e it as an utter marvel of robotic technology. Yet its origins lie far back in the ancient past. Of course, every part of the human body and how it operates evokes wonder.
Perhaps you’ve looked beyond yourself while wandering along mountain paths, taking in breathtaking scenery of snow-covered peaks looming above grassy hillsides and valleys, with eagles soaring overhead. Or have you stood on the seashore, hearing the pounding surf and feeling the ocean spray while feeling so small before the ceaseless waves and endless wide waters?
No doubt you’ve lifted your gaze to the horizon at sunset, when the sky becomes a beautiful canvas streaked with red and purple. Or what about a clear, moonless night away from the city—the sky strewn with countless blazing stars piercing the blackness?
Why is it all there? Why are you here? Why are any of us here? Deep down, even if we try to deny it, we know that all these wonders did not arise by themselves through random processes. They are the product of design by a master artist— the Artist, the Maker of all things.
But to what end? The amazing truth is that our Creator lays out the underlying purpose for our existence in His revealed Word to mankind—the Holy Bible. It involves the awesome destiny He has planned for us as part of the relationship He desires to have with you and me.
Man’s place in the universe
Three thousand years ago, Israel’s King David reflected on the apparent insignificance of human beings compared with the grandeur of the heavens. He recorded his prayerful thoughts to God on the matter in Psalm 8: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (verses 3-4, English Standard Version).
However, David recognized that God does care about human beings, having delegated to mankind a certain authority over part of the created realm. As the psalm continues: “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas” (verses 5-8, ESV, emphasis added throughout).
David was reflecting on the dominion God gave man at creation, using some of the same language as Genesis 1:26. Here God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
The “Us” and “Our” here denote a plurality in God. As explained in John 1:1-3, there were two entities who together were God—God and the Word, who was also God. These two were later revealed as God the Father and Jesus Christ. We will return to this matter of plurality in the one God, as it’s central to understanding man’s purpose. Let us first, however, note David’s focus on the heavens in mentioning the dominion God has given to man.
All things not yet put under man’s dominion
David’s words in Psalm 8 are quoted in Hebrews 2:6-7: “But one testified in a certain place, saying: ‘What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’”
But the next verse in Hebrews further explains: “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:8).
At first glance, it might seem from what David had written that only earthly creatures were subject to man. Yet the passage in Hebrews stresses that David mentioned “all things” having been committed to mankind’s rule—yes everything, the whole universe. However, it also points out that the whole universe has not yet been placed under man. But the incredible implication of this statement is that it will be.
David and the writer of Hebrews, likely the apostle Paul, surely knew of the promise God had made through Moses that “the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven … the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage” (Deuteronomy 4:19).
So man is destined to share rule with God over the entire created universe! But that’s only part of a bigger picture. The statement that man has been made “a little lower” than the heavenly beings is sometimes translated “for a little while lower” (see “Made Lower—but Only for a While “).
You are gods?
Let’s get to the heart of this matter. The Jews of Jesus’ day accused Him of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God: “Because You, being a Man, make Yourself God” (John 10:33).
Notice His intriguing response: “Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law [in Psalms 82:6], “I said, ‘You are gods’ ”? If He [God] called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”?’” (John 10:34-36).
In other words, said Christ, “if Scripture outright called human beings gods, why are you upset when I merely state that I am God’s Son?”
Yet are human beings actually gods? What did He mean?
In Psalms 82:6, from which Jesus quoted, God says to human beings, “I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’” The Hebrew word translated “gods” is elohim. It literally means “gods” or “mighty ones”—although it is often rendered as “God” (that is, the true God) in the Bible. That’s because, although plural in form, the word elohim is often singular in usage.
Some have argued that the word in this context should be translated “judges” (“mighty ones” being seen by some here as simply powerful human beings). But the original New Testament manuscripts translate Christ’s quotation in John 10 using the Greek word theoi —”gods.”
Indeed, it is obvious that Jesus must have meant “gods.” If He had meant only “judges,” His logic would not follow. Notice: “If Scripture called them judges, why are you upset that I claim to be the Son of God?” That makes no sense. Only when the word is rendered “gods”—and understood to mean that—does Christ’s logic follow.
But, again, can human beings legitimately be referred to as gods, as Jesus said? How are we to understand this?