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

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.