When God created
the human race, He commanded, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and
subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). Human beings have been reproducing ever since. The same
mandate was re-affirmed after the Flood (Gen. 9:1, 7). But the biblical
exposition of this command does not end there. Indeed, it only began.
The prophet
Malachi gives us divine insight into the purpose of marriage and the
procreation mandate. “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in
their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring” (Mal. 2:15).
What is God seeking from the reproductive union of husband and wife? More
children? Yes, but not merely physical offspring. He seeks godly offspring,
spiritual children, covenant descendants who will worship the Lord and obey
Him.
God’s intent is
for mankind, men and women, to fill the earth as His image bearers, to rule
over the earth as representatives of the Creator and as stewards of all He made
(Gen. 1:26-28; 9:2; Psa. 8:6). This is so that “the earth will be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Hab.
2:14). God intends to display His glory and for His will to be done on earth as
it is in heaven, but this will be accomplished by populating the world with His
earthly representatives and stewards of creation, the saints.
This brings us
to Christ and to the New Testament exposition of the original creation mandate.
Jesus is the Second Adam, the covenant head with original righteousness who
succeeds where the First Adam failed (Rom. 5:12-21; 1Cor. 15:45-49). The Second Adam works through His Bride,
the Church, to multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. The Great Commission
speaks to the essence of the creation mandate, that the whole earth might be
filled with God’s glory (Matt. 28:18-20). The Church is the covenant community.
It is the new humanity. The members of the Church are divine image bearers, not
just of the original image corrupted by the Fall (Gen. 5:3) but of the renewed
image of Christ who is both Creator and Redeemer (Rom. 8:29; Col. 3:10). As the
gospel goes forth, disciples make disciples, and the earth is filled with the
glory of God as those re-created in Christ’s image multiply. Such is the
eternal purpose of God, revealed at the beginning but ultimately realized in
Christ. -JME
