Genesis 1:26–28, 31; 2:15 - The Design of Work

When you hear the word "work," what comes to mind? Is it a good gift from God, or a necessary evil? For many of us, it feels like a curse, a grind we endure just to get by. But what if this wasn't God’s original design? What if work was meant to be a blessing, an act of worship, and a reflection of our Creator?

Over the next eight weeks, we are going to look at work in God’s story — a good gift in creation, frustrated by sin, redeemed by Christ, and destined for glory. Each week we’ll see how the gospel transforms our labor into worship, witness, and hope. Because of the person and work of Christ, our work in Him is not in vain, but a foretaste of the new creation. With that said, let’s look today at The Design of Work from Genesis 1:26-28, 31, and Genesis 2:15.

When we look at the very first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created…” (Gen. 1:1), we see something remarkable…God at work. Genesis 1:1–2:3 gives us six days of God working and one day of God resting. Even though He didn’t need to create the world “in the space of six days” (as our catechism says), He chose to, establishing a rhythm for our lives…for our work and rest to mirror ours.

Moses wrote Genesis for Israel, freshly rescued from slavery in Egypt, just before entering the Promised Land. Surrounded by pagan creation myths where humans were made as slaves to ease the gods’ burdens, in Genesis, Israel heard a very different truth: the living God Himself works, and He creates humanity not as slaves but as His image-bearers, to share in His work. In Babylonian myths, for example, humanity was formed out of the blood of a slain god to do the menial labor the gods despised. Genesis utterly overturns that: the true God is not lazy but active, and His work dignifies ours.

This matters because Israel had only known degrading labor under Pharaoh: endless toil for someone else’s glory. They were treated as worthless, disposable workers. Work to them felt like futility. And many of us feel the same way about our work.

But what if we knew God was the first and greatest Worker? What if He formed us as clay vessels to reflect His glory? What if we believed His work is good, full of value, and ours was designed to mirror Him?

Wouldn’t that change everything about how we see Monday morning, not as drudgery but as entering the blessing of the work God has given us to do, whether in the office, the classroom, the kitchen, the workshop, or the factory? This is the opportunity we will have throughout this series, and especially today as we read Genesis 1:26-28, 31, and Genesis 2:15.

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:31 ESV

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

In verses 26, 28, 31 and 2:15 we see that…

We work because God is the chief Worker

Imagine a scenario with me where a potter creates many living vases. The vases are made to hold flowers and to display the potter’s beauty. The potter worked to create the vases, and the vases are to work to display and enjoy the potter’s handiwork. This scenario is what we see in these verses.

This is why Isaiah 64:8 says, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” This so beautifully lays out verse 26 for us, showing us that God is the chief Worker. This word, “work” in Isaiah carries the idea of the act of making something. God made humanity by forming Adam from the dust of the ground and then made or built Eve from Adam’s rib. This is very active and “hands on.”

Genesis 2:7 shows us that we are more than clay. God breathed His own breath into Adam, and dust became a living being. This breath gives all human work dignity, our labor is not mere survival, but is animated by God’s Spirit and is designed for communion with Him.

But this isn’t all. In fact, the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created…” frames our view of God as the chief Worker. As we look at Genesis 1:1–2:3, we see many other words to describe Him as the chief Worker: hovering, separating, calling, speaking, making, gathering, seeing, proclaiming His work’s goodness, setting, creating, blessing, filling, commissioning, giving, and after the work was done, resting.

Many today live as if the universe is ultimately impersonal…just the result of forces without purpose. But Genesis gives us a very different picture: a personal God who works, speaks, and shapes creation with intention and love. He didn’t need to labor over six days, but He chose to, establishing a rhythm for our work and rest. That means your work is not meaningless, nor is it a cosmic accident…it flows from the very character and nature of God.

And notice in verses 26–27, God made, as the chief Worker, humanity, male and female, in His image, after our Triune God’s likeness. Image means we represent His rule; likeness means we reflect His character. Our work is royal and relational…a kingly calling to steward and a priestly calling to worship.

Just as God has framed Himself as the great Worker, God spoke within Himself, declaring His design of humanity: that we would have dominion over the earth, be fruitful, and multiply.

Genesis 2:15 shows us that God put humanity in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Eden itself was a kind of temple, a holy place filled with God’s presence, beauty, and abundance. Humanity was placed there not only to cultivate but to serve in God’s sanctuary, where every task was worship. This is why the phrase, “work and keep,” has a direct link to the priestly service in the temple (Num. 3:7–8). Humanity’s work was worship. God created humanity to act as kings, ruling over His creation, and priests, worshiping Him.

The Hebrew words make this vivid. “Work” means minister or serve or worship; “keep” means guard or obey. Adam’s vocation was priestly service in God’s dwelling. He was to rule as king over creation and serve or minister as priest before God, a picture of worship in labor.

Since God Himself is at work in creation and sustaining all things (Gen. 2:2; Heb. 1:3), and then commissions humanity to do the same, we see that work is not a result of the fall but a reflection of God’s nature. Work is God’s good gift, because He is the chief Worker, and we image Him in our labor.

And we should remember that Adam was not called to work alone. Genesis 2 shows us that it was “not good” for man to be alone. Work was meant to be carried out in community, imaging the Triune God who works in perfect fellowship. That’s why isolation in work feels so heavy. We were never meant to labor as self-sufficient individuals, but as people who serve and bless one another while we worship God. Even in our vocations today, work is distorted when it is self-centered, but restored when it serves and blesses others

This kind of work sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Work with meaning and purpose because we are made in God’s image. And yet, as we look around, and within, that’s not the way work feels, is it? Why?

Like living vases created to hold flowers and display them, we refused our purpose. We said, “I will hold mud or nothing at all.” And in our rebellion, we flung ourselves onto the floor, shattering the very image we were made to reflect. Who would do this? Who would choose mud over flowers, brokenness over beauty? …We would. Because…

We reject God’s design for work

If proper working was a road, instead of staying on it we tend to fall into the ditch on either side. On one side, we reject work by making leisure our god. On the other, we worship work by making labor our idol. In one case, we avoid responsibility; in the other, we overwork ourselves in pursuit of glory or ease. At bottom, we work too much because we want too much, or avoid work because we want ease.

Think about a college student who skips class, scrolling TikTok until 3am, wasting the opportunity to learn and steward gifts. Or a dad who comes home from work, plops on the couch, and checks out, leaving his wife and children hungry for his attention and affection. Or a corporate worker who stays late every night, chasing that corner office, not to serve others but to be admired and promoted. Or a parent who works around the clock, never resting, carrying the weight of the family as if everything depends on them. Or a nurse who takes on back-to-back shifts, convinced no one else can care for patients as well as they can.

The consequences of this can be devastating. Students fail and miss out on shaping influences. Families are neglected, children grow embittered, and marriages strain or collapse. Health breaks down. Worship is displaced. Whether through idleness or idolatry, leisure or overwork, the root issue is the same: we reject God’s authority, refuse our priestly and kingly role to image Him, and exalt our own image instead of His.

And if that is all there is, then our work will always collapse into futility, wasted in idleness or swallowed by idolatry. What hope do we have to see work restored?

Left to ourselves, there is none. But there is a way out of either ditch, a way to live conformed to the image of…

Jesus (who) is the true Worker

John 1:3 says, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” As the eternal Word, He worked at creation. As Lord, He continues to sustain all things (Col. 1:17). That’s why He said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

But the eternal Worker became the incarnate Worker. The radiance of God’s glory, the exact imprint of His nature (Heb. 1:3), took on a true body and reasonable soul. He was born with hands — hands that learned a trade, hands calloused and cut in ordinary labor. In this, He dignified our work. Yet those same hands were pierced with nails. The true Worker was condemned as a criminal, though He had done nothing wrong, so we could be freed from our slavery to sin and our twisted view of work. To be forgiven for being vessels of rebellion, shattered by our sin and pride.

On the cross He bore our broken work, His body was broken, He fulfilled the Father’s will, and cried, “It is finished,” accomplishing the work He set out to do. And three days later, He rose, received the Spirit, and now sends Him to restore the image of God in us.

The One who created humanity in His image took on that image, so that the image shattered in us could be remade. By His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus, the true Vessel, was broken on the cross so that shattered vessels like us could be restored, recreated by Him as His beautiful workmanship, created for good works (Eph. 2:10).

Are you living as a restored image living for good works? Has Jesus recreated you? If you are unsure, this is offered to you today. Simply stop striving on your own and allow Jesus, the true Worker, to apply His work to you by confessing with your mouth that He is Lord, and believing in your heart that His work was successful, that He rose again. If you do, He will put you back together again.

Paul calls Jesus the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45), the life-giving Spirit who reverses Adam’s failure. Where Adam’s disobedience brought toil and death, Christ’s obedience brings restoration and resurrection hope. In Him, we aren’t just forgiven, we are restored…our broken labor is raised into fruitful, eternal purpose.

By His Spirit, Jesus restores us to our true purpose, not simply to be rescued from judgment to do nothing, but to conform us to His image so that…

Our work now images Jesus

The Spirit that Jesus gives us, enables us to live to be conformed to the image of Jesus, the true Worker. Since He has recreated us by His Spirit for good works, we no longer reject or idolize work. Instead, we are restored into His image and now see our labor the way He sees it.

Jesus, the true Prophet, Priest, and King, labored with all His might to make us priests, and kings. That means all our labor is dignified in Him and directed to God’s glory. Instead of working ourselves to the bone, we work and rest as those united to Christ, our true Sabbath Rest. Instead of throwing off responsibility, we embrace our priestly and kingly calling in Him. Instead of despising ordinary tasks, we delight in them as opportunities to worship God.

This internal rewiring inevitably flows outward into Spirit-empowered change:

• Instead of chasing wealth or power, we pursue vocations that bring restoration and serve others, because Jesus Himself labored for the glory of God and the good of His people.
• Instead of despairing over the endless tasks of parenting or homemaking, we endure with joy, remembering that Christ gave His life to clean up the mess of our sin and restore order to His world.
• Instead of grumbling in jobs that feel beneath us, we embrace them as places where God is renewing us, because the Spirit sanctifies us in even the most ordinary labor.

Whether discerning a career path, changing diapers, teaching a classroom, debugging code, or caring for patients, we now labor “as unto the Lord,” with eternal dignity and value. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

If you are in Christ Jesus, our God, the chief Worker, you no longer live cultivating, guarding, and glorifying yourself. You are now doing all these things from Him, through Him, and to Him. If you aren’t, come to Him and let Him remake you through His life, death, and resurrection by His Spirit.

So that you, like us who have been born again to a living hope, can live as temples of the Holy Spirit, bringing worship into your work.

So tomorrow morning, brothers and sisters, when you step into your job — whether it’s the office, the classroom, the kitchen, or the shop floor — you can know this: in Christ, your work has purpose, for you are imaging Him in the Spirit, all to the glory of the Father.

To give you a foretaste of our future sermons…when your work feels unfinished, overlooked, or frustrating, lift your eyes to the horizon of new creation, where every good labor in Christ will be perfected in joy and fruitfulness forever (Rev. 21–22).