Mandate versus Command

When our Lord presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, He taught a great deal about the blessings of God. His teaching was radically different from that of the Jewish religious leaders of His day. His teaching was different not as the result of a change in God’s plan, but due to the Jew’s misconceptions concerning God’s promised blessings.

Wolterstorff ties the image of God to the dominion mandate (or blessing). In other words, of all the ways in which human beings might be said to reflect or image God, that set that is “necessary for receiving and exercising the blessing or mandate of dominion” ties together those that are in fact used by ancient Hebrew writers when they expound on the idea of the image of God in man.

Covenantal pledging or promise is then the means whereby one loves what the other loves. Through His promise, God establishes the basis for a loving relationship between Himself and us.

God's promises to Abraham—physical and spiritual—became unconditional. His words, "By Myself have I sworn" (Genesis 22:16), show that the fulfillment of the promise no longer depended on Abraham. The fulfillment of the promise would now depend solely on God Himself. He unconditionally committed Himself to fulfill His promise to Abraham and his descendants.