No Free Lunch: Economics for a Fallen World: Third Edition, Revised

Chapter One: Introduction to Economics 9 Adam and Eve’s stewardship task (alternatively called the cultural or dominion mandate) to rule over the earth and over every living creature is both their right and obligation as image-bearers. The Hebrew transliteration of rule, radah , means to have dominion, to dominate, or to subjugate. This is a very strong word, and it is appropriate that God’s image-bearers should tend the garden and the broader world such that they bring it into conformity with God’s purposes and plans. The completeness of this dominion is evidenced by other uses in the Bible, most notably in Psalm 110 which has God’s Messiah ruling over the nations. While the Fall has corrupted how we approach our stewardship task, our God-given mandate to rule over creation remains (as seen in Psalm 8 and quoted again in Hebrews 2) . V27 shows that under the category “man,” God created males and females. Males and females are complementary—even with their differences, they are equally created in God’s image. Together, they image God more gloriously than either could do individually. And God Himself reflects those differences in males and females. Even though God is always presented as “Father” in Scripture, He also reveals himself as having the characteristics that a mother would have. God promises to meet their needs, providing them sustaining food in the form of green plants and plants yielding seed because dominion would be taxing and require both the male and the female to accomplish God’s purposes. In V31, we see that all of God’s creative activity was called very good. SUMMARY OF BEING CREATED IMAGO DEI As God’s image-bearers, we partially reflect His character and attributes to the created order as His representative and vice-regent on earth. Table 1 illustrates parallels between God and His image-bearers: God’s Attributes God’s Image-Bearer Attributes He is triune and, therefore, social in nature: “Let Us make man...” We are social; we want to cooperate socially He is creative We are creative; you were created to create! He works We work—it is intrinsic to our human dignity He makes moral assessments, ”behold, it was very good.” We make moral assessments—but under what basis? He creates order out of chaos, “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters” We subdue the earth and create order of chaos as we take Godly dominion