“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)
God created man in His image on purpose (Gen. 1:26-28). The first man, Adam, was fulfilling God’s purposes for creating him until God’s image and nature in him became corrupted and distorted through his disobedience to God’s express command.
All of us were born spiritually dead, being alienated from the life of God, and with a sinful nature and thus with an inherent inability to fully understand and fulfill God’s purposes or intentions for creating us in His very image (Rom. 5:12, Eph. 2:1, 4:17-18).
Until the complete revelation of God’s grace to humankind in and through the person of Jesus Christ, no man could walk in all the purposes consistently or constantly for which God created man. This is simply because of the depraved, sinful nature all men inherited from Adam.
Jesus Christ was the first man on earth after the fall of Adam, who entirely, consistently, and constantly walked in all the purposes for which God created man. Therefore, Jesus Christ is our perfect model, example, or standard in everything (John 13:15, 1 Pet. 2:21, 1 John 2:6).
It is impossible for any natural man, who is without God’s nature, life, and Spirit, to fully comprehend and fulfill God’s purposes, for “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14 NKJV).
Only the new man or creation in Christ can fully discover, understand, and accomplish God’s purposes for creating humankind in His image.
The divine potential or capacity to fulfill God’s purposes that humanity lost in and through Adam is now fully restored in and through Christ Jesus to all who put their faith in Him, receive and confess Him as their Lord and Saviour.
The Scripture testifies that believers are “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10 NKJV).
Therefore, until you are born again through faith in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ, you don’t have all it takes to walk consistently or constantly in the purposes for which God created man in His very image.
Only through the New Birth experience can you become a partaker of God’s very life, nature, or image (2 Pet. 1:3-4, 1 John 3:9).
What are God’s fixed intentions or purposes for creating man in His image?
Let us explore the Scripture to discover and understand them!
First, God created man to enjoy fellowship with Him:
God created man in His image, possessing the same life and nature as Him so that man can enjoy a loving, intimate, and eternal relationship, fellowship, or communion with Him (Gen. 3:8, Psa. 8:1-9, Prov. 8:31).
Sadly, man became alienated from God’s life through disobedience and thus lost the spiritual capacity to enjoy a loving and intimate relationship, fellowship, or communion with the holy God without fear, shame, guilt, or condemnation (Gen. 3:8-10, Eph. 2:1-3).
You are created with a vacuum, a deep longing, and a hunger for God in your heart that nothing else can fill, meet or satisfy. Until God occupies the central position or place in your heart, you cannot experience true joy, peace, fulfillment, or satisfaction in life (Eccl. 5:10).
Nothing besides a personal, intimate, living, and loving relationship and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ can satisfy your heart completely and constantly.
Therefore, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 NKJV).
You are still spiritually dead in your sins until you are born again through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, you lack any spiritual capacity to enjoy a deep and personal loving fellowship with God.
Besides, sinners are the children of wrath or God’s enemies (Eph. 2:3). Only the new creation in Christ can experience or enjoy a loving and intimate communion with God, for “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor. 6:17 NKJV).
Second, God created man to worship Him alone:
Man was created as a spirit like God Himself to worship God constantly, continuously, or consistently in spirit and truth.
John 4:23-24 – NKJV
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
If you are not worshipping God in spirit and truth, you are not fulfilling one of the primary purposes God created you in His image. True, pure spiritual worship springs from the heart, not the lips.
True worship acknowledges and worships Jesus Christ as God and the Saviour of the world and submits to His lordship.
True worship is a service to God, total consecration, and willingness and commitment to always obey God’s Word.
The unbelievers or the unregenerate people can never worship God in spirit and truth. Why? Because their spirits are still dead in sin, being alienated from the life of God!
Until your spirit is recreated or regenerated by the Holy Spirit, you don’t have the spiritual capacity to worship God in spirit and truth.
Although the unregenerate people may honor God with their lips, their hearts are far from God (Matt. 15:7-9). This is nothing but hypocrisy in God’s sight. It is simply vain worship!
If you are not worshiping God according to God’s nature or character revealed in Jesus Christ, you are not worshiping God in spirit and truth.
According to the Mosaic laws, any believer still worshiping God, regulations, and rituals is not worshiping God in spirit and truth.
As a new creation in Christ, you are called to worship God according to the new covenant guidelines or principles taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ and His early apostles.
Romans 7:6 – NKJV
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Third, God created man to manifest or reflect His nature:
As God’s masterpiece, man was fearfully and wonderfully made to exhibit, manifest, and reflect God’s nature, character, wisdom, love, glory, and power on the earth (Isa. 43:7, 21, 1 Pet. 2:9).
Therefore, a natural man without divine life and the nature of God cannot fulfill this purpose. Only the new creation in Christ has the divine potential or capacity to manifest or exhibit God’s life, nature, or character.
Sadly, many believers today are not increasingly or constantly manifesting God’s life, nature, or character because their minds are not being renewed to conform to the truths of God’s Word.
Only to the degree to which your mind is renewed can you manifest God’s life, nature, or character (Rom. 12:1-2)!
Fourth, God created man to share in His rule or dominion:
God is a Sovereign Ruler both in the heavens and on the earth. However, God created man in His image to be His representative on the planet to wield or exercise unlimited dominion, power, and authority on God’s behalf on the earth (Gen. 1:16-28).
The Psalmist testifies to this truth.
Psalms 8:4-6 – NKJV
4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
Psalms 115:16 – NKJV
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
However, through man’s disobedience, the devil took over the dominion over the earth from man. Therefore, the devil boasted before Jesus, saying, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” (Luke 4:6 NKJV).
But having defeated and spoiled Satan and all his cohorts, the Lord Jesus Christ has restored the dominion over the earth to the new creation, the new man in Christ (Eph. 2:4-6, Luke 4:5-8, 10:17-19).
Therefore, the believers in Christ are now kings unto God, and they will reign, wield, or exercise unlimited dominion or authority on the earth.
Luke 10:19 – NKJV
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Therefore, you are not fulfilling God’s purpose for creating you in His image if you still allow the devil to rule, oppress, afflict, or torment you.
Lastly, God created man to serve humanity:
Man was created as God’s steward to administer God’s resources for the use and benefit of humankind. However, the sinful and selfish nature you inherited through natural birth will not allow you to serve others lovingly and joyfully, regardless of their response.
Therefore, until you share or partake in God’s loving, selfless, meek, and kind nature through the new birth experience, you will remain proud, selfish, or self-centered and thus unable to fulfill the purpose for which God created you in His image.
Beloved, you are created to replenish the earth and to serve others in humility and love, “not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.” (Eph. 6:6-8 NKJV).
Prayer: My Dear Heavenly Father, I praise You for creating me in Christ Jesus for good purposes. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I shall walk daily in God’s purposes for creating me in His image, in Jesus’ name. Amen.