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In the previous chapter we saw the reason, the basis, the means, the process, and the focus of God’s restoration of creation. Now we will consider the purpose of God’s restoration of creation. This is a great point. If we read the first two chapters of Genesis and pay attention only to what God created each day, we are merely on the surface. We must see the intrinsic spiritual significance of creation and identify God’s desire and purpose in creating the universe.
What was God’s intention and purpose in creating the heavens, the earth, and all things? In addressing this question, we should consider the creation of man on the sixth day. Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This shows that the most important thing in God’s creation of man is that God created man in His image and according to His likeness. If we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, it is not difficult to see God’s desire and purpose in creating all things. God wanted to gain a group of people with His image and likeness, that is, a group of people who are exactly the same as He is.
The account of God’s creation contains a clear picture: God created the heavens and the earth and all things in them, and He created man with His image and likeness according to Himself. This picture reveals that man is the center of all things in the universe because only man has the image and likeness of God. Of all the things created in the universe, man is the highest and most central creature. The record of creation reveals that God’s first and foremost desire and purpose in creation are to gain a group of people who are like Him, possessing His image to express Him.
Why does God have a desire that man would be exactly the same as He is? The Bible reveals that God longs to gain a group of people who are exactly the same as He is in order to express Him and to declare Him so that His glory may be fully manifested. It pleases God to gain such a group of people as His image in the universe so that through them all things may see Him and know Him (v. 26; Rom. 8:29-30).
Many prominent public figures hang portraits of themselves in many places. These portraits are their expression. Although these public figures may not often be seen in person, they are expressed among people through their portraits. When people see their portraits, they are able to know these figures.
Suppose we have a friend in the United States whom we have never seen in person and who wants to visit us. If he wants us to know what he looks like before he arrives, he can take a picture of himself and send it to us. We can know him through his picture because he is exactly the same as the image in the picture.
Man bears the image of God; he is a picture of God. God intended to come into the midst of all things, but before He came, He took a “picture” of Himself and put it in front of all things, manifesting Himself before all things. This picture is man, Adam. Later, when God came to the earth and was manifested among men, His name was Jesus Christ. If we were to place Adam and Christ together and compare them, we would see that they bear the same image.
Man is a picture of God. This is not a careless statement. Genesis 1:26-27 says that man was created in God’s image and according to His likeness. Likeness refers to the outward form; image refers to the inward parts, such as the mind, the emotion, and the will. When man was created, he had the image of God inwardly and the likeness of God outwardly. Created man bears the image of God; hence, man is a picture of God.
Some people have the wrong concept that God did not have the likeness of a man until He was incarnated. However, even in the Old Testament age, before Christ’s incarnation, God appeared to people in the likeness of a man. In Genesis 18 Abraham received three guests, of whom two were angels and one was God (vv. 2, 10, 13-14, 22; 19:1). God appeared in the likeness of a man. Therefore, God had this likeness first, not man. Man was created according to God’s likeness. Hence, when God was incarnated (John 1:14), the likeness that He put on was His likeness. Let us consider the earlier example. The picture that our friend in the United States takes of himself before his visit is according to his likeness. The picture was taken of him; hence, he possessed his likeness first, and then the picture possessed his likeness. Similarly, before Christ came to the earth, He already possessed His image and likeness. God created Adam according to the image and likeness of Christ. Hence, God’s image and likeness were possessed first by Christ and then by Adam. When Christ came into the world, it seemed as if God put on the likeness of man; however, the likeness of man was originally God’s likeness.
The utterance in Genesis 1:26-27 is very particular. Verse 26 says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” There is only one God, but the pronoun here is Us instead of Me, showing that God is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The image that the Triune God wanted to create in man is identified also with the pronoun Our. Verse 27 speaks of God’s creation: “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” In this verse, however, a singular pronoun is used in the phrase His own image. What is the significance of this pronoun? In the Trinity only the Son, Christ, has an image. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is “the image of God.” Colossians 1:15 says that the beloved Son of God is “the image of the invisible God.” Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ is “the impress of His substance.” John 1:18 says that “no one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” These verses reveal that Christ the Son of God is the image of God. Apart from Christ we cannot see God. Hence, when God created man in His own image, He created man according to Christ. This created man was Adam. For this reason Romans 5:14 says that Adam is “a type of Him [Christ] who was to come.” This means that before Christ came to the earth, there was already a picture of Himself according to His likeness on the earth. This picture was Adam. Therefore, it is not that Christ is like Adam but that Adam is like Christ.
Adam possessed the image and likeness of God outwardly; however, he did not have the life and nature of God inwardly. Therefore, after God created Adam, He put him before the tree of life with the intention that Adam would receive the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9), which signifies the life of God. If Adam had received the tree of life, he would have had not only the likeness of God outwardly but also the life and nature of God inwardly and thus be completely like God.
Regrettably, Adam fell before he received the life signified by the tree of life. As a result, he could not receive God in order to express God inwardly and outwardly. It was not until Christ came to the earth to die for man’s redemption that the life of God was again made available to man. When Christ died and resurrected from the dead, He released the divine life for man to receive. When we believe into Christ and receive Him, His life enters into us. Furthermore, from that time onward, the life of God continues to work in us until it makes us exactly the same as He is. For this reason Romans 8:29 says, “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” As believers, we were foreknown and predestinated by God; hence, His life will work in us until we are conformed to the image of His Son to become exactly the same as He is.
We need to understand that as created men, we had only the image of Christ outwardly, not the life and nature of Christ inwardly. When we were saved, Christ’s life and nature entered into us. From that time, God has been working to conform us through His Spirit and our outward environment to the image of Christ; He will continue to work until we are the same as His Son in life and in nature, that is, until we are the same as He is and become His expression. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” This continual work of the Spirit of God to transform us into the image of the Lord also refers to the conforming work of God.
Romans 8:29 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 stress our inward change. Philippians 3:21 says, “[He] will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.” This means that in the future our body will be transfigured so that our outward physical form will also enter into glory. At that time, when “He is manifested, we will be like Him” (1 John 3:2).
Our possessing the image of God is revealed in Revelation as well. On the one hand, God is sitting on the throne and has the appearance of jasper (4:2-3); on the other hand, the New Jerusalem, which is composed of the redeemed ones, also has the appearance of jasper (21:11). God and the New Jerusalem are jasper; they are exactly the same. Just as God is, so are His redeemed ones. At this point God will have made His redeemed ones exactly the same as He is.
The verses above show that the line of image runs through the entire Bible. This line reveals that God desires to gain man so that man would have His image for His expression. This is God’s desire and purpose in the universe.
God’s desire and purpose in His creation of man is that man would express Him and that man would have authority to rule for Him and thus deal with His enemy. Genesis 1:26-28 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; 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. And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, 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 heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” This portion concerns the image of God and the dominion of God. Dominion is a matter of authority. God created man in His image and gave man authority to rule over all living creatures. God’s image in man was created by God, but God’s authority in man was given by God. Image speaks of man’s being, but authority speaks of man’s doing. On the one hand, man is in the image of God; on the other hand, man rules for God. Hence, the image refers to man’s status, and ruling refers to man’s work.
Every person has a status and a work. For example, if a person has the status of a student, his work is to study. If a person has the status of a teacher, his work is to teach. If a person has the status of a businessman, his work is to conduct business. The status of a student refers to his person, and studying refers to his work. The status of a teacher refers to his person, and teaching refers to his work. The status of a businessman refers to his person, and conducting business refers to his work. Every person has a work. Created man is no different. Man’s person is in the image of God, and his work is to rule for God. God gave created man the high status of His image and the great work of ruling for Him. Regrettably, man’s person and work today are not up to the standard. Our person is not right, and our work is not right. In His salvation, however, God desires to save us to the extent that we have His image and that we rule for Him.
God desires that man would rule for Him and exercise dominion for Him. According to Genesis 1:26, God wants man to “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.” To have dominion over the fish of the sea is to have dominion over the sea, to have dominion over the birds of the air is to have dominion over the air, and to have dominion over the cattle and every creeping thing is to have dominion over the earth. Therefore, God wants man to have dominion over everything in the sea, in the air, and on the earth. God has given dominion to man in these three realms.
According to the Bible, there are four key places in the universe: the heavens, the sea, the air, and the earth. God has committed the sea, the air, and the earth to man for his dominion. Why did God do this? What was His intention? The Bible reveals that in the universe today only the heavens are still God’s dwelling place, where He rules. The enemy, Satan, has usurped the sea, the air, and the earth. Hence, God wants man to have dominion over these three places so that man would rule over these three places for God in order to deal with His enemy.
The Bible reveals that the sea is the dwelling place of the demons. In Matthew 8:28-32 the demons who were cast out of two people went into a herd of hogs. The whole herd rushed down a steep slope into the sea and died in the waters. Demons are different from the evil spirits in the air. The evil spirits take the air as their dwelling place, but the demons take the sea as their dwelling place.
Today people are still possessed by demons. It is not uncommon to hear stories of people possessed by demons. No matter how much science advances or how much people promote the putting aside of superstitions, we must solemnly acknowledge that there is not only God but also demons in this universe. The progress of science cannot overthrow this fact, and putting aside superstitions cannot annul the existence of demons. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He often encountered demon-possessed people and had to cast out the demons (4:24; 8:16; Mark 1:34). Many of us who work for the Lord have also encountered incidents of demon possession. Around one hundred years ago the Lord sent Dr. John L. Nevius of the Presbyterian Church in America to Shantung for the gospel. His book, entitled Demon Possession and Allied Themes, is an authoritative writing on demon possession. The stories of demon possession in this book are not hypothetical; they are a record of the author’s casting out demons in village after village when he was preaching the gospel in Shantung. Demons exist, and their dwelling place is the sea.
In the Bible the sea is not a positive place, because it is the dwelling place of demons. During the six days of God’s restoration work, He saw that it was “good” every day except for the second day (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), because on the second day God separated the waters from the waters, producing the air and the sea (vv. 6-8). Satan and his fallen angels are in the air, and the demons are in the sea. Hence, on the second day God did not see that it was good.
Many other portions in the Bible reveal that the sea is not a good place. For example, when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, the first problem that they encountered was the sea (Exo. 14). Furthermore, in the Gospels the Lord Jesus was crossing the sea to cast out demons when He encountered the hindering of the winds and the sea. It was not the winds or the sea that were hindering the Lord; it was the fallen angels and demons behind the winds and the sea. Hence, the Lord Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea. If the winds and the sea were merely in the physical realm, there would have been no need to rebuke them. The Lord was rebuking the fallen angels and demons behind the scene (Matt. 8:23-27). Revelation also reveals that the forces opposing God come out of the sea (13:1-10). The purpose of God’s work throughout the ages is to clear up the sea. This work will not be completed until the coming of the new heaven and the new earth. Then the sea will cease to exist because it will have been eliminated by God (21:1).
Ephesians speaks of the authority of the air and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies (2:2; 6:12), both of which refer to the angels who followed Satan in his rebellion. These rebelling angels dwell in the air and are the authority of the air, and Satan is the ruler of the authority of the air. Thus, Satan occupies the air.
The air is the dwelling place of Satan and his evil spirits, and the sea is the dwelling place of the demons, but the earth is the place where they operate. The earth is the center of their activities. Satan, the evil spirits, and the demons work to usurp the earth, because their goal is to occupy the earth. For this reason God wants man not only to rule over the air and the sea but also to have dominion over the earth. The earth is the center of these three realms.
God committed the sea, the air, and the earth to man’s dominion so that man would rule for Him in these three realms and deal with His enemy. This is revealed in the particular utterance in Genesis 1:26: “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.” Logically, it would be sufficient to say, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle of the earth,” but God added another phrase: and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. The earth and the creeping things are emphatically pointed out. God gave man dominion over three realms, but He particularly pointed out the earth. Moreover, there are numerous kinds of animals on the earth, but God emphatically mentioned the creeping things. This indicates that of the three places over which God gave man dominion, God focused on the earth, and among the animals on the earth God focused on the creeping things. In Luke 10:19 the Lord said, “I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions.” Serpents and scorpions are creeping things on the earth. God is concerned about the earth and the creeping things on the earth because Satan and his messengers are hidden in the creeping things on the earth.
From the above verses we can understand that God’s curse on the serpent, “Upon your stomach you will go” (Gen. 3:14), was to limit the serpent’s activities to the earth. The activities of God’s enemy and his fallen messengers take place on the earth. They are creeping things; they cannot operate outside of the earth. Hence, when God commissioned man to rule for Him, He focused on the earth and the creeping things so that man would deal with His enemies on the earth.
God charged man to deal with His enemies so that man would rule for Him. When God created man, His desire was not only that man would express His image but also that man would rule for Him in order to deal with His enemy. In this twofold purpose the aspect of expressing God’s image is positive and primary, but the aspect of dealing with the enemy is negative and supplementary. Expressing God is God’s eternal purpose, but dealing with His enemy is a supplementary purpose that was added because of Satan’s rebellion.
God’s unique eternal desire is for the universe to be a realm with all things as the content and a group of people as the center. God created man in a particular way so that man would ultimately be the same as He is in image, life, and nature in order to become God’s expression. In this desire God did not have the thought of dealing with an enemy.
According to His desire, God made an eternal plan, based upon which He created the universe. This is the original creation recorded in Genesis 1:1. The main creatures in this creation were angels. The highest angel was the archangel Lucifer, who was anointed to cover the Ark (Ezek. 28:13-14). However, this archangel exalted himself and rebelled against God. Furthermore, some of the angels under him joined in his rebellion. Even some living creatures on the earth, over which he was given dominion, also joined in his rebellion.
After this archangel rebelled against God, he became God’s adversary in the universe. In Hebrew Satan means “adversary.” Everything that Satan does is against God in order to offend God, frustrate God’s will, and even violate God’s authority and overthrow God’s lordship (Isa. 14:12-14). He does nothing else. Because of this rebellion, he became Satan, the angels who followed him became the evil spirits, and the living creatures on the earth under his dominion became the demons.
Satan’s rebellion resulted in two systems of lordship in the universe: God’s lordship and Satan’s lordship of rebellion. After Satan rebelled against God, the heavens remained the place where God dwells and rules, but the air became the dwelling place of Satan and the evil spirits, the sea became the dwelling place of the demons, and the earth became the realm of their activities. Hence, God’s authority in the air, in the sea, and on the earth is undermined, and His will cannot be carried out freely.
Because God’s lordship was violated, dealing with His enemy was added to God’s plan. God’s desire to be expressed was from eternity, but the desire to deal with His enemy was added.
When Satan and his messengers rebelled against God, they corrupted the entire original creation. As a result, the earth became waste and emptiness, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the earth was full of desolation and death (Gen. 1:2). This desolate situation lasted for an unknown period of time before God carried out His restoration and further creation in six days. During this time God created man. The center of His work is the creation of man. God has a twofold purpose in creating man. On the positive side, He wants to be expressed; on the negative side, He wants to deal with His enemy. The positive aspect of God’s purpose is eternal, but the negative aspect did not come until Satan rebelled. The positive aspect of God’s purpose is a matter of image, but the negative aspect is a matter of lordship, dominion. Therefore, Genesis 1:26-27 speaks of image first, saying that God created man in His image and then speaks of man having dominion over everything in the sea, in the air, and upon the earth. The main purpose of man’s having dominion is to deal with God’s enemy.
God gave man authority so that man might rule for Him in order to recover the earth. Because of Satan’s rebellion, the earth was usurped by Satan; hence, God’s desire is to recover and regain the earth. Therefore, verses 26 and 28 speak of God’s giving authority to man so that man would have dominion over the earth. If man reigns over the earth, God can recover the earth under His authority through man.
Man always feels that the heavens are good. But according to the Bible, God feels that the earth is good. If man could choose between the heavens and the earth, he would prefer to live in the heavens. God, however, prefers the earth. God desires and yearns for the earth. In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord taught the disciples to pray to the Father who is in the heavens, “Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth” (6:9-10). Proverbs 8:31 says, “Rejoicing in His habitable earth; / And my delight was in the sons of men.” This means that when God created the world, He rejoiced in His habitable earth and delighted to dwell among the sons of men. Psalm 8:1 says, “O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth.” The last verse of this psalm says, “How excellent is Your name / In all the earth!” (v. 9). The thought in this psalm is the same as the thought in Genesis 1 that is focused not on the heavens but on the earth.
The Bible reveals that God wants to return to the earth in order to gain the earth. God’s work throughout the ages is also to recover the earth so that He may return to the earth. God desires His authority to reach the earth. For this reason the Lord taught the disciples to pray to the Father who is in the heavens, saying, “Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth” (Matt. 6:9-10). When Satan rebelled, the earth was occupied by him and became the sphere of his rule; consequently, the will of God cannot be done on earth as in heaven. Therefore, the Lord told us to pray in this way and ask God to work so that His authority can be carried out on the earth. When God’s authority is carried out on the earth, the kingdom of God is on the earth. A kingdom is a realm for ruling, and the extent of a kingdom is the extent of its authority. Today the kingdom of God does not yet encompass the whole earth. As a result, the authority of God is not yet exercised over the whole earth, and the will of God cannot be done on the earth. Throughout the ages God has been seeking to resolve this problem.
When the Lord comes again and the millennial kingdom begins, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15). In eternity the dwelling place of God will descend onto the new earth. Hence, in Revelation 21:1-2 the apostle John says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth...And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” At this time the earth will be taken back from Satan and fully recovered by God.
When the earth is recovered by God, His authority will be carried out on the earth. Furthermore, His kingdom, His will, and His glory—the three major things that the Lord prayed about in Matthew 6—will be accomplished (vv. 10, 13). The kingdom of God will be on the earth, the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the glory of God will be manifested on the earth. This was God’s original intention when He gave man authority to rule for Him. If man had not failed but had remained in God’s hand to rule for Him, God’s enemy would have been dealt with, the earth would have been recovered by God, and the authority of God would have been carried out on the earth. God’s twofold purpose would have been fulfilled in man in the beginning.
We should worship and praise God, because His twofold purpose will be accomplished in man. His purpose in the beginning is still the same today. The Bible reveals that after man was created, the struggle between Satan and God was centered on man. God wants to gain man to fulfill His purpose, but Satan also wants to gain man to carry out his evil intent. Regardless of when or where, as long as God gains man, He has a way to fulfill His purpose to be expressed and to exercise His authority. However, if man is gained by Satan, Satan has a way to carry out his evil intent to destroy God’s plan, frustrate God’s expression, and hinder the authority of God. Hence, man is the central figure in the universe; man is the focus of the struggle between God and Satan. God has given man such a high and noble status. May God have mercy on us so that we may see this matter.
God desires man to have His image to express Him, and He desires man to have His authority to deal with His enemy. God’s work throughout the ages has been focused on fulfilling these two aspects of His desire. God is working to fulfill His desire, He created us for His desire, and He saved us for His desire. When these two aspects of His desire are accomplished, that is, when man has the image of God to express Him and the authority of God to deal with His enemy, God will have rest.
Rest means satisfaction. God’s desire to be expressed and to deal with His enemy depends on man. When man has the image of God, he can express God, and when man has the authority of God, he can rule for God and deal with God’s enemy. When this twofold desire is fulfilled in man, God is satisfied; that is, He has rest. Therefore, another aspect of God’s purpose in creating man is to have rest by being satisfied through man.
Genesis 2:3 says, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” This verse marks the completion of the account of creation in the Bible, because symbolically God attained His purpose and was satisfied. God gained a creature who had His image to express Him and His authority to rule for Him. When God saw the man whom He had created, He was satisfied and had rest.
The rest in God’s creation was only partially fulfilled in terms of reality, because God’s eternal desire and purpose were not completely fulfilled, and even to this day they are still not fulfilled. Because of man’s fall, God has been working continuously to fulfill His purpose. Hence, when the Lord healed the man who had been in sickness for thirty-eight years on the Sabbath, He said, “My Father is working until now, and I also am working” (John 5:17). All of God’s work today is for the accomplishment of His purpose so that He may have rest. God’s satisfaction and rest are a great matter. From eternity God has been longing for rest.
In the Old Testament God ordained the Sabbath for His people to remember His rest in creation. The Sabbath was also for His people to testify that He desires to have rest among His people on the earth. Exodus 20:8-11 says, “Remember the Sabbath day so as to sanctify it. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your male servant nor your female servant, nor your cattle nor the sojourner with you, who is within your gates. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.” God commanded the children of Israel to keep the Sabbath by not working on it, in order to testify that God rested on the Sabbath and that man should obey God’s authority and live by His will. The Sabbath is a type that shows how God values rest and how man can give God rest.
Why is there the Lord’s Day in the New Testament age? The Lord’s Day is also a type of rest. It signifies that through death and resurrection the Lord entered into glory as the full expression of God and as the Ruler ascended to the heavens to be far above all of God’s enemies. Furthermore, the significance of the Lord’s Day also shows that those who are joined to the Lord in His name are where He is. Hence, the Lord’s Day indicates not only that God’s twofold purpose was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus and that God rested in Him; the Lord’s Day indicates also that God’s twofold purpose is fulfilled in His believers and that God rests in them. Therefore, while we are breaking the bread to remember the Lord on the Lord’s Day, we should release the Lord’s life and express Him. We should also be overcomers who exercise the Lord’s authority to deal with His enemy. Only in this way can we realize the meaning of the rest on the Lord’s Day.
Based on the Lord’s redemption, the Holy Spirit entered into us. As a result, we can have a foretaste of the rest in reality. We should be in this foretaste not only on the Lord’s Day but also on the other days of the week. As long as we allow the life of God to flow out from us so that God can be expressed through us and also allow the authority of God to be carried out through us so that God’s enemy can be dealt with, we can fulfill God’s purpose and give God satisfaction and rest.
Individual believers can fulfill God’s purpose and give Him rest, and the church corporately can fulfill God’s purpose and give Him rest. Ephesians speaks of this. On the one hand, the church is the Body of Christ, “the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (1:23), and the individual believers need to “be filled unto all the fullness of God” (3:19). On the other hand, the church needs to “put on the whole armor of God” to fight against the enemy and stand against the stratagems of the devil (6:11-13). The former verses speak of the church being filled with God and expressing God; the latter verses speak of the church dealing with Satan. God can have rest in such a church, and the church can have a foretaste of all the blessings in His rest.
In a very real sense, the rest that God has today is only partial; it is a miniature and a symbol of the rest that God had on the seventh day of creation. It is not until the coming of the millennial kingdom that God will gain in reality a group of people who are exactly the same as the Lord (1 John 3:2) to express the glory of God (Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12), to reign with the Lord (Rev. 20:6), and to put His enemy, Satan, into the abyss (vv. 1-3). Then there will be a great rest, which is the completion of God’s rest. This is the rest in the millennial kingdom prophesied in Psalm 95:6-11 and referred to in Hebrews 4:3-11.
The rest in the millennial kingdom will still not be full or complete. God’s work in the universe will not be consummated until there are the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem. Only then will God be fully expressed and His authority fully established. Then God’s desire and purpose will be fully accomplished, and God will gain eternal rest.
Revelation 21 through 22 shows the two aspects of God’s purpose in the New Jerusalem. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem has the image of God. The entire city is like God. God is jasper, and the New Jerusalem is also jasper (4:3; 21:11). The New Jerusalem refers to God’s redeemed throughout the ages (vv. 12, 14). In the new heaven and the new earth all of God’s redeemed people will receive His dispensing to be exactly the same as God, expressing Him. Those who read Revelation know that the entire city of the New Jerusalem is an expression of God. The city radiates God’s glory and splendor (21:11). God is expressed and shined forth through the city. God finally gains a full expression of Himself in the new universe.
Furthermore, God’s redeemed ones not only express the glory of God but also reign for eternity (22:5). By the time of the new heaven and the new earth, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (20:10), and God’s redeemed will reign as kings. To reign as kings is to shame the enemy. Therefore, when God’s purpose is fully accomplished in eternity, there will still be the two aspects of the image of God and the authority of God. The image of God is attained by the redeemed ones expressing God, and the authority of God is manifested by the redeemed ones shaming God’s enemy. Then God will have full and complete rest.
This rest is from God’s side. God needs to satisfy His heart’s desire so that He may have rest. However, this rest is not only for God but also for man. God needs rest, and man needs rest. If God can rest in man, man can also have rest because of God’s rest. Therefore, man must allow God to fulfill His purpose before he can have rest. Regardless of whether the rest is in God’s creation, in the Old Testament Sabbath, in the Lord’s Day in the New Testament, in the millennial kingdom, or in the new heaven and the new earth, man can enjoy rest together with God because he has allowed God to fulfill His purpose.
