A Chastened, New Testament Cultural Mandate

 By Matt Foreman - Posted at Reformation21:

Published January 29, 2025

What is the relationship between the creation/cultural mandate in Genesis and God’s intended role for his redeemed people in the new covenant?

In Genesis 1, God creates humanity in his image and gives them a task to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion” (1:28). In Genesis 2, he places them in a garden he designed and gives them the task of stewarding the garden, of cultivating and protecting it (2:15). Combining these two images gives us humanity’s original creation mandate: to cultivate and expand God’s garden-temple to bring God’s creative glory to the ends of the earth.

However, this original mandate becomes disrupted by humanity’s rebellion and fall into sin (Genesis 3). They lose their place in the Garden and lose immediate fellowship and access to God’s counsel. Creation itself is cursed to resist humanity’s dominion. Humanity’s ability to fulfill its purpose, and the creation’s ability to receive it, are both distorted. Only in the new heavens and the new earth, promised in the downpayment of Jesus’ resurrection, will they be fully restored (Romans 8:18-25; Acts 3:21; 2 Peter 3:12-13).

In the meantime, what then is the continuing role and mandate of redeemed humanity while we wait for the new heavens and new earth?

Interestingly, in the Sermon on the Mount, right after describing the foundational heart attitudes that characterize new covenant citizens (Matthew 5:2-12), Jesus gives an important and succinct statement of the church’s purpose and mission: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). These two images actually provide a simple and clarifying, while chastened[1], New Testament cultural mandate: Why are we still here on this earth? What has Jesus left us here to do? All of the Bible’s teaching on the mission of the Christian life can be summarized in these two images: salt and light.

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