Growing Dominion, Part 3
So God has assigned to us the responsibility of exercising dominion in the world. He has done this in the cultural mandate given to Adam, in the cultural mandate that was renewed with Noah, and then, ultimately, in the Great Commission that was given to followers of Christ after His resurrection. The author of Hebrews is quite explicit that the subordination of all things to man generally, as noted in the eighth psalm, has found its ultimate fulfillment in the enthronement of Christ. In other words, we do not yet see everything under man, but we see Jesus, who has been given universal authority. In Christ, man’s dominion of the created order becomes possible.
But getting from where we were to where we shall be is an arduous process. The kingdom of God does not arrive like the 82nd Airborne, but rather arrives the way yeast works through a loaf of bread. Because it does not happen instantaneously, there is room for those who doubt the Word of God to scoff in the meantime. As the history of the church has unfolded, there have been two main competitors to the biblical theology of dominion. The first is to fear the maturity it represents, and to flee from it and all attendant responsibilities. This is the tack taken by most contemporary evangelicals, who only real cultural hope is for Jesus to return any moment now and snatch our bacon out of the fire. The other false option is the attempt to seize power, rather than to grow dominion. The one who wants power wants it now, and so he grabs it. The one who wants to labor for dominion is one who does exactly what Jesus said to do. Jesus taught us that authority flows to those who take responsibility through service, and it flees those who try to evade that responsibility, whether through flight or through grasping. But the least will become the greatest.