The Father's Magnificent Acts in Creation
The Mission of God: Lesson Two
By Steven L. Childers
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Introduction: What Was God Doing Before There Was Anyone to Save?
Many Christians think that God’s mission begins with Abraham, Israel, Jesus, or especially Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28. This is understandable but it is not correct.
God’s mission did not begin with a rescue. It began before fallen and cursed humanity and the world needed to be rescued.
In Lesson One, we saw that the whole Bible reveals one grand story of God’s mission, unfolding through the magnificent acts of the triune God:
the Father’s magnificent acts in Creation,
humanity’s rebellious acts in the Fall,
the Son’s magnificent acts in Redemption, and
the Spirit’s magnificent acts in Restoration.¹
Now we return to Act One and ask a foundational question: What was God’s original mission for humanity and the world before anything went wrong?
Before there was sin, there was mission. Before humanity needed salvation, humanity already had a calling. And before Jesus gave the Great Commission, the Father had already given humanity a creation commission.
Act One reveals not only why humanity and creation exist, but what human flourishing was originally meant to look like. Understanding this original mission helps us see why our lives, relationships, and work matter to God. This mission clarifies what salvation ultimately restores, and how our lives can fit into his mission today.
Here's a theological sidebar reminder: Although Scripture gives the Father special prominence as Creator, all three persons of the Trinity always work inseparably as the one true God. The Father creates all things through his Son and by his Spirit.²
I. The Father Creates Humanity: Good but Not Complete
Genesis 1:26–28 closely connects humanity’s identity and calling: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them multiply and have dominion....”
Human beings are not simply another part of creation. God created us in his image to be his representatives within creation.
In the ancient world, kings sometimes placed images of themselves throughout their kingdoms as visible signs of their authority. In a far greater way, God created living images of himself and commissioned them to represent his gracious rule throughout his world. We are not the King; we represent the King.
Being made in God’s image therefore tells us both who we are and why we exist.
Psalm 8 says that God crowned humanity “with glory and honor” and gave us dominion over the works of his hands. We were created to know God, reflect his character, represent his rule, and carry out his purposes in the world.³
God also created humanity for a loving personal relationship with him. That relationship was marked by two extraordinary gifts: a perfect standing before God and a pure heart from God.
Their perfect standing meant Adam and Eve stood before God in complete innocence and acceptance. They were without guilt or shame and could enjoy his holy presence without fear.
Their pure hearts meant their loves were rightly ordered. They loved God above all else, delighted in him, trusted him, and were free to love one another without the corruption of sin.
But God did not create humanity merely to have a private relationship with him. Their relationship with God was designed to overflow into every other vital relationship in life:
with themselves,
with one another, and
with the world God entrusted to them.
Because they were at peace with God, they were at peace within themselves, free to love one another without shame or rivalry, and able to engage creation as faithful stewards.
This is the biblical picture of shalom—peace, wholeness, blessing, harmony, and flourishing. It was, in a very real sense, heaven on earth.⁴
Yet a very important distinction is necessary: Good did not mean finished. Perfect does not mean complete. Adam and Eve possessed a perfect standing and pure hearts, but they themselves had not yet reached the fullness of mature humanity God intended. Perfect did not mean complete.
Augustine described Adam’s original condition as posse non peccare—”able not to sin.” Adam was genuinely righteous, but his obedience had not yet been tested and confirmed.⁵ Herman Bavinck similarly writes that Adam stood “not at the end but at the beginning of the road.”⁶
Humanity therefore possessed untapped potential for development. Adam and Eve were created to mature in wisdom, love, holiness, obedience, and faithful service.
Their incompleteness was not a defect, it was part of God’s design. This design was not only true of them, but also of the world entrusted to them.
II. The Father Creates the World: Good but Not Complete
Genesis repeatedly declares God’s creation good. Light was good. The land and seas were good. Vegetation was good. The sun, moon, and stars were good. The animals were good. Finally, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Christianity begins with creation as God’s good gift. God made the physical world, human bodies, work, food, marriage, beauty, creativity, and human culture, and he called his creation good. These are not evils from which spiritual people should seek escape, but gifts to be received, cultivated, and enjoyed under God’s gracious rule.
This was the third dimension of humanity’s original blessing: God gave them not only a perfect standing and a pure heart to be in fellowship with him, but also a perfect world in which to carry out his mission.
In this perfect world there was no pain, sickness, death, alienation, or curse. Creation existed in harmony with God’s will and provided the setting in which human beings could flourish in relationship with God, themselves, one another, and the world.
But again, perfect did not mean complete.
The world was perfect in goodness and harmony, but it was not fully developed. Creation contained enormous, untapped potential that human beings were called to cultivate. Sounds could become music; trees could become homes, books, or instruments; language, imagination, relationships, and raw materials could develop into literature, institutions, art, technology, and culture.⁷
God creates. Human beings cultivate what God creates. Through that cultivation, God's world (sometimes called culture) develops.
This progression can be summarized simply:
Creation → Cultivation → Culture
Genesis 2 also shows that the entire earth was not one fully developed Garden of Eden. The biblical account narrows its focus from the earth, to a land called Eden, and then to a particular garden God planted within Eden.⁸
The garden was a concentrated place of God’s presence, blessing, beauty, and order within a larger world waiting to be cultivated.
The garden was the beginning, not the end.
There are also strong biblical reasons for seeing Eden as an original sanctuary or temple. The tree of life stood there. God manifested his presence there. Adam was placed there “to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15), language that carries the ideas of cultivating and guarding and is later associated with priestly service in a sacred space.⁹
A river flowed from Eden to water the garden and then outward toward surrounding lands, picturing God’s life and blessing moving beyond the garden. God’s purpose was for this garden-sanctuary to expand until the whole earth became his dwelling place—a worldwide temple filled with his presence, rule, blessing, and glory.
Humanity and the world were good but not complete and God intended them to develop together.
III. The Father Begins His Mission Through Humanity in the World
After creating Adam and Eve in his image, God blessed them and gave them their mission:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion...” (Gen. 1:28).
This is the Bible’s first great human commission reflecting God's first great mission. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is essential to God’s redemptive mission, but it is not God’s first commission. Before humanity needed a rescue mission, humanity already had a creation mission.
That mission included two closely related dimensions: procreation and vocation.
First, procreation: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” God intended the earth to be filled with image bearers—men and women who would know and enjoy him, reflect his character, and represent his gracious rule throughout creation.
Second, vocation: “subdue it, and have dominion.” Genesis 2:15 describes this calling from another perspective: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Human beings were commissioned to cultivate, develop, preserve, and protect what God entrusted to them.¹⁰
The two dimensions can be summarized this way:
Procreation fills the earth with image bearers.
Vocation develops the earth through image bearers.
As image bearers cultivated creation, human culture would develop. Genesis already shows the beginnings of language, marriage, work, music, craftsmanship, and technology.
Richard Mouw once illustrated this cultural mandate by imagining Adam and Eve discovering that instead of clearing the ground with their bare hands, they could use a branch as a tool. Once they named that tool and began dividing the work between them, they had begun developing technology, language, and social organization. The illustration makes a larger point: the world God created contained possibilities intended to be discovered and developed by human beings.¹¹
Biblical worship was therefore never meant to be separated from work. God placed Adam in the garden to worship through faithful service—to cultivate and guard what belonged to God. The New Testament echoes this whole-life worship in Romans 12:1 and 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Eden therefore corrects a common misunderstanding of ultimate happiness. God did not place humanity in paradise to escape meaningful work, but to flourish through it.
Rest is a gift from God, but so is work.
This helps explain why people who leave paid employment often continue serving, creating, mentoring, caring, or contributing in other ways. Retirement from paid employment may be appropriate; retirement from God’s calling to purposeful service is not the biblical vision of flourishing.¹²
But the biblical command to exercise dominion also requires an important qualification. Dominion is not domination. Human authority over creation is entrusted, not owned. Image bearers do not have the right to exploit other people or the world for their own purposes. They are servants of the true King, called to exercise authority according to his character and purposes.
Genesis 1 gives humanity a cosmic commission: fill and subdue the earth. Genesis 2 gives Adam a particular assignment: this garden. Adam could not personally cultivate the entire earth. He began with what God placed under his care.
The same principle helps us understand our calling. God places us within particular spheres of influence. We are given particular relationships, families, vocations, churches, neighborhoods, communities, responsibilities, and gifts. We are not responsible for cultivating everything in God’s world, but we are responsible for faithfully cultivating what God has entrusted to us.
The garden was meant to spread. God’s image bearers were meant to spread. God’s blessing was meant to spread. And ultimately, God’s glory was meant to spread and fill the whole earth.
All of this points to the ultimate purpose of creation. God created the world to be an eternal, cosmic display of his glory under his gracious rule. He created human beings in his image to participate in that purpose as they:
enjoy his presence.
reflect his character.
represent his rule.
cultivate his world.
extend his blessing.
Act One already reveals the central mission of God:
God’s mission is to glorify his name by causing his kingdom to come throughout the earth through his people by the power of his Spirit.
Jesus later teaches his followers to pray according to this same great purpose: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9–10).
IV. How the Father’s Creation Mission Reshapes Our Story
Understanding the Father's magnificent acts in creation reshapes how we understand God’s gospel, salvation, and mission.
A. First, it reshapes how we understand God’s gospel.
One of the first biblical truths in a clear presentation of the gospel is this: “God created you to have a loving relationship with him and to flourish in this life and the next.”
The Bible’s good news begins with the God who created all things in love. Scripture declares that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and reveals the depth of that love in the gift of his Son: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
The eternal life God promises is not merely existence after death. Jesus says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Eternal life begins now in restored fellowship with God and reaches its fullness in the life to come forever.
Creation shows what that flourishing was meant to look like. God created humanity with a perfect standing before him, pure hearts that loved him, and a perfect world in which to live. Their loving relationship with God was foundational, overflowing into flourishing relationships with themselves, with one another, and with the world God entrusted to their care.
This is where the personal gospel story begins: with a loving Creator who made us for relationship with himself and for fullness of life under his gracious rule.
B. Second, it reshapes how we understand God’s salvation.
Salvation at its core is re-creation—God reclaiming what sin and Satan have ruined, redeeming fallen humanity and creation from the curse, and restoring them toward his original purposes revealed in Genesis 1. As Herman Bavinck summarized, “Grace restores nature.”¹³
This means that God’s saving grace restores everything that sin ruins.
So, God’s purpose in salvation is not only to restore your relationship with him. Through that restored relationship, he also renews your heart and increasingly restores your relationships with yourself, with others, and with the world—including your work and calling as his image bearer.
Salvation therefore moves toward the restoration and maturation of humanity according to God’s original design. It is not meant to pull you out of ordinary life, but to restore you within it so that, by God’s grace, you increasingly become the kind of person he created humanity to be and increasingly fulfill the calling he gave humanity from the beginning.
C. Third, it reshapes how we understand God’s mission.
God’s creation mission and redemptive mission are not competing missions. They are distinct, yet inseparably related. God’s redemptive mission became necessary because humanity’s rebellion corrupted both the people and the world through which his creation mission was meant to advance.
Through the gospel, God redeems and restores fallen people to himself so that they can increasingly become the image bearers he created them to be. As their relationship with God is restored, that renewal begins to overflow into their relationships with themselves, with others, and with the world.
This is why the Great Commission is not merely a call to make converts, but to make disciples. We are called not only to lead people into a restored relationship with God, but also to teach them to live under Christ’s lordship in every area of life.
Biblical discipleship therefore involves the restoration of the whole person—how we understand ourselves, how we love and serve others, how we approach our work and calling, and how we faithfully cultivate the particular parts of God’s world entrusted to us.
In this way, God’s redemptive mission restores his people so that they can once again participate in his creation mission.
Conclusion: The Mission Before the Rescue Mission
The Bible’s story begins with the Father’s magnificent acts in creation.
God created humanity good but not complete. He gave them a perfect standing before him, pure hearts that loved him, and a perfect world that was good but not yet fully developed.
Then God brought humanity and creation together in a mission: humanity was to mature as his image bearers while cultivating his world according to his purposes until his presence, blessing, kingdom, and glory filled the earth.
Before there was sin, there was mission. We were created to enjoy his presence, reflect his character, represent his rule, cultivate his world, and extend his blessing.
But in the next act, the image bearers commissioned to represent the King rebel against the King. Their perfect standing becomes a guilty one, their pure hearts become corrupt, and their perfect world becomes broken.
Act One shows us the way things were supposed to be.
Act Two will show us why things are no longer the way they are supposed to be.
FOOTNOTES
Theologians have sometimes used the Latin expression Magnalia Dei, “the magnificent” or “wonderful works of God,” to describe God’s mighty acts in history. See Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God: Instruction in the Christian Religion according to the Reformed Confession, trans. Henry Zylstra (Westminster Seminary Press, 2019).
This emphasis on the Father as Creator does not divide the work of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always work inseparably as the one true God. Scripture nevertheless presents distinguishable emphases within the triune economy: the Father creates through the Son and by the Spirit. See Gen. 1:1–2; Col. 1:15–17; Heb. 1:1–3.
Genesis 1:26–28 closely associates humanity’s creation in God’s image with the commission to exercise dominion. The image bearer may therefore be understood as God’s royal representative or vice-regent, reflecting the King’s character and carrying out his purposes within creation.
Adam and Eve were created with perfect innocence and acceptance before God, pure and rightly ordered hearts, whole bodies, harmonious relationships, and a fruitful creation. Their relationship with God overflowed into flourishing spiritually, physically, mentally, relationally, and vocationally.
Augustine describes Adam’s original condition as posse non peccare, “able not to sin.” See Augustine, On Correction and Grace, 33.
Herman Bavinck writes that Adam “stood not at the end but at the beginning of the road.” Herman Bavinck, Dogmatiek, 2:606.
The Pathway Learning Faith and Work material describes God’s good creation as possessing “deep, untapped potential for development” that human beings were called to cultivate through their work.
Genesis 1 describes the earth broadly as dry land that God made fruitful and good (Gen. 1:9–13). Genesis 2 narrows the focus to Eden and then to the garden God planted within Eden (Gen. 2:8).
Genesis 2:15 describes Adam’s calling “to work” and “keep” the garden. These terms include the ideas of cultivating or developing and preserving or guarding. Their later use in connection with priestly service contributes to the biblical understanding of Eden as sanctuary or sacred space.
See Gen. 1:28; 2:15. Humanity’s calling to cultivate and guard creation establishes work as part of God’s good creation purposes rather than as a consequence of the Fall.
Richard J. Mouw, Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (Eerdmans, 2011). The illustration is used here as an imaginative description of the development of culture, not as an exposition of a specific biblical event.
The biblical pattern includes both work and rest. The Fourth Commandment not only commands Sabbath rest but also assumes a pattern of meaningful labor: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work” (Exod. 20:9). The point is not that believers must remain in paid employment throughout life, but that purposeful service and stewardship remain part of humanity’s calling.
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, Sin and Salvation in Christ, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Baker Academic, 2006), 577. Bavinck’s formulation “grace restores nature” expresses the conviction that redemption does not abolish creation but restores it from sin toward God’s original purposes.
