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In this message we come to the ultimate consummation, the climax of Genesis 1. We need to recall the various steps in the process of God's restoration and further creation. The Spirit was brooding over the darkness and death. Light came, and there was a division between light and darkness. God made the expanse to divide the things above from the things beneath. Next God called the dry land out of the death waters. Out of the dry land the plant life was generated. After the plant life, the fourth-day lights came in to shine upon the earth. Then came the fish life, the bird life, the cattle life, the beast life, and all the creeping things. Eventually, God created man. Man is the climax of God's creation because man bears God's image. This is not a small thing.
Man is the expression of God because he bears God's image. He also has the dominion of God. Man was committed with God's dominion over the seas, the air, the earth, and especially over all the creeping things. Man has power, authority, and dominion because man looks like God. Man bears the image of God; so, man has authority. The climax in God's creation is man bearing God's image and representing God with His authority over all things.
When man looks at God and God looks at man, they look alike. If I take a photograph of you, you will look like the photograph and the photograph will look like you. Likewise, God can say, "Man, you are very much like Me." Man will reply, "God, You are so much like me. We two are very much alike." Also, when man comes out of the presence of God, he is the ruler over all created things. He has authority to rule. This is dominion, the kingdom.
The two crucial words in chapter one of Genesis are image and dominion. You may forget the creeping things and the fish, but don't forget man with image and dominion. Man was not made in the image of a serpent or scorpion, but in the image of God. This is the climax: man bearing God's image, exercising God's authority to maintain dominion.
Image and dominion were sown as two seeds in Genesis 1. However, these seeds need the whole Bible to grow and develop. The harvest, the full maturity, is in Revelation 21 and 22. The whole New Jerusalem expresses God, bearing God's appearance. The New Jerusalem also exercises God's divine authority to maintain God's dominion for eternity. Today, these two seeds are growing in you and me. The image of God and the authority of God are constantly growing within us.
Consider the case of a young married couple. The husband loves the wife, and the wife loves the husband. Although she loves her husband, the wife says within herself, "Although I love you, you are just a naughty young man." It is doctrinally correct to tell the wife that her husband is her head. However, the wife will say within herself, "I know that my husband is my head, but actually he is a naughty young man. It is hard for me to respect him." One day the husband is saved, and the divine life enters into him. This is the seed, and the seed grows in this young man day after day, month after month. Perhaps after eighteen months, the wife will look at her husband and say, "Surely I must respect him. Once he was just a naughty young man. But look at him today! He has some weight. He is not so loose, so light. He is weighty." There is no need for the husband to exercise authority and say, "You must know that I am now a Christian husband. You must submit to me." The husband need not say this. Whenever the wife looks at him, she will realize that his words are weighty, that there is something precious and valuable about him. Spontaneously she respects him. Formerly she argued. Now she respects and honors him, considering seriously everything he says because he now bears the image of God, and out of this image comes the divine authority. This is dominion.
Many people have read Watchman Nee's book, Spiritual Authority. They simply utilize that book, saying, "We are the elders of the church. We are the leaders of a group of Christians. We are God's authority." If you say this, you are through with God's authority. You do not bear the image of God. When the Lord Jesus came, He never held any attitude toward people that He was the authority and that people had to submit to Him. He never did this. However, when He was on this earth, He bore the image of God. He also had the authority of God. Authority always comes from the image.
The ultimate consummation is that God is expressed and represented. Nothing can be higher than this. When God is expressed and represented, that is the climax.
Man was made in God's image that man might express Him. This is a matter of life. Life with the image is for the expression of God. God gave man dominion over all things that man might represent Him. This is a matter of authority. If you are going to represent God with authority, you need to express God in life. The whole story of the Bible is just one story, telling of the saints who expressed God and represented God. We need now to consider eighteen cases covering the Old and the New Testaments.
We begin with Abraham. This does not mean that before Abraham there was no man who expressed God. There were at least three great men — Abel, Enoch, and Noah. However, if we read their history, we find no record that they conquered the enemy or subdued anything. Until Abraham, there is no record of anyone who subdued the enemy. Abraham built an altar that he might contact God (Gen. 12:7). The more you contact God, the more you will bear God's image. The more you look at God, the more you will look like God. To build an altar for the purpose of contacting God means to become more and more transformed into the image of God. Abraham didn't build a tower. The people at Babel didn't build an altar to contact God; they built a tower to make themselves a name (Gen. 11:4). That is self-pride. Abraham, however, was called out of that environment; he built a small altar and there he contacted God. The more he contacted God, the more he looked like God. The Bible tells us that eventually God became a friend to Abraham and that Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23). If you read Genesis 18, you will see that God did not come to Abraham as the Creator or the Almighty God. God came to him as a friend. God and Abraham had fellowship just like two friends talking together. By that time Abraham had become more and more like God. Therefore, we are told that Abraham conquered and defeated the enemies (Gen. 14:17).
Joseph was the last person whose history was recorded in Genesis. He lived a holy and victorious life (Gen. 39:11-12). He lived a life that was very much like God. God was holy; Joseph was holy. God was victorious; Joseph was victorious. Joseph bore the image of God. He was a man who fulfilled God's intention. The story of Joseph is the story of a holy and victorious life, a life that eventually became the ruling authority. Joseph ruled over all of Egypt (Gen. 41:39-45). In Genesis chapter one we see a man made by God in His image and committed with God's dominion. In the last few chapters of Genesis, we also see a man who really expressed God, represented God, and ruled over the whole earth.
Moses was not a great politician. He was a man who contacted God. After contacting God, his face shone with the divine glory (Exo. 34:29-30). When Moses' face shone with the glory of God, he bore the image of God. Thus, Moses became a man with authority. He had authority to rule over the whole house of Israel (Heb. 3:2, 5). He also had authority to defeat the enemy (Exo. 14:30-31). He did not fight the battle with machine guns or atom bombs, but with a little rod. The little rod not only represented power; it represented authority. Moses used that rod and said to the Red Sea, "Open up the way." The waters were divided. That was authority. Moses was a man who bore God's image and represented God with divine authority.
Following Moses, we have the people of Israel. Israel was a people called to be a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). Israel was not called to be a kingdom of kings, but a kingdom of priests. The priesthood is altogether related to God's image. The kingship is related to God's authority. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament we have these two posts, the priesthood and the kingship. The priesthood is for us to contact God and to have the image of God; the kingship is for us to represent God and to exercise God's authority. Later on we will see that Christians have been called to be priests and kings. The destiny of the people of Israel was to be a kingdom of priests. They were to contact God until, like Moses, their faces shone with the glory of God. Don't look at the negative side of the people of Israel. Look at the positive side. With the ark of the tabernacle they were the priests that defeated Jericho (Josh. 6:1-21). If you read Joshua 6 again, you will see that the whole nation of Israel did not fight the battle with swords or spears. Day by day, they bore the testimony and blew the rams' horns. Then they shouted, meaning that they praised God. Jericho fell. They did not fight the battle like soldiers or warriors. They fought the battle like priests. As long as you are a priest, you are qualified to defeat the enemy.
Wives, why do you lose the war in your family life? Because you don't have a priest's face. Perhaps you have the face of a scorpion or a turtle or a serpent. If you don't express the face of a priest, you have lost the war already. Husbands, we are the head, but what kind of head are we — the head of a scorpion? The husband who has a scorpion's head can never be a proper head. You must have a head that bears the face of a priest, shining with God's glory. If we have a priest's face, we will gain the victory in our family life. I would even check with you brothers in the brothers' house. What kind of face do you bear? Do you bear the face of a priest reflecting the glory of the Lord or the face of a mouse? We must be priests. Then we will subdue the whole environment. As long as you have the priest's face, you have authority. Jericho will be subdued.
The case of Aaron is very interesting. Although God's intention was to make the whole nation of Israel a kingdom of priests, the nation failed God. So, out of the entire nation, God called out one tribe, the Levites, to be a tribe of priests. The head of that tribe was the house of Aaron. At a certain time, the people of Israel murmured and rebelled against Aaron, saying, "Is God only with you and not with us?" Then God asked each of the twelve tribes to bring a rod with the name of the tribe written upon it. A rod means authority. Aaron's rod was the only rod that budded (Num. 17:2-10). It budded almonds. In Palestine, the first thing that blossoms in the springtime is the almonds. In typology, the almond blossoms signify resurrection life. After the wintertime, the first thing that blossoms is almonds — that is resurrection life. Aaron's rod was a piece of dead wood. Overnight this piece of dead wood budded. It became a budding rod, not budding with apples or grapefruit, but with almonds. This means that it was surviving with the resurrection life. Where there is life, there is authority. Where there is divine life, there is divine authority. Where there is life, there is the image, and the image brings in dominion. Thus, Aaron had the resurrection life to express God. So, Aaron had authority to represent God.
Elders in the local churches, leaders in all the service groups, leading sisters — you all must be very clear that to be a leading one in the churches among God's people means that you must bud. You must bud with the resurrection life. We are all simply pieces of dead wood. Whether or not this dead wood can be a rod of authority depends on whether or not this dead wood buds with resurrection life. If you have the intention to be a leader in a certain service, we will wait to see whether or not the dead wood rots or buds. If it buds with resurrection life, that is a sign authority is there. It is no more a piece of dead wood; it is a ruling rod.
The principle is the same in the case of Joshua and Caleb. They fully followed the Lord (Num. 14:24). The Lord Himself testified that Caleb fully followed Him. Thus, they defeated the enemy (Num. 14:6-9). When they followed the Lord, they had the image. Then they were in the authority.
I like Judges 5:31. This verse says that during the time of the judges, there were some who loved the Lord. They who loved the Lord shone as the sunshine. So they defeated the enemy. Whenever a certain person shone as the sun, there was victory over the enemy and rest for the entire nation. The whole book of Judges is a book of repetition. Whenever there was one who loved the Lord and shone as the sun, there was victory through him. The whole nation enjoyed rest through him.
David was a man after God's heart. If you read 1 Sam. 13:14, you will see that originally Saul was the king. However, Saul did not have a heart after God. He lost the throne, and God found another man who was after His heart. This one, David, doubtless had the image of God. It was he who defeated the enemy (1 Chron. 22:8a).
We have seen the priesthood. Now we come to the kingship. Whenever the kings were one with the Lord, they defeated the enemy (2 Chron. 14:2-14). Whenever they were not one with the Lord, they were defeated. They lost the authority. In other words, whenever the kings were in the image of God and expressed God, they had authority to defeat the enemies. We have now both the priesthood and the kingship. Never forget that the priesthood is for the image and that the kingship is for the dominion. Now we are priests to be like God and, at the same time, we are kings to represent God, exercising His authority over the enemies.
Daniel was a captive in Babylon, a waiter in the king's palace. Yet, he lived a holy life, a life that expressed God (Dan. 1:8). Thus, he came into power. He had authority over the world at that time (Dan. 6:28).
When Jesus was on this earth, He expressed God. Wherever He was, He expressed God. He was a real man and a typical man, but He continually expressed God. So, He obtained authority over everything (Matt. 28:18). Zechariah 6:13 tells us that Jesus bears two posts, the priesthood and the kingship. He was the priest and He was the king. Today, He is still the High Priest and is still the King of kings. He is the One who expresses God, the One who represents God. He bears God's image and He holds God's authority. This is Jesus.
One day, the mother of Zebedee's children came with her two sons to Jesus to pray (Matt. 20:20-23). She prayed a good prayer, asking that her two sons sit on the Lord's two sides in the kingdom. We all might have prayed such a prayer. The Lord Jesus answered her prayer, but not according to the way she prayed. The Lord Jesus said, "You have prayed about the two sides. Now you must know that whether or not your sons will have these two sides is not up to Me. It is up to the Father. But I tell you one thing — you must suffer. You must drink what I will drink and suffer what I will suffer." This means that if you are going to have authority, you need to have life. To suffer is to gain life. If there is no death, there is no life. If there is no suffering, there is no life. Life always comes through suffering. If we are going to obtain authority, we need to gain life through suffering.
The entire book of Acts and all the Epistles show us that the apostles were persons who bore the image of God. Therefore, they constantly had God's authority. They had God's image and they exercised God's authority. We should not just consider them as good preachers or great teachers. That is too low. That is not the climax. We must look at them as persons who bore God's image and exercised divine authority.
The seven sons of Sceva saw how Paul cast out demons by the name of Jesus (Acts 19:13-16). They imitated Paul, telling the demons, "I cast you out by the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches." The demons are not so easy to deal with. The demon said, "Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you to cast me out? I will jump all over you." Instead of defeating the demons, the demons defeated them. If you don't have the image, you can never have authority. The demons know and you yourself also know. If you don't have life, you don't have authority. If you don't bear the image, you can never exercise dominion.
Revelation 5:10 and 1 Peter 2:9 both tell us that today Christians are royal priests. On the one hand we are priests; on the other hand we are kings. However, we need to contact God that we may have the real image to bear the glory of God in life. Then we have the authority to represent God. But most Christians miss this. They don't look like priests and, thus, they are not kings. If you don't bear the image, you will lose the authority. Praise God that through all the centuries there have been and there still are some saints who contact God, keeping themselves in the real priesthood. They have authority and they exercise kingship.
During the millennium, the coming kingdom age of a thousand years, the overcoming saints will be priests and kings (Rev. 20:4, 6). They will be priests expressing God and kings representing God.
In eternity, all the saints will serve God as priests (Rev. 22:3b-4). They will express God and bear God's image. The saints will also reign as kings, representing God with His authority (Rev. 22:5b).
Finally, the New Jerusalem will bear God's appearance. Revelation 4:3a tells us that the appearance of God is like jasper. Eventually, the wall of the whole city of New Jerusalem will be built with jasper (Rev. 21:18a). The entire city will have the appearance of God (Rev. 21:11). Then the city will exercise God's authority (Rev. 21:24, 26). In eternity the whole body of the redeemed saints will bear God's image to express God and exercise God's authority to represent God. That will be the climax and the ultimate consummation.
We don't have to wait for that day. We can all have a foretaste today. We can enjoy the image of God and the dominion of God. Today we are priests and we are kings. We must keep our birthright. We are here expressing God with His image and we are here representing God with His dominion. Hallelujah! What a position this is and what a responsibility — yet what an enjoyment! Praise the Lord! We are God's priests and we are God's kings. We bear God's image and we have God's dominion. Now we are the people in the church who express God and represent God. Hallelujah! We do have the image and the dominion.
I hope that you all can see that the whole Bible is a record of the development of image and dominion. It is not a small thing that these two items are the climax of the record in Genesis 1. That chapter began with darkness, emptiness, waste, and death waters. Then the Spirit brooded, the light separated, and the expanse divided. The dry land appeared to generate life. Then came the lowest life, the lower life, the higher life, and the highest created life — man. Look at all of the life forms. With the grass, the herbs, and the trees there is no face. A fish does have a face, but it is not very distinct. The face of a bird is more distinguished. Then we have the cattle and the beasts. Eventually, we have man's face. We all must admit that the human face is the most distinctive. This face is the face that bears God's image. With this face, that is, with this expression, God's authority has been committed.
Everything is determined by what you look like. If you look like a scorpion, that is something related to demons. If you look like a serpent, that is something related to Satan. But if you look like a real man, that is related to God's image. A real man has authority.
What is a real man? A real man is a priest to God. If you are a priest, then you are a king. If you are in the priesthood, you surely have the kingship. This means that if you have the image of God in life, you certainly have the authority of God for His dominion.
The whole Bible is a record of the development of image and dominion. In Genesis 1 we have Adam in God's image and with God's dominion, but that is only a little seed. We go on to Abraham. Abraham was the first person who matured and developed something of God's image and authority. He contacted God and defeated the enemy. Then we come to Joseph, a very matured person. As we read Joseph's story, we see a man bearing God's full image of holiness and victory. We see the man Joseph exercising authority. At that time, the authority was not Pharaoh of Egypt — it was Joseph. Joseph ruled over the whole earth. As we continue through the Old Testament, we see that God called out a people to be a nation of priests. The whole nation was to contact God and bear God's image as His priests. Therefore, they would be kings in every kind of situation. There would be no need for them to fight. The whole situation would be subdued under their feet. Then we come to the kings and the prophets. Finally, we come to Jesus. He is fully a priest as well as a king. With Him there is the priesthood to express God and the kingship to represent God. Christ is the Head. Following Him, is the Body, the composition of all the redeemed saints. As the Body, we are the same as the Head, bearing the image as priests and exercising the authority as kings. Today we are priests to God and kings over every situation. We express God in the church life and represent Him in every situation. Then will come the millennium, the fullness of time, during which all the overcoming saints will literally be the priests expressing God with God's image and the kings representing God with God's authority, having full dominion over this earth. Eventually, we will have eternity. In eternity we will see a wonderful consummation — the New Jerusalem. That will be the real climax. Nothing can be higher and fuller than that. The whole city of New Jerusalem will bear the image of God and the whole city will exercise God's dominion. Hallelujah! This is the record of the Bible. The Bible records the development of God's image with God's dominion. God will be eternally expressed and God will be eternally represented by His redeemed people.
Let us turn to the book of Matthew and read the last verse of chapter sixteen and the first two verses of chapter seventeen. The Lord Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. And after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone as the sun, and His garments became white as the light." In these verses we see the coming of Jesus in His kingdom. When Jesus was shining in the transfiguration, that was the coming of the kingdom. Where there is the shining of Jesus, there is the kingdom. This shining is the bearing of God's image. The image is present, and immediately the dominion appears. When we shine with God's glory, there is no need for us to exercise dominion purposely. The authority of God is just there.
How can we shine with the glory of God? We need to read 2 Corinthians 3:18. "And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit." I like the word face, unveiled face. In the transfiguration the face of the Lord Jesus shone as the bright sun. However, the face mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is not simply the outward face, but the inward face. We all have an outer face and an inner face. The outer face is simply the expression of the inner face. The outer face is our outward being; the inward face is our inward being. The face is the index of our whole being, the expression of our whole being. None of us here has a veil upon his outward face, but I am afraid that many of us still have some veils over our inner face. We need an unveiled face.
Religious things and holy things as well as sinful things and worldly things can be a veil to us. If you study the context of 2 Corinthians 3, you will see that the veil mentioned there is specifically the Old Testament in letters. Even the Bible can be a veil. Even the letters in the Bible can be a veil to cover us, keeping us from seeing the living Lord. If the letters of the Bible can be a veil to us, then everything can be a veil — your wife, your husband, your friends, your children, your self, your brothers and sisters, your good behavior, your bad behavior, your zealous activity, your work for God — everything. All things, provided they are not the Lord Himself, can be a veil. It doesn't matter how holy a thing is, how heavenly it is, how spiritual it is, or how religious it is, as long as it is not the Lord Himself, it can be a veil. You may still be under this kind of veiling. That is why you sit here, but you cannot see the Lord.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we all with an unveiled face behold as a mirror. We are a mirror. As a mirror, we behold. What a mirror beholds, it reflects. We need to have an unveiled face beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, just like Moses when he beheld the glory of God for forty days and God's glory radiated from the skin of his face. When he came down from the mountain, he was shining, glowing with God's glory. We all need to be like that. We all need to forget everything bad, good, holy, unholy, religious, unreligious, spiritual, unspiritual. Regardless of what a thing may be, if it is not the Lord Himself, we must put it aside. We need to recognize the subtlety of the enemy. Satan can utilize anything to turn you away from beholding the Lord. The only thing that Satan cannot utilize is the Lord Himself.
In the New Testament there are at least four books written specifically about the things that frustrate people from beholding the Lord, things that veil people from contacting and enjoying the Lord. The book of Galatians deals with the law, religion, and tradition. All of these are a veil of separation. The law was given by God and was holy. Even the New Testament says that the law is holy (Rom. 7:12). Yet, even something holy such as the law can sever you from Christ, cutting you off from the enjoyment of Christ (Gal. 5:4 ASV). It is possible to be severed from Christ, not just by immoral books, but by the God-given law. How? Because your face can be turned to the law instead of Christ. Thus, the law immediately becomes a veil. The law always forms a religion, and religion has long traditions. So we have the law, religion, and traditions, all forming layers of insulation, insulating you from the heavenly electricity which is the Lord Himself.
Colossians is another book. In Colossians the word philosophy is used. The word philosophy in Colossians really means Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a higher philosophy, a composition of Greek, Egyptian, and Babylonian philosophy, plus the philosophy of Christianity, which included the Jewish philosophy. That was quite a mixture. That philosophy, the highest product of human culture, came into the early church, causing considerable frustration. Although philosophy may be good and the best product of human culture, since it is not the Lord it becomes a veil. It must be dealt with.
We come to another book, the book of Hebrews. If you read the book of Hebrews, you will see that it itemizes all the good things of Judaism. Hebrews shows us that all the good things in Judaism should just be considered as types, figures, and shadows of Christ.
Suppose, before you come to visit me, you send me a picture of yourself. Since I love you, I will treasure your picture. This is right. I simply love your picture. Now you come to visit me in person. Instead of looking at you, I continue to look at your picture, loving the picture. Even your picture becomes a veil to my eyes. You would say, "Stupid man, throw away the picture. Look at me."
Before Jesus came, God used the Old Testament to present to His people many pictures of Christ from different angles. But the Jewish people just held on to the pictures, not only pictures in four directions, but maybe in thirty-two directions. That enclosed them, keeping them from seeing Christ. Christ is outside of that enclosure. The Jewish people saw so many things about Christ, but they couldn't see Christ Himself. Thus, the book of Hebrews was written to tell all the Jewish believers that they must drop the pictures, the whole system of Judaism, and look at Christ. Consider the Apostle and High Priest, Jesus Christ (Heb. 3:1). Forget Moses, forget the angels, and forget Joshua. Just consider our Apostle, Jesus Christ. Consider our High Priest, Jesus Christ. Look at Him. Not only look at Him, but look away unto Him (Heb. 12:2). Look away from all the Jewish things. Look away from the Bible unto Jesus Himself.
We have still another book, 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians Paul warned us that even the spiritual gifts — speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings, miracles — can all be veils to the Christian. Do you see the subtlety of the enemy?
The law, philosophy, Judaism with its scriptural items and teachings, spiritual gifts — all these things are good, but have become veils over the faces of many real Christians. We all need to tell the Lord Jesus, "Lord Jesus, I love You. I love the Bible because it reveals You, but I will never let the Bible become a veil. I love You, Lord Jesus. I love You personally, I love You directly, I love You most intimately. I love You by kissing You. I don't like to see You far away. I like to see You face to face. Lord, I would even kiss You." Many of you, I believe, have entered into this experience already, but we all need to be preserved in this experience. We need to tell the Lord, "Lord Jesus, I love the gifts because the gifts help me to touch You, but if the gifts become a veil, I will throw them away. I just love You Lord. I love You personally, directly, intimately. I love You in the way that I can kiss You at any time. There is no distance between You and me, no distance, no separation, and no isolation. I am directly, intimately in Your presence." If you are like this, you will be on the mount of transfiguration. You will be transfigured and you will shine.
Many of us can testify about our folks. When they came out of their room after spending time in the presence of the Lord, their faces were shining, causing us to realize that they had been with the Lord. That shining subdues every rebellious creature. It subdues the husband, the wife, the children, and every kind of environment. This is the kingdom. This is dominion. Dominion comes from the shining. Jesus appeared in His kingdom when He was transfigured. He was shining as the sun. He had the image and He had dominion.
