So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen. 1:27-28).
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
“You believe in creation ordinances. Don’t you
believe Adam was the federal head of humanity? (of the reprobate as well as the
elect). Yet Genesis 1:28 says that God ‘blessed’ that federal head of all men,
implying that all mankind in him (including the reprobate) partook of that
blessing and favour of God. The rest of the text mentions the privileges of
marriage and having children and having dominion over earth as part of this
general blessing upon the federal head …”
(I)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
-----------------------------------------------------
(II)
Rev. Angus Stewart
[Source:
Covenant Reformed
News, vol. 18, no. 8
(Dec. 2020)]
Right at the start of our response, we need to
consider the significance of Adam’s federal or covenant headship, as the first
man and one who represented the human race. What does Adam’s federal headship
include and what does it not include?
Like the animals and birds before the fall, Adam did
not eat meat (29-30). Since he is the covenant head of humanity, should
everyone be vegetarian? The first and representative man was commanded to
cultivate the Garden of Eden (2:15). Does this require or imply that all work
as gardeners? Prior to his sin, Adam, our federal head, did not wear clothes
(25). Ought everybody be a nudist, therefore?
I would anticipate that you, dear reader, are
somewhat puzzled by the (specious) reasoning of the previous paragraph. You
sense that the answer to all three of the questions is, “No!” However, you may
not be sure why this is the correct response, though you probably think that,
with some time, you could come up with the proper explanation.
This underscores the point that the Bible itself
must tell us what is, and so what is not, included in Adam’s covenant headship.
The answer is at hand, for Scripture treats this topic definitively and at some
length in Romans 5:12-21.
“One” man (12, 15, 16, 17, 19), namely, Adam (14),
was constituted by God as a federal head—over against Christ, the other federal
head (14-19), whom he typifies (14). More specifically, the one man, Adam,
represented us in his one and singular act, referred to as his “transgression”
(14), “offence” (15, 17, 18) or “disobedience” (19), namely, his eating the
forbidden fruit and not any of the subsequent sins he committed during his long
life of 930 years (Gen. 5:5). All of humanity, Christ only excepted, “sinned”
in Adam (Rom. 5:12), and have thus fallen under God’s judgment (16) and
condemnation (16, 18), causing us to be totally depraved by nature (Ps. 51:5).
This is the unique, astounding and humbling Christian doctrine of original sin.
There is a second biblical passage that presents
Adam’s covenant headship, again contrasted, as to its results, with Christ as
the federal representative of His own: “For since by man came death, by man
came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-22).
One might think, at first blush, that mankind
receives two (unrelated) things through Adam’s headship, with Romans
5 teaching that we sinned in Adam and I
Corinthians 15 declaring that we died in him. However, sin and
death are intrinsically linked, for “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), a
point made repeatedly in Romans 5 regarding Adam’s sin and our death (14,
15, 17, 21), and stated most famously in the key text in that passage:
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned” (12).
In short, Adam’s federal headship means that sin has
come upon mankind and, therefore, judgment, condemnation and death. Thus [the
one who argues for common grace from this text, from God’s “blessing” upon Adam
and Eve] has it all wrong. Instead of humanity being “blessed”
through Adam, our covenant representative, the human race is cursed in
him (cf. Gal. 3:10; Rev. 22:3)!
Second,
being “the children of disobedience” (Col. 3:6) in Adam, having children is not
a proof or manifestation of divine favour either. Idolatrous Sennacherib was
murdered by his two wicked sons (II Kings 19:37; Isa. 37:38)! Regarding
unbelieving parents and children, God declares, “Cursed shalt thou be in the
city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field … Cursed shall be the fruit of thy
body” (Deut. 28:16, 18).
What about, third, the earthly dominion of the
ungodly? Think of profane Esau (Heb. 12:16) to whom God in His providence gave
Mount Seir with much wealth and livestock (Gen. 36:6-8). Yet Jehovah “hated”
him (Mal. 1:2-5), something which is true of all who are reprobate (Rom. 9:13).
The Antichrist will be powerful and popular throughout the whole world (Rev. 13),
being worshipped by absolutely everyone on earth, except the elect (8). But
surely it is a terrible blasphemy to claim that God loves the “man of sin” and
“son of perdition” (II Thess. 2:3)!
The truth is that all of
Jehovah’s blessings are found alone in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3), “the last Adam” (I Cor. 15:45),
the other and far greater covenant head! By His sacrifice on the cross, He
“redeemed us from the curse,” which came through the sin of the first Adam, so
that God blesses all who believe His gracious promise (Gal. 3:13-14).
…
[The] theory of common grace—a temporal, changeable (and unrighteous) divine
love for the ungodly reprobate apart from the Saviour and His cross—leads to a
side-lining and corrupting of the biblical and confessional truth regarding the
federal headship of Adam (and, therefore, also of Christ), original sin and the
creation ordinances. False principles work through! Using ingenious (but
fallacious) arguments, common grace claims that the reprobate wicked are cursed and blessed in
Adam, and so are blessed in all their activities—despite their being enemies of
God and Christ (Gen. 3:15)!
-----------------------------------------------------
(III)
More to come! (DV)
COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:
The adherents of the theory of Common Grace (Gemeene
Gratie) teach that Genesis 1:26 speaks of a Cultural Mandate to Adam, and
in him to the whole human race, to subdue the earth. And it is then pointed out
that God adds the words, “Be fruitful and replenish the earth and subdue it”
(Gen. 1:28).
This theory of Common Grace holds that this same
Cultural Mandate is still in effect after the fall of man, after the entire
world has become dead in trespasses and sins, incapable of doing any good and
prone to all evil, except they be born again by the Spirit of Christ. The
natural man is not as evil as is spoken of in Ephesians 2:1-4. There are still
in him the glimmerings of natural light. And, therefore, by virtue of this
restraining/non-regenerative influence of the Holy Spirit, the natural man can
still fulfill the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1:26. In our day this Cultural
Mandate is so connected with this “common grace” that the world and the church
work together, and so subdue the world in all spheres: cultural, educational,
aesthetic, political, and economic, yea, even in a religious sense.
Both church and world fulfill the creation ordinance
of Genesis 1:26. Fact is, this latter is acclaimed as being the very genius of
Calvinism.
When the church does this, she is doing so as the regenerated
man, and the world does this by virtue of the restraining power of common grace.
(I)
George C. Lubbers
[Source: The Standard Bearer,
vol 58, no. 20]
[A]
careful reading of the text will show that the main thrust of Genesis 1:26 is
summed up in Genesis 1:27, where Moses writes, “So God created man (male and
female) in His own image, in the image of God created He him ... male and
female created He them.”
The chief
point in this creation narrative in Genesis 1:26 is not what man is obligated
to do; the real crux is how God created man, and to what high estate He exalted
him in the earthly creation: lord over all. He was lord over all under God.
Yes, God created man in His own image and likeness. This does not merely mean
that man has “dominion,” as teach the Arminians concerning the image of God in
man; however, the text basically teaches the exalted position, his divinely-given
and increated dignity above the animals, the moving creature, the animal world
in sea, land, and air, and also far above sun, moon, and stars. However, it
must not be willfully forgotten that man stood thus in dignity only as long as
and as far as he stood clothed in true righteousness and holiness, serving his
Maker and Creator. No Cultural Mandate can be fulfilled in the spiritual,
ethical sense of the word apart from the obedience of love. A hateful world,
hating God and the neighbour, no longer can or will subdue the world and all
things in God's Name and to His glory.
We should notice that in the
state of original righteousness, Adam is to:
1. Replenish the earth.
The entire earth must be peopled (Gen. 1:28). All nations are out of one blood.
Yes, God has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of the
habitation of all the nations. But when God still had man subdue the world, and
all nations are gathered and scattered in all the earth, it is in the deep way
of sin and grace. That is, indeed, the watchword of Scripture.
It was the word which was written
in the “banner” of the war-flag of the Protestant Reformed Church es of
America. I repeat, that the way now is not “nature and grace” but “sin and
grace” in the natural. Yes, then the natural is first, but it is there to
serve the spiritual and the heavenly. And this will be accomplished through
the death, resurrection, and glorification of Christ.
2. Man stood in paradise, not merely
as a moral rational creature, but he stood there as the “Man of God.” He was a
son of God, man of God, image of God, God’s prophet, God’s priest, and God’s
king. It is, therefore, a begging of the question, exegetically, to speak of a
mere “cultural” mandate in Genesis 1:26. It was basically a “covenant” mandate
for Adam with the law of God in his heart. Adam is to have dominion over
fish, fowl, and every creeping thing. He is not yet so perfected that he also
has dominion of the powers and principalities in the heavens. That is indeed
the perfection of Adam and the human race in the one man, Jesus Christ. But
that was not yet. However, the creature is there to serve man, his needs, his
dignity under God. We see that once more when Noah is assigned such dignity
over the animals and all creation (Gen. 9:5). Even the beast that kills a man
must be put to death as God’s vengeance.
3. And thus the earth must be
replenished and subdued. The term to subdue in the Hebrew text is “kabash”;
it does not mean to subdue like an enemy is subdued in battle (Judges 3:30;
8:20), but it means the ultimate sovereignty of man over all creation. For Adam
this meant the earthly creation. He was of the earth, earthy (I Cor. 15:47).
God gave the earth to man; it is the natural habitat of the first Adam.
However, man was really driven from his high estate. This was only at the tree
of life. But the cherubim of God drove him from the holy place of God. He no
longer has sovereignty. He is a fallen man, and creation fell in him and was
subjected to vanity because of him. Now the song is in order: vanity of
vanities, all is vanity. It is a vicious circle until Christ came to save the
world, and to make a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness shall
dwell.
However, all things are subject
to vanity in hope of being delivered from the vanity of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:20). And in this sense, we can
understand that profound word of Christ, “For God sent not His Son to condemn
the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). And so
there is not merely a saving work of Christ to save sinners, but there is also
a cosmological extent to this work. The entire creation, heaven and earth, will
be subjected under the last Adam. All shall be placed under one Head, in heaven
and on earth (Eph. 1:10).
And
thus we come to the Man of God, the Seed of the Woman, Christ in His church,
Head over all things (Eph. 1:10). And thus Christ is really the One, as the
Firstborn of all creatures, Who has the dignity and the preeminence over all
things. The words of God, spoken as a soliloquy (God said by Himself: let us
make man) surely come to pass. The great design and plan of God in these words
was not frustrated by sin. In the way of “sin and grace” this is brought to a
high glory and luster so that now man is not only lord of the earthly, but he
is Lord over all things.
Mere cultural
mandate fulfilled here in the earthly? Not at all. Yes, we begin to see a
bit of this in the church. God has brought forth a church by the Word of truth
to be “some firstfruits of His creation.” Firstfruits! This beckons presently a
full harvest. But we must remember that the church is saved in hope. It
is not yet seen—this putting under Christ’s feet of all things (Heb. 2:8-9).
And we never shall see this in this life. This will not be till the
regeneration of all things, not till this earth and heaven are consumed by
burning heat, the elements are burned, and we shall receive the new heavens
and the new earth which we earnestly look for; yea, for which we press the
gates of heaven in earnest hope (II Pet. 3:10-14; Matt. 19:28).
There
is one point which we must not overlook. It is that the saints in the sphere of
their life are the light of the world, a city on a hilltop which cannot be hid.
The fact that we are “some firstfruits” of God’s creatures implies that we
begin in hope to live as kings and priests on the earth under Christ. So we do
have Christians who are doctors, lawyers, professors in learning and science.
We have talents which we may not and must not bury in the ground. And we must
really labor while it is day to the highest of excellency. God does not need
our “learning,” it is said—correctly said, if rightly understood. Nor does God
need our slothful ignorance; He does not use spiritual-ethical dullards
either. He needs and uses and prepares and molds men to His service in every
field by the Word of truth, which is profitable for reproof, correction, instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God be thoroughly prepared unto every good
work (II Tim. 3:16-17).
However,
that is not the perfection of the “cultural” mandate, but it is the
fulfillment of God’s law in every sphere of life, including also the cultural,
in a man who has been saved from sin, and who looks in hope for a world which
is to be completely delivered from the vanity of the curse of the Fall into
the glorious liberty of the children of God. And, therefore, to teach a
perfected world here of the nations, is like that of a thirsty man looking for
a well of water in the thirsty and dry desert, and as he stumbles along sees
only a fleeting mirage in the desert. Let us not be deceived by vain talk. The “cultural”
(if so we may speak of it for convenience sake) mandate will be when the Christ
is “perfected” in the glory of His kingdom, that is, when He and His church
are exalted to the highest pinnacle of dignity, the very effulgence of God’s
glory, the expressed image of His being, above the angels.
This
kingdom is now here in principle in the church. Truly all things are now Pro
Rege. Yea, all things are already laid at Christ’s feet. He is subjecting
all things now. The great Consummation will be when Christ enters into the
eternal Kingdom, consummated in the heavens above in the ages to come.
That
will be the Man of God. All things will be subjected under His feet, He is the
Lord of lords, and the King of kings forever. Lift up your heads, O, ye gates,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord,
strong and mighty, He is the King of glory!
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