Here is an excerpt from chapter 3 of my book, Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession that I have never put into an article. It is a critical topic in my theology of work. I want to emphasize God’s original purpose for creating human beings. That intent applied to Adam and Eve and applies to us as well. Lastly, I will describe what it looks like when God graciously chooses to use us.
The very first chapter of Genesis demonstrates that the triune God is a worker. On the sixth day, God initiates His greatest creation, human beings. The men and women He started with and every generation since that time were created to be His coworkers. Let me unpack this foundational concept a little deeper.
God’s purposes for making humans in His image
In Gen. 1:26–28, we see that God made Adam and Eve, the first man and woman in His image. He called them to work and to be His coworkers to sustain and expand God’s creation.
In his book, Systematic Theology, Grudem teaches, “When Scripture reports that God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ (Gen. 1:26), it simply would have meant to the original readers, ‘Let us make man to be like us and to represent us.’” Note that the man and the woman were made in God’s image. Both were equal and necessary. Adam and Eve were made for relationship. They were created to complement each other and represent God’s image together. They were made to work as a team!
Sherman and Hendricks, in Your Work Matters to God point out, “So man works because he is created in the image of God.” The Theology of Work Bible Commentary states, “God worked to create us and created us to work.” Later in the same source, we read, “God brought into being a flawless creation, an ideal platform, and then created humanity to continue the creation project.”
In The Presence of God, J. Ryan Lister ties together the creation account in Gen. 1-2 and the description of the new creation in Revelation. He states,
The Lord called Adam to establish a dominion and dynasty that would cover the earth with his Creator’s relational presence. Adam was more than just a farmer; Adam’s call to subdue the earth had an eschatological, or future, goal. . . A large part of the divine mandate, then, consisted of Adam’s working to bring the presence of God to the rest of creation. Adam’s ‘subduing and ruling’ work in the garden was about the distribution of God’s presence. Adam was to expand the borders of Eden to cover the rest of the world. . . Adam was to subdue the whole earth – not just the garden.
In his book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, Andy Crouch offers some original insights into humanity’s call to reflect the image of God through our creativity. “They will have a unique capacity to create—perhaps not to call something out of nothing in quite the way that God does in Genesis 1:1, but to reshape what exists into something genuinely new.” In The Fabric of This World, Lee Hardy explains, “When we shape and administer his creation in service to others and pursue his righteousness in the context of human society we express something of his nature in our lives.”
God chooses us to work with Him
Genesis 2:5 takes our understanding beyond the fact that we were created to work. It introduces the idea of Adam being a coworker with God. We read that “no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground.” This teaches us that plant life needed the rain God would send and that it also needed human workers in order to flourish. God waters, but man must work with God in the process, cultivating the ground as His coworkers.
Sherman and Hendricks ask, “Who took care of the garden of Eden? One view would say, Obviously Adam did. But the other view would say, No, God did; He merely used Adam as an instrument to meet the garden’s needs. But there is no reason why we couldn’t say they both participated in this work.” They continue, “As humans, we act as junior partners in what is ultimately God’s work. Yet participation in that work makes it our work, too. We are colaborers with God in managing His creation.”
Sherman and Hendricks advise, “Perhaps you feel that I am implying that God ‘needs’ us to accomplish His work. Not at all. An omnipotent, sovereign Creator has no need. Rather, God chooses to have us participate in His plans.”
As I mentioned before, when God made the earth and spoke it into being, He did two things. He created something from nothing, and He created order from chaos. So whenever we work, we imitate God’s creativity.
For example, when a woman student writes a research paper, she may have sixteen books in front of her. She has her computer up. Her brain is going eight million directions. She is bringing order to the chaos as she puts all her research in a logical sequence. She is not creating something from nothing like God did. She is creating something new from something else. We were made in His image to be workers and to do things as God does.
Let me share a few quotes from Gustav Wingren’s fascinating book Luther on Vocation. Martin Luther referred to the jobs, roles, and responsibilities that people held as offices or stations.
Regarding God’s work of sustaining the world, Luther preached, “He gives the wool, but not without our labor. If it is on the sheep, it makes no garment.” Luther explains, “God gives the wool, but it must be sheared, carded, spun, etc. In these vocations God’s creative work moves on, coming to its destination only with the neighbor who needs the clothing … God is active in this. There is a direct connection between God’s work in creation and his work in these offices.” This concept is so simple yet so profound.
Later Wingren reports that Luther wisely came to the following conclusion:
Through this work in man’s offices, God’s creative work goes forward, and that creative work is love, a profusion of good gifts. With persons as his “hands” or “coworkers,” God gives his gifts through the earthly vocations, toward man’s life on earth (food through farmers, fishermen and hunters; external peace through princes, judges, and orderly powers; knowledge and education through teachers and parents, etc.)
Closing thoughts
I trust that this snapshot from my book sheds a little light on some ideas that you may never have heard or considered before. I invite you to check out my book or articles on my blog to discover more of these biblical, practical, and personal concepts on the theology of work. I pray that these life-changing truths will inspire you to look at the way that God works through you in your own profession as His coworker.
About the author:
Russell E. Gehrlein (Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Retired) is a Christian, husband of 43 years, father of three, grandfather of five, and author of the book, Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work, published by WestBow Press in February 2018. He received a Master of Arts in biblical studies from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in 2015. He is passionate about helping his brothers and sisters in Christ with ordinary jobs understand that their work matters to God and that they can experience His presence at work every day. He has written more than 320 articles on a variety of faith and work and other topics; many of them have been published or posted on Christian organization’s websites, including the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, Coram Deo, Nashville Institute for Faith + Work, Made to Flourish, The Gospel Coalition, and Christian Grandfather Magazine.
Reflections on Theological Topics of Interest 