Man of Dominion: God’s Eternal Purpose in Christ
Covenant Series | Man of Dominion | Part 1
Video Description
Why did God create man and give him dominion over the earth? Was Adam created with everything he needed, or did God’s original purpose involve something greater than the life he already possessed? Beginning with Genesis and following the testimony of Scripture through the New Testament, this study examines man’s dominion, the significance of the two trees in Eden, the relationship between authority and obedience, and the eternal life found in Jesus Christ. At the center of the argument is a fundamental truth: God’s purpose for man was always bound up in his Son, through whom all things would ultimately be brought into subjection to God.
Written Version – Bible Study
God’s Purpose for Man Begins and Ends in Jesus Christ
In John 5:39–40, Jesus confronted the religious leaders of Israel with a remarkable declaration:
“Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life.”
The Jews possessed the Scriptures and believed that eternal life could be found in them. Yet Jesus declared that the Scriptures were testifying of himself.
The distinction is essential.
The Scriptures were not the source of eternal life. They were the testimony concerning the one in whom that life existed.
Jesus was identifying himself as the fulfillment of the testimony contained in the Scriptures.
This provides the foundation for understanding God’s purpose throughout the Bible.
When we examine the creation of Adam, the dominion given to man, the two trees in the garden, the entrance of sin and death, and the restoration of eternal life, we are examining things that ultimately testify of Jesus Christ.
The question is not whether these things testify of Christ, but how they do so.
Why Did God Give Man Dominion?
Genesis 1:26–28 establishes that God created man in his own image and gave him dominion over the works of his hands.
The order is important.
God first declared that man would be made in his image and likeness. He then declared that man would have dominion.
Man’s dominion was therefore connected to his creation in the image of God.
God possesses all dominion, and man, created in his image, was given authority over what God had made.
However, this dominion was not an independent authority.
It originated with God, and its rightful exercise required submission to God.
This becomes particularly significant when we consider the relationship between Adam and Jesus Christ.
The Dominion of Psalm 8
Psalm 8:4–6 declares:
“What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honour. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”
David describes a dominion extending beyond the immediate responsibilities given to Adam in the garden.
He declares that all things have been placed under man’s feet.
The New Testament explains the significance of this declaration.
Hebrews 2:5–9 quotes Psalm 8 and applies its testimony to Jesus Christ.
The writer first establishes that God has not placed the world to come in subjection to angels.
He then quotes the declaration concerning man and the son of man, concluding:
“But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus…”
The connection is unmistakable.
The dominion given to man in Genesis finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Christ became man, was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and was crowned with glory and honor.
God’s purpose for man’s dominion was always connected to the Son through whom that dominion would ultimately be fulfilled.
Christ Receives All Dominion
Ephesians 1:20–23 declares that God raised Christ from the dead, seated him at his right hand, and placed him above every principality, power, might, and dominion.
All things have been placed under his feet.
This directly corresponds to the testimony of Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2.
First Corinthians 15:24–28 develops the same truth further.
Christ must reign until all enemies are placed under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
When all things have been subjected to him, the Son will deliver the kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all.
This reveals an essential principle concerning rightful dominion.
True dominion is always exercised in submission to God.
Even Jesus Christ, having received all dominion, ultimately subjects all things to the Father.
The dominion established with Adam was never intended to function independently of God.
Its rightful exercise required submission to the one who established it.
Why Did God Give Adam a Choice?
Genesis 2:15–17 records that God placed Adam in the garden to dress it and keep it.
Adam was given responsibility over what God had placed under his care.
But God also gave him a command.
He could freely eat from the trees of the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Eating from that tree would bring death.
Why did God establish this possibility?
The answer is connected to the nature of authority itself.
Authority involves the ability to exercise judgment and make decisions.
If there is no possibility of choosing one course of action over another, there is no meaningful exercise of choice.
God gave Adam dominion, but Adam was responsible for exercising that dominion in submission to God’s command.
His obedience was not merely the performance of an assigned task. It was the faithful exercise of authority under God.
Yet the possibility of disobedience existed.
Adam could choose another way.
Did God Tempt Adam to Sin?
The existence of a choice raises an important question.
Did God establish the forbidden tree because he wanted to tempt man into disobedience?
James 1:13 directly answers this:
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt any man.”
God established the conditions under which man could exercise a choice, but God was not the tempter.
The temptation came through the serpent.
God had warned man against eating from the tree. The serpent introduced a competing voice that challenged God’s command.
Eve was presented with another way of understanding the tree, one that contradicted what God had said.
The test concerned whether man would remain faithful to God’s word or submit to another voice.
The issue was not simply eating fruit.
It was whether the creature entrusted with dominion would remain subject to the Creator who had given it.
The Two Trees and God’s Eternal Purpose
Why Was the Tree of Life in the Garden?
One of the most important questions concerning Adam’s original condition is the presence of the Tree of Life.
Genesis 2:7 declares that God formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Adam was alive.
He had received life from God.
Yet God also placed the Tree of Life in the garden.
Why would Adam need access to a tree offering life if he already possessed life?
The answer emerges when we examine what God said concerning the tree after Adam sinned.
Genesis 3:22 and the Nature of Eternal Life
Following Adam’s disobedience, God declared:
“Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.”
God then prevented Adam from accessing the tree.
This establishes a critical distinction between the life Adam already possessed and the life offered by the tree.
Adam possessed life before the fall, but he was capable of dying.
The Tree of Life offered something different.
According to Genesis 3:22, eating from it would cause man to live forever.
If Adam already possessed life that made death impossible, how could death have entered his experience?
The fact that Adam could die demonstrates that he did not possess immortality in the sense represented by the Tree of Life.
Therefore, the Tree of Life offered something beyond Adam’s original condition.
This conclusion has important implications.
The Tree of Life existed before the fall.
It was not introduced afterward as a remedy for an unexpected problem.
God had already placed it in the garden.
The life it offered was part of the original environment God established for man.
This raises a foundational question:
Was man’s need for eternal life created by the fall, or was that need already revealed by the presence of the Tree of Life before the fall?
The presence of the tree before sin entered the world points toward the latter.
God’s purpose for man involved something greater than merely continuing in the life Adam already possessed.
Why Did God Prevent Adam From Eating the Tree of Life?
After Adam sinned, God barred his access to the Tree of Life.
Why?
Genesis 3:22 provides the reason: God would not permit man to eat from the tree and live forever in his fallen condition.
This was not merely a matter of preventing Adam from escaping physical death.
The implications reach into the necessity of redemption.
If Adam had eaten from the Tree of Life after entering a sinful condition, he would have entered an unending existence in that condition.
The fallen state would have become permanent.
But God had a purpose to deliver man from sin and death.
That deliverance would ultimately come through Jesus Christ.
Christ entered into death so that man could be delivered through his death and resurrection.
Death was not the final purpose of God for man.
Resurrection and eternal life in Jesus Christ were the purpose.
Therefore, barring Adam from the Tree of Life was not simply an act of judgment.
It was also an act of mercy.
God did not permit man to become permanently established in his fallen condition.
The way to eternal life would be opened through redemption.
The Tree of Life in Revelation
The Tree of Life appears at the beginning of Scripture in Genesis and returns at the conclusion in Revelation.
Revelation 2:7 promises that the one who overcomes will be given to eat from the Tree of Life in the paradise of God.
Revelation 22 presents the Tree of Life in connection with the river of the water of life.
The contrast is significant.
In Genesis, fallen man is barred from the tree.
In Revelation, the redeemed are given access to it.
Between these two events stands the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The life that was inaccessible to fallen man is made available through the completed work of redemption.
The Tree of Life therefore connects the beginning of God’s purpose for man with its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
What Do the Two Trees Represent?
Both the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were placed in the midst of the garden.
Their presence reveals two fundamentally different possibilities.
The Tree of Life offered life beyond man’s original condition.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil offered knowledge through an experience God had forbidden.
Man already knew good.
He lived in the environment God had created, enjoyed its blessings, and received instruction directly from God.
But the forbidden tree offered knowledge of both good and evil.
God had not intended man to come into understanding through participation in evil.
Man was to receive truth and life from God.
The Principle of Seed and Fruit
The Scriptures repeatedly use the relationship between a tree, its seed, and its fruit to reveal the nature of what something produces.
Jesus taught that a tree is known by its fruit.
The fruit reveals the nature of the tree from which it comes.
This principle provides a way of understanding the contrast between the two trees.
The fruit of the forbidden tree brought the knowledge of good and evil into man’s experience.
Its consequences immediately became visible.
Adam and Eve recognized their nakedness, became ashamed, and attempted to cover themselves.
Their new knowledge did not deliver them.
Instead, they attempted to solve their condition through their own efforts.
They sewed fig leaves together to make coverings.
But the covering man produced could not resolve the deeper problem created by his disobedience.
God himself would provide another covering.
Adam’s Covering, Abel’s Offering, and the Testimony of Christ
Genesis 3:21 records that God made coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve.
The contrast between man’s covering and God’s covering is significant.
Adam attempted to cover himself through the work of his own hands.
God provided a covering that man had not produced.
The skins point toward the taking of life, although Genesis does not explicitly describe the death of an animal in this account.
This introduces a pattern that becomes more clearly developed in the account of Cain and Abel.
Abel brought an offering from the firstlings of his flock.
Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the ground.
God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s.
Hebrews 11:4 explains that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice by faith.
The distinction is therefore not merely between two different kinds of offerings.
It concerns faith and the testimony accepted by God.
In this study, the contrast between Cain and Abel is understood as part of the developing testimony concerning Jesus Christ.
Abel’s offering points toward the sacrifice God would ultimately provide through his Son.
Cain’s offering is considered in connection with man’s attempt to present the product of his own labor.
This reflects the earlier contrast between Adam’s attempt to cover himself and the covering God provided.
The larger principle is that man’s salvation cannot be produced through his own works.
It must come through what God provides.
From the beginning, the testimony of Scripture directs our attention toward the necessity of Jesus Christ.
Did God Know Adam Would Fall?
The existence of the forbidden tree and the entrance of sin raise another question.
Was man’s disobedience an unexpected failure in God’s creation?
Did God establish his purpose for man only to discover that something had gone wrong?
Scripture provides a clear answer concerning the knowledge of God.
First John 3:20 declares:
“God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”
This is a comprehensive statement.
If God knows all things, then man’s future choices cannot exist outside his knowledge.
Isaiah 46:9–10 declares that God is unlike any other and identifies him as the one who declares the end from the beginning.
Hebrews 4:13 likewise establishes that all things are naked and open before God.
Acts 15:18 declares that God’s works are known to him from the beginning of the world.
Taken together, these passages establish that God’s knowledge is not limited to what has already happened.
He knows the end from the beginning.
Therefore, Adam’s disobedience did not take God by surprise.
God knew what man would choose when he established the conditions in the garden.
This does not mean that God tempted Adam to sin. James 1:13 expressly denies that God tempts man with evil.
But it does mean that the fall cannot be understood as an unforeseen event that forced God to invent an entirely new purpose.
God’s eternal purpose in Jesus Christ was not an emergency response to Adam’s failure.
The Tree of Life was already present before the fall.
The life found in the Son was already central to God’s purpose.
Eternal Life Is Found in the Son of God
The identity of the life represented by the Tree of Life brings us back to the declaration of Jesus in John 5.
Jesus told the Jews that the Scriptures testified of him and that they would not come to him to receive life.
This establishes that eternal life is not merely a condition of endless existence.
Its source is found in God himself.
God Alone Possesses Immortality
First Timothy 6:16 describes God as the one:
“Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.”
God alone possesses immortality in himself.
Eternal life originates in him.
It is not something the creature possesses independently of the Creator.
This distinction is fundamental to understanding man’s original condition.
Adam received life from God, but he did not possess immortality as an independent attribute of his own being.
The life offered through the Tree of Life must therefore be understood in relation to its divine source.
The Father Has Given the Son to Have Life in Himself
In John 5:26, Jesus declares:
“For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself.”
The Son does not merely teach about eternal life.
He possesses life in himself.
This is developed even more explicitly in 1 John 5:11:
“And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”
Notice where the life is located.
It is in the Son.
The Scriptures do not present eternal life as something that exists independently of Jesus Christ.
God has given eternal life, and that life is in his Son.
This brings the testimony back to the Tree of Life in Genesis.
The tree offered life beyond the condition Adam already possessed.
That life was eternal.
The New Testament identifies the source of eternal life as God and declares that this life is in his Son.
The conclusion of this study is that the eternal life offered through the Tree of Life was the life found in Jesus Christ.
In this sense, the life of the Son was being offered to man from the beginning.
The fall did not create God’s purpose for man to partake of eternal life.
It interrupted man’s access to that life.
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God restores access to the eternal life that was always central to his purpose.
The Scriptures begin with the Tree of Life and conclude with the Tree of Life.
And throughout their testimony, they reveal the one in whom that life is found.
Jesus Christ.
Questions and Answers
1. What does Zion Ministries teach about man’s dominion?
Zion Ministries teaches that God created man in his image and gave him dominion over the works of his hands. This dominion originated with God and was intended to be exercised in submission to him.
Psalm 8 describes the dominion given to man, while Hebrews 2 identifies Jesus Christ as the one in whom this dominion finds its ultimate fulfillment.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 1:26–28; Psalm 8:4–6; Hebrews 2:5–9; Ephesians 1:20–23.
2. Was Adam created with eternal life?
Adam was created alive, but he did not possess immortality in the sense represented by the Tree of Life.
Genesis 3:22 establishes that eating from the Tree of Life would cause man to live forever.
Since Adam was capable of dying, he did not already possess the kind of life that made death impossible.
The Tree of Life therefore offered something beyond Adam’s original condition.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22.
3. Why was the Tree of Life present before Adam sinned?
The presence of the Tree of Life before the fall indicates that God’s original purpose for man involved something beyond the life Adam already possessed.
The tree was not introduced as a response to sin.
It was already present in the garden before man’s disobedience.
This supports the conclusion that eternal life was part of God’s purpose for man from the beginning.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:1–2.
4. Why did God prevent Adam from eating the Tree of Life after the fall?
God prevented Adam from eating the Tree of Life because doing so would cause him to live forever.
The argument presented in this study is that allowing fallen man to enter an immortal condition would have permanently established him in his sinful state.
By barring access to the tree, God preserved the way for redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The barring of the tree was therefore both an act of judgment and an act of mercy.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 3:22–24; Romans 6:3–5; Revelation 22:1–2.
5. Does Zion Ministries teach that the Tree of Life represents Jesus Christ?
Yes. This study argues that the eternal life offered through the Tree of Life is the life found in Jesus Christ.
The argument begins with Genesis 3:22, which establishes the eternal nature of the life offered by the tree.
First Timothy 6:16 identifies God as the one who possesses immortality.
John 5:26 establishes that the Father has given the Son to have life in himself.
First John 5:11 declares that the eternal life God gives is in his Son.
Taken together, these passages form the basis for identifying the life offered through the tree with the eternal life found in Jesus Christ.
This is a theological conclusion drawn from the combined testimony of Scripture, rather than an explicit statement in Genesis identifying the tree as Christ.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 3:22; John 5:26; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 5:11.
6. Did God know Adam would sin?
Yes.
First John 3:20 declares that God knows all things.
Isaiah 46:10 describes God as declaring the end from the beginning.
Therefore, Adam’s future disobedience could not have existed outside God’s knowledge.
The fall did not take God by surprise, nor did it force him to abandon his original purpose.
Primary Scriptures: 1 John 3:20; Isaiah 46:9–10; Hebrews 4:13; Acts 15:18.
7. Did God tempt Adam and Eve to disobey?
No.
James 1:13 expressly declares that God does not tempt man with evil.
God established a command and gave man the responsibility to obey it.
The temptation came through the serpent, who challenged God’s word and presented disobedience as an alternative.
The existence of a choice must therefore be distinguished from the act of tempting someone to make the wrong choice.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 2:16–17; Genesis 3:1–6; James 1:13.
8. What is the relationship between dominion and obedience?
Dominion is authority given by God.
Obedience is the faithful exercise of that authority in submission to him.
Adam possessed dominion because God established it, but he was responsible for exercising that dominion according to God’s command.
Jesus Christ demonstrates the fulfillment of rightful dominion through his obedience to the Father.
First Corinthians 15:24–28 establishes that even when all things are subjected to Christ, the Son ultimately subjects all things to the Father.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 1:26–28; Genesis 2:15–17; 1 Corinthians 15:24–28.
9. Was redemption God’s original purpose or a response to an unexpected failure?
God’s purpose in Jesus Christ was established before Adam’s disobedience.
The presence of the Tree of Life before the fall demonstrates that eternal life was already part of the purpose God had established for man.
Because God knows all things and declares the end from the beginning, the fall did not introduce an unforeseen problem requiring God to invent a new purpose.
Redemption through Jesus Christ brings man into the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Primary Scriptures: Genesis 2:9; Isaiah 46:10; John 5:39–40; Ephesians 1:9–10.
10. What is the central conclusion of this study?
God created man in his image and gave him dominion, but man’s ultimate purpose was never to rule or live independently of God.
The dominion given to man finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
The eternal life offered through the Tree of Life finds its source in the Son.
Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God restores the way for man to partake of that life.
The testimony of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals God’s eternal purpose in Jesus Christ.
The purpose was always that man would partake of the life of the Son, dwell in him, and fulfill the will of God through him.