skip to content
Buy Gene’s Books Search

God's greater Purpose • Jan 01st 1969

God’s Eternal Purpose: The Corporate New Man and Dominion – UCLA 1969

Eternal Purpose New Testament Old Testament

In this powerful 1969 message delivered at UCLA, Gene Edwards unfolds one of the most sweeping themes in Scripture: God’s eternal purpose .

Beginning in Genesis 1, Edwards highlights a startling phrase: “Let them have dominion.” God did not merely create an individual man; He envisioned a corporate man—a people bearing His image and exercising dominion over the earth. This purpose existed before the fall, before redemption, and even before the cross. Salvation, he suggests, was not the ultimate goal—it was a detour to restore something far greater.

Turning to Ephesians 3:11, Edwards points to the phrase “the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s intention was always to have a man on earth who would:

  • Bear the image of Christ
  • Subdue the enemy
  • Exercise dominion over the earth

But Adam, the “old man,” failed. He did not eat of the tree of life. Instead, he chose the tree of knowledge—introducing division, human systems, and religious structures built by fallen life.

The story of Scripture, Edwards explains, becomes a battle over “real estate”—a conflict not between God and Satan, but between man and Satan. From Eden to Babel, Egypt, Babylon, and finally Revelation 18, the struggle centers on whether God will have a corporate people who live by divine life instead of human systems.

Jesus Christ came as the Son of Man, exercising dominion over the enemy. Yet He did not remain alone. After His death and resurrection, He placed His life into many believers. In Ephesians, Jew and Gentile are made into “one new man.” This is not an individual—it is the corporate Body of Christ.

The church, as this new man, shares Christ’s authority. Whatever dominion Christ obtained, He gave to the church. The eternal purpose of God is therefore fulfilled in a people—not organized by human hierarchy—but built together in life, led by the Spirit, bearing Christ’s image, and subduing the enemy.

Edwards contrasts the “old man” (human life building religious systems) with the “new man” (a corporate people living by Christ Himself). Babylon represents man’s religious effort; God’s call in Revelation remains: “Come out of her.”

The message concludes with a stirring vision: a church built not on doctrine, hierarchy, or human structure—but on the living Christ as life. A corporate new man, joined together in love, reflecting Christ’s image, and exercising dominion on earth.

This is God’s eternal purpose.

Read More
Download Transcription Play Audio

I’m just going back to Genesis now, and I’m going to talk about that eternal purpose, and I’m talking to you about something that happened before redemption. Will you keep that in mind, please? Before the fall, and before redemption.

God struck the earth and brought forth a piece of dust, breathed in it, man became a living soul, and then he said, Man, I’ve got a job for you. And he said, “I want you to have dominion over the earth, dominion over the fowls of the air and the creeping things, and dominion over everything that is on the earth and earth itself.” Now, we just read that man, man, man is to have dominion over the earth. Now, why is that so important? He also said, Man, you will have the image of God.

Now, according to Colossians, the image of God is Christ. So, man is to bear the image of Jesus Christ. Alright? Man is to do two things. He is to subdue the earth. It said subdue. Subdue the earth and have dominion over the creeping things. The creeping things are a symbol of Satan. To have dominion over the earth and over the creeping things, and then to have the image of God, which is Christ.

Now, what in the world has that got to do with anything? Well, in Genesis 1:1, it says God created the heavens and the earth. But by the time man gets there, does God still have the earth?

Last night, we heard a dear brother talk about Satan and Jesus having a dialogue on a mountain of temptation, and Jesus stood there and looked over the whole earth with Satan, and Satan said, This is my domain. I rule it and I own it, and it is mine. And he said, You, son of God, I will give it to you if you will worship me. He was pulling the same stunt with Jesus that he pulled with Adam. He was trying to get man to come down beneath him because Satan got a hold of this piece of real estate.

Now then, I don’t know how much you know about military tactics, but a king never goes to war against a general who has fought against him. What does he do? If a king has a general who has strolled out and says, I’m going to take the kingdom, the king never lures himself to battle with him, but he sends another general. And somebody took over a piece of real estate that belonged to God, and he staked out claim to it, and his name was Lucifer, Satan, son of the morning.

And he had this piece of real estate. And so, God sent another general to come and subdue it, rule over it, and subdue the creeping things. To take back the piece of real estate. I don’t know if you’ve read me yet, but God’s eternal purpose is for man to have dominion over this earth and to reflect and bear the image of Jesus Christ.

That is God’s eternal purpose. And he has no other purpose. Now then, there is no conflict between God and Satan. The conflict is between man and Satan. And the conflict is over a piece of dirt called earth.

Man and Satan vie for this piece of real estate. And this is God’s purpose for man. I hope I don’t lose you. I hope I can articulate this thing. God put man on this earth to subdue it, to rule it, and to reflect the image of his creator.

Now then, we’re going to have to, from this point on, deal with two men, not one, because one blew it. Lord, be merciful that I can get this across, because it’s sticky. Adam, whoever this man was, and Eve, were put in this garden. He created him, and he was just about ready to get this whole show on the road. He put man in front of the tree of life. And did man ever eat it? Did he? Now, we’re in Genesis 1and 2. There is no fall. Remember that. Did man eat the tree of life? Okay. Remember that, will you? He did not eat the tree of life.

He did not have another life in him. He only ended up with his life. God intended for him to have another life in there. And this life can subdue the enemy. This life is more powerful than the life of the enemy. It’s more powerful than the life of Satan. But before this man ate this life, this higher life, which is Christ, Satan came along, defending his piece of real estate, and he got it, because this man fell in sin, but even worse, he never ate of the tree of life previous to that. Instead, he took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, in class, girls and boys, brothers and sisters, may we call that man from this moment on the old man? Could we call him that? Because that’s what he is. He is very, very old. I don’t care if he’s ten years old. He’s very, very old. And so, the old man goes on, and God has lost his piece of real estate. Now, I’m going to…listen, just follow me here. I’m going to get off the subject for a minute.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

More from the archives