will become much more meaningful. You will never be disappointed. Of course, to be saved is wonderful, and we should praise the Lord for this. But we also have to praise the Lord for God’s purpose. God saved you for His own purpose. Thus, we all have to say, “Hallelujah for the Lord’s purpose!”
At the beginning of this chapter in the Scripture Reading, we have listed three portions from the divine Word: Genesis 1, Psalm 8, and Hebrews 2. Genesis 1 says that God decided to make man in His own image and to have man entrusted with His authority. But we know that after Genesis 1, man became fallen and lost such a position. After the fall of man, however, there is Psalm 8. The psalmist said, “When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers, / The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, / What is mortal man, that You remember him, / And the son of man, that You visit him?” (vv. 3-4; cf. Heb. 2:6). Notice that the psalmist did not say, “What are the angels?” Instead, he said, “What is mortal man?” While the psalmist was considering and looking at the heavens, he saw the moon and the stars. Seemingly, he should have had an appreciation for the angels. But instead of appreciating the angels, he said, “What is mortal man?” He looked at the heavens, the moon, and the stars, but he did not appreciate anything in the heavens. Rather, he appreciated man on this earth and wondered what man is.
Today the scientists are greatly concerned with the moon and the stars. The United States spent much money and effort to send a man to the moon. Even the psalmist was considering the moon and the stars, yet the Spirit turned him to man on this earth. We should not focus our attention on the heavens with the moon and the stars. Instead, we should focus our attention on the earth with man as the center. “O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth” (Psa. 8:1). Note that the psalmist did not say that Jehovah’s name is excellent in all the heavens, but “in all the earth.”
My burden is to help the young people realize the preciousness of man in the eyes of God, not only at the time of man’s creation but also after his fall. Everything on this earth is a mess. Due to the fall, the earth has become a tragedy. This is why man is always looking to the heavens. If the young people could fly away from this earth, surely they would do it. But God did not give us the capacity to fly away. He wants us to stay on this earth. This may not be our choice, but this surely is our destiny. We have to be on this earth. Even after the fall, God’s interest is still on this earth. When we look at the heavens, the moon, and the stars, God would turn our spirit to look at man on this earth. We have to say from our spirit, “What is man?”
In order to see what man is, we need the entire sixty-six books of the Bible. Man is wonderful and meaningful. The Bible is a divine book that reveals to us not only God but also man. Do you know who you are? If you want to know who you are, you need to know the Bible. You have to say, “I am God’s expression and God’s representative. I am a person created in the image of God and entrusted with the divine authority.” We all have to know this. This should not merely be a saying, a doctrine, or a teaching. This must be our practice. Day by day we should behave ourselves as those who always bear the image of God as God’s expression and who have been committed with the divine authority as God’s representative. This is God’s purpose for man, and even after man’s fall, God did not give up His purpose.
In order to accomplish His purpose, God Himself became a man. He identified Himself with man. He made Himself one with man. He came into man to be a man. Do you know what it means to be saved? To be saved, strictly speaking, is to have God incarnated into you to be one with you. To be saved is not just to be forgiven of your sins. To be saved is to have God identified with you, to have God incarnated in you, to have God become one with you.
By incarnation God brought Himself into man. Then by resurrection God brought man into Himself. Now there is a man in the heavens who is the mingling of divinity with humanity. He is a man altogether one with God. To be saved is to receive this man into you. Now that you are saved, you are a real VIP. You are truly a very important person. My burden in this chapter is to uplift you. You have to see how high you are. You have to see that you are a person on such a high level.
In the ancient times, people spoke with pride of their belonging to a royal family. But do you know that today we belong to a family that is even higher than any so-called royal family? We belong to the divine family. We are such wonderful persons, the VIPs on this earth. Jesus is not only our Savior but also a divine man, a God-man. He is the very God incarnated to be one with man. Today we have Jesus in us. He is mingled and blended with us, and we are a part of Him. This makes us VIPs in this universe.
If all the human beings were taken away from this earth, I believe that even God Himself would feel pitiful. But praise the Lord, there are human beings on this earth. Yet these human beings have become fallen. Look at the situation of today’s world. Without the Christians, without those of us who realize that we are VIPs, what would the situation of the world be today? If there are many VIPs in a city, that city will have a great change. Before we began to meet at the Elden meeting hall in Los Angeles, that area was really dark, morally speaking. But since the church began to meet there, that area has become greatly improved. If the church would have a great increase in number, just consider what kind of situation that would create. Hence, we need to go and disciple the nations.
I have a deep burden that some day in Los Angeles and in many other big cities, there will be Christian meetings that are not according to the old religion but according to the Lord’s recovery. There will be meetings in many places without any religious forms. I look to the Lord that some day He will work this out for gaining people. The Lord is going to carry this out through the young generation. This cannot be worked out through old religion. The Lord is through with old religion with its religious forms and ordinances. The Lord is going to do something new.
The age has been turned from religion to Christ, from doctrines to the Spirit, from the forms and rituals to the new and living way. The young people are a greatly blessed generation. The Lord is going to do something new with the young generation. Forget about your background. Forget about what you obtained, what you saw, and what you received from the past. You have to realize that today is the day for the Lord to fulfill His purpose in a marvelous way, a way which has never been seen or heard before. May the Lord bless all of us.
