Hi Mike,

So often I read Genesis 1:26 up to …after our likeness and then just gloss over the remainder.

Foolish me. I skip over a powerful, realm changing promise!

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

…and let them have DOMINION…

Gen 1:26  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.

The beast I (we) war with daily is not flesh and blood, this ruling, well-entrenched beast is spiritual.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

This beast (powered by the god of this world) desires to keep me in darkness, blind to the light of the glorious gospel of Christ.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Receiving and exercising this dominion (light of the gospel of Christ) over spiritual wickedness in my (our) earth and my (our) heaven/firmament is the process of “Gen 1:26 … let us (be making) make man in our image.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 

I cannot make myself in the image go God, neither can I give myself dominion over (my own beastly) spiritual wickedness, but I (we) have a high priest that can and is doing both.

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

I (we) shall be like Him (the image of the invisible God)!

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

YBIC,
A____

Hi A____,

What a wonderful revelation the Lord has given you!

“The first man Adam” (1Co 15:45) has never possessed the dominion he is prophesied to obtain in these verses:

Gen 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 thing that moveth upon the earth.

The fact is that Adam, of himself, and without Christ, “can do nothing”, much less have dominion over all his flesh:

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

This revelation you are sharing with us accords with and confirms the fact that our corruptible, sinful, old man is simply the necessary first step in the work being done by the One who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

This revelation also accords with the fact that instead of saying:

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

“In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die”, in the Hebrew actually says:

Gen 2:17 Yet from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you are not to be eating from it, for in the day you eat from it, to die shall you be dying.

Adam and Eve were created “to die”. Adam and Eve did not die because they ate of the forbidden fruit, rather they ate of the forbidden fruit because of their naked, earthy, sinful, dying, marred composition “in the hand of the Potter”:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Adam’s sin was just as much a work of the Potter’s hand, as was the destruction of Job’s possessions, and as was Job’s affliction with boils. We are plainly to that both  were the work of “Thy hand”:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

The scriptures demonstrate that all that Satan does is no more or any less than what God sends him forth to do, and the same is true of Adam and all who are in Adam because:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 1:9  Having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his desire, which he purposed within himself.
Eph 1:10  for an administration of the fullness of the times. To gather together all things in the Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth,
Eph 1:11  in him in whom also we obtained an inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the deliberation of his will. (ACV)

“All things” must, of necessity include “yea, even the wicked for the day of evil”, and a wicked Adam and Eve who, by His design, disobeyed their Creator.

It is “the Christ” only who will be given the power to “gather together all things in the Christ”,and be granted the dominion over all flesh which God has promised to “the last Adam”, as the Lord has revealed to you in these verses:

Gen 1:26  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 birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that

So the conclusion is that God’s creation is a work in progress, which is what the Hebrew actually reveals in the very next verse:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

The first Adam has never been ‘made in the image of God’. “The first man, Adam”, is but the first step toward making mankind into “the image of God”. Only “the Christ” has been made into that “express image” thus far. “Creating is Elohim humanity in His image”.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

In the end “all in Adam… will bear the image of the heavenly… second Adam”.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

There it is! Corruptible flesh and blood was never intended to inherit the kingdom of God, and yet all in Adam, each in his own order will, “bear the image of the heavenly”, and will be given the dominion you so rightly pointed out he has never yet possessed:

Gen 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 thing that moveth upon the earth. 

Your brother who appreciates every crumb and every nugget of His Words,

Mike