6. God's Major Purposes for the Human Race

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. —Psalm 8:3-5 [p 110] [p 111] Two major purposes According to the Bible God had not one, but two major purposes in mind when he placed humankind on this earth. The first purpose was that man, alone among the thousands of God's earthly creatures, should have this unique status and function of being created in the image and likeness of God, to be God's representative and viceroy, to be in fact king of the earth, as its chief authority under God, and its supreme administrator and developer (Gen 1:26-28). The second major purpose proposed to confer on men and women an infinitely greater status and dignity than even the first purpose did. Having begun their existence as creatures of God, men and women were to be given the possibility of becoming children of God, begotten of the very life of God, and hence with the potential to mature into fully developed sons and daughters of God. This purpose, though...