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Chapter 2

The Purpose

And God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So GOD created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:26–29).

From the above Scriptures, it is evident that God’s purpose of creating man was to be like God in likeness, authority, and productivity as can be seen and elaborately quoted in Genesis 1:28:

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 that moveth upon the earth.”

Notice that in Genesis 1:27, God created man in his (God’s) own image. The man here did not refer to a particular color or race, but man as a being (which included male and female) as further recorded in Genesis 5:2.

It was in this image of God that man was made that pleased God to bless man (them). So when God created man, he (God) blessed him (man). Hence, the image of God (which man is or was) is still blessed.

The purpose therefore of God creating man is

To bless Him

To be fruitful

To multiply

To replenish the earth

To subdue the earth

To have dominion over God’s creation or creatures on earth.

The Word of God went forth concerning man when God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

This word shall not return to God void. That is why up till today, the blessing continues (even down to the physical aspect to those who have not accepted God’s perfect work for their salvation). The problem is that man fell out of favor with God by his (man’s) disobedience and was henceforth alienated from God, lost the spiritual image of the Godhead and became a stranger, a wanderer in the earth. This was not the purpose for God creating man. Something went wrong to sabotage the original purpose in the Garden of Eden. Here, God having placed man to dress this garden which God himself had planted, God instituted a commandment to man to eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which he said they should not eat.

Genesis 2:9 showed that the tree of life was also planted in the midst of the garden close to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This means prior to Adam’s (man’s) disobedience, he has been partaking of the tree of life. For the commandment in Genesis 2:17 referred only to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God demanded and expected obedience from man to live forever (in holiness) and therefore had access to the tree of life as long as man obeyed the injunction of Genesis 2:16–17. But when man disobeyed, this right to eat of the tree of life was denied him because man in his new state of iniquity, if he partakes of the tree of life, will live forever in wickedness and sin. Therefore, no plan for his salvation can work since like wicked spirits, he cannot repent. So another reason (which is most important) why God created man was for man to obey him (God).