Man is the center and meaning of the universe because God has fully entrusted man with His purpose. God did not commit Himself to any of the millions of other created items. He committed Himself only to man and entrusted man with His purpose. After He created the heavens and the earth, with the plant and animal lives, God had a conference in Himself with the three persons of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Genesis 1:26 says, "And God said, Let us..." Notice the plural pronoun us. This is very meaningful. There is only one God, but God said, "Let us." This indicates that there was a conference in the Godhead. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." God had this kind of conference only for creating man. In this conference of the Godhead, a decision was made to create man in His image and according to His likeness.
The second half of Genesis 1:26 says, "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." This shows us that the decision made in the conference of the Godhead was not only to create man in God’s image but also to give man the divine authority, the dominion, the ruling power, the reigning authority, over all living things. Moreover, God gave man the authority to rule over the earth and even to subdue and conquer the earth (Gen. 1:28).
We should declare, "Hallelujah! I am not a small thing, because I was created according to the counsel of the Godhead. I was created in God’s image and I have His authority entrusted to me to rule over all things." You should tell the animals that you have authority over them. If you do this, you will see yourself according to God’s viewpoint. This does not mean that you will be proud, but that you will respect yourself as a person who was made in the image of God to have His divine authority over all things.
We human beings forget who we are. We do not regard ourselves as being higher than the animals, as those who have authority over the animals. But we have to realize that we are higher than the animals. We can tell all the animals, "I am much higher than you. You don’t have the image of God, but I do. You don’t have the authority of God, but I do. Not only so, I have the authority over you. You have to listen to me." We should praise the Lord for His creation of us in His image and His entrusting us with His authority. What a wonder this is!
God’s purpose is to make man first His expression and then His representative. The image of God is for us to express God, and the authority of God is for us to represent Him. We are the expression of God and also the representative of God on this earth. What a position and commission we have! Especially the young people among us have to stand on this position and realize God’s commission to man. Then they will know that they should always conduct themselves as God’s expression and God’s representative. We are the image of God and have the divine authority over all things. This shows us that man is the center of the universe. We need to go to the Lord to praise Him for His purpose with us. We need to praise Him for creating us in His image that we may express Him and for entrusting us with His divine authority that we may represent Him.
What are you doing here on this earth? If you realize that you were created in the image of God to express Him and have been entrusted with His authority to represent Him, this will revolutionize your whole life. Your life will become much more meaningful. You will never be disappointed. Of course, to be saved is wonderful, and we should praise the Lord for this. But we also have to praise the Lord for God’s purpose. God saved you for His own purpose. Thus, we all have to say, "Hallelujah for the Lord’s purpose!"
(The Life for the Preaching of the High Gospel, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)