Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. " … God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground (Gen 1:26-28)."

At the time of creation, God created men and women to let them rule over the world. Since ruling is only possible with authority, God must have given them the authority to rule. It is important to realize that this authority is spiritual in nature, and is given from God, not that we can earn it with any human effort. It should not be confused with earthly kind of authority, which is often misused with arrogance and selfishness. It was by this spiritual authority that every evil sprit surrendered to Jesus begging him not to cast him away, and the same authority was given to his disciples. We find the following words in the letter to the Ephesians:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3).

The most important of all the spiritual blessings we receive in Christ is this authority—the spiritual power to rule over the world. It has been given to us, of course, by God’s grace and love. Although it was ours already at the time of creation, Satan deceived us and took it from us. Since then, he became “the prince of this world” as Jesus called him (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). So, Christ came in the flesh, and through his death and resurrection, he took the authority back from Satan. And as soon as he was raised from the dead, he delegated that authority to his disciples, and sat at the right hand of the Father.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come (vv. 19-21).

And if it ends here, it would mean nothing to us today. But it goes on to say:

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way (vv. 22-23).

Christ has been given to the church—not to the world, or to all people on earth. If you want to get any benefit out of this truth, you need to belong to his body—the church. Note that God placed all things under Christ’s feet. Since the feet are under the body, all things are placed under the body, too.

The church today needs to be wakened to realize that all things are placed under her with authority to rule over them. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the church, the body of Christ. Such was God’s plan before the creation of the world, and it has neither changed nor wavered even on the fact that we sinned. It was completely by God’s grace and love that we have been restored to the original state of creation.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (vv. 4-7).

So, let us stand together firmly upon this truth by faith, and do the kind of creation work that God has prepared for us.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (v. 10).