What Does Liberty Look Like: The Cultural Mandate

This is the third post in the ongoing What Does Liberty Look Like series.

In the last post we looked at the source of liberty, which is Jesus Christ. But to understand what Christian liberty looks like today, not just in our hearts and minds but in the world around us, we have to go back to examine the cultural mandate in Genesis 1.

The church is today the dwelling place of God with man (Revelation 21:3). The first setting in which that was true was the garden of Eden. God prepared Eden as His initial dwelling place with man, but that was just the beginning. The Westminster Shorter Catechism rightly tells us that “man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (Q. 1). And how are we to carry that out? By following His rules as given to us in His Word (Q. 2). And the very first rule that God gives to man is to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). In other words, God’s first command to us was to extend the garden so that all of the earth would be His dwelling place with us. One might say it is the purpose of everything that we do, a purpose that is often overlooked by Christians seeking to apply Scripture to their understanding of culture and government.

There can be no doubt that we failed, and failed completely, in carrying out the cultural mandate. On our own, there is no hope of us ever completing this great work. Yet, God did not leave us alone (Joshua 1:5). He sent Christ not only to die for our sins, but to fulfill all of Scripture that “direct[s] us how we may glorify and enjoy him” (Q. 2). While we can add nothing to our salvation, this does not mean that we are sluggards passively waiting for Christ’s completed work to move like yeast throughout time and space. Christ has “sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet” (Hebrews 10:12-13), yet He is not waiting passively either. He is working, though not working alone. Scripture is replete with examples of how man is joined with Christ not only in His rest, but also in His work. We are still called to fulfill the cultural mandate and prepare the entire earth as a dwelling place for God with man.

The most important passage of Scripture to speak on this is the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20 ESV)

We already know that the cultural mandate applies to man in the fallen world (Genesis 9:1-2). The Great Commission, then, is nothing less than a restatement of the cultural mandate placed in the context of the church. Before the fall, man was supposed to fill the world with disciples of God by having babies and discipling them as they grew and then filled the earth. Discipling them then meant teaching them about God and bringing them to maturity—something Adam failed to do with his wife. Today, that still holds true, though added to that is conversion.

This brings us back to Isaiah: “They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (61:4). This is very clear in informing us that the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, those who are bound, and those who mourn, i.e., God’s people, are going to be “set at liberty” and participate in the restoration of the church. But this church is not one that is contained in a building. It is the church that has “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” and through which Christ—through man—exercises “all authority in heaven and on earth.”

Neither is this a future church; it is the church as we see it now (Revelation 21:2–3), though we may see it rather dimly at the moment (1 Corinthians 13:12). God’s promise in Ezekiel has come true:

Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:33–36 ESV)

God’s people did have to wait for the restoration of the church, but not until the end of time. It was to take place “[o]n the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities,” i.e., upon the death and resurrection of Christ. After a 40-year transition that ended at the destruction of Jerusalem, as the peoples’ hearts of stone were replaced with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) so was the Old Covenant and the old order replaced by the New Covenant and the new heavens and new earth. By His grace, God replanted the garden of Eden and His people in their newly restored liberty are spreading it throughout the earth filled with fortified cities for them to inhabit.

It is certainly a good thing that the cities are fortified, for the nations have noticed that God has restored His people to the land to “vindicate the holiness of [His] great name” (Ezekiel 36:23) and they do not like it. They may know that He is the Lord, but this has simply caused them to redouble their efforts to attack and tear down the walls of the great cities that God’s people inhabit. The church, then, is in the midst of a battle against the forces of Satan, a battle which it fights with sword of liberty that extends from Christ’s mouth (Revelation 1:16), the Word of God. It is by this means that the blind will recover their sight and the captives and those who are oppressed will be “set at liberty” (Luke 4:18).

There is also a place in this battle for swords of steal wielded by governments and governors appointed by God. Before we talk about that, though, we need to examine the implications of the fact that at its heart, this battle (like most battles) is over land. God created the world ultimately not for all men, but only for His elect. And those who have not been chosen—or at least not yet called, will do whatever they can to claim the land for their own. So next we will look how God as the Creator informs our understanding of property.