Here's an excerpt from my paper on the covenant of works:
We must avoid making too large a dichotomy between creation and redemption. Redemption should not be understood as an entirely new plan devised by God to replace his original intentions for humanity. Nor should redemption be viewed merely in terms of the restoration of the original state of affairs. John Milton did not have it completely right when he wrote of “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained.”[1] On the contrary, there was eschatology before the fall. As Rowland Ward appropriately observes,
We must not idealise conditions in the world before sin. The state of innocence in paradise is far surpassed by the state of glory in the New Jerusalem. Put another way, we can say there was an eschatology before there was sin, that is, a glorious destiny was in view of which the tree of life in Genesis 2 was also a token. Creation at the beginning was not like it will be in the end. Then it will be richer and more enduring.[2]
Therefore, redemption should be interpreted as God’s reparation of Adam’s failure and fulfillment of his original creation mandate through the Second Adam, Jesus the Messiah. Whereas the first Adam betrayed his heavenly Father and fell into sin by snatching after divinity (Gen. 3:4-6), the Second Adam proved his perfect loyalty by assuming the posture of a servant and humbling himself even unto the death of the cross (Matt. 4:1-11; Phil. 2:5-11). And by his perfect live and spotless sacrifice Jesus became a vicarious atonement for sin and undid the evil that the first Adam initiated. Moreover, the Second Adam is currently fulfilling the original mandate God had given to humanity. God had commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, and to subdue it for God’s glory. Jesus has taken up that task. And just as the First Adam had a bride to serve as his helper (Gen. 2:18-24), so too the Second Adam has chosen a bride to serve as his helper, namely, the church (Eph. 5:31-32) whom we may view as the Second Eve.[3] Together with His bride Jesus is fulfilling the original mandate God had given to Adam by filling earth with regenerated images of God who are in turn are submitted to God’s rule and are subduing the earth for His glory. To state it differently, the creation mandate God gave to the First Adam and his bride has now become the Great Commission, which God has given to Christ (Isa. 42:1-12; 49:1-26) and through Christ to the church (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:45-49; Acts 1:8; 13:47-47; Rom. 15:18).[4]
[1] I am referring here to John Milton’s two epic poems, the first depicting man’s fall into sin, and the second portraying God’s restoration of man to the original Edenic state of affairs. See John Milton, Paradise Lost and Regained, ed. Christopher Ricks, Signet Classic Poetry Series (Signet Classics, 2001).
[2] God & Adam, 23. Emphasis his. Or, in the words of K. Rengstorf, “The con*summation of God’s dealings with creation and man thus takes up and transcends what was given in Paradise.” TDNT, 4:604, cited in Geoffrey Wilson, Revelation (Herts, U.K.: Evangelical Press, 1985), 179. For more on this subject, see Howard Griffith, “Eschatology Begins with Creation,” WTJ 49 (1987): 387-396.
[3] Thanks to John Fesko for this observation. Last Things First, 167-68.
[4] A number of writers have noted the oft-missed connection between the original creation mandate and the Great Commission. Meredith Kline, for example, warns against dichotomizing the creation mandate into secular and religious spheres. “There were mandates that defined man’s role in the advancement of God’s kingdom and there were ordinances that established the institutional structures of man’s historical existence. These covenant stipulations were concerned with both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of man covenant life. They dealt with man’s cultural task, his commission with respect to this horizontal relationship to the world that was his environment and to all his fellow creatures. They dealt also with man’s cultic role, his duties in his directly vertical relationship to his Creator-Lord. Man’s theocratic commission involved a dual priest-king office…. This unity of the royal-cultural and the priestly cultic functions as alike a covenantal service rendered to the heavenly Suzerain prohibits any dichotomizing of man’s life into religious and nonreligious.” Kingdom Prologue, 66-67. John Frame notes the similarities between the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 and the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, concluding, “So in the Great Commission Jesus renews God’s original purpose to fill the earth with worshipers of the true God.” The Doctrine of the Christian Life Last Things First, 173. Gregory Beale provides an indepth and thorough study that connects the Garden sanctuary in Eden with the NT church and links the creation mandate with the Great Commission. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, New Studies in Biblical Theology, ed. D. A. Carson (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004). (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2008), 307-08. John Fesko develops the link between the creation mandate and the Great Commission along typological lines: “Christ has taken up the work of the dominion mandate [i.e., Gen. 1:26, 28] and with the assistance of his helpmate, his bride, the second Eve, the Church, is now fulfilling it.
All about as hypothetical as you can get
Yes. But nothing wrong with hypothesizing. Jesus did it (Matt. 11:23).
At what point in their carrying out of the Creation Mandate, would their world have been transformed into that more perfect state?
When Adam (and his seed) finished subduing the earth and handed over the kingdom to his heavenly Father--then God would be all and all, and Adam would have been exalted and would have taken his seat at God's right hand.
You say that "the creation mandate has now become the Great Commission." But in some senses surely not. Indeed isn't the Creation Mandate part of "the all the things" that Jesus has commanded. E.g. Many Christian couples would take the teaching from the Creation Mandate that it is wrong to seek a childless marriage, unless you've got good reasons for so doing. That teaching isn't explicitly in the Great Commission.
Both the "curse" and "redemption" have altered the First Creation Mandate. As a result of the curse, some are eunuchs from birth (by way of extension, some can't get married or have children). As a result of redemption, some make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom (that is, they may, like Paul and Barnabas, choose not to marry [a creation ordinance] and/or, by way of extension, choose not to have children [a creation ordinance]). The curse and redemption have similarily introduced modifications to the ordinances of labor and Sabbath.
Christ has gloriously and perfectly carried out the Probation of the Covenant of Works for His people by His life and death. In what sense will the Great Commission and Creation/Cultural Mandate have been completed before the Second Advent? Just some random thoughts and Qs.
God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Presumably, this would have entailed extending the boarders of Eden's sanctuary garden-temple to cover the entire earth. God has commissioned the Second Adam and his Bride, the Church, to be fruitful (i.e., bear spiritual children, Heb. 2:13), multiply, fill the earth with renewed image-temples, and subdue the kingdom of darkness. When the gospel is preached throughout all the earth and the earth is covered with temples of the Holy Spirit, i.e., regenerate believers and churches, then the Son of Man will return to bring God's kingdom plan to final completion, setting up a New Heavens and New Earth where only righteousness dwells.
will reign by Christ's Spirit throughout the World.
