During the millennium, the coming kingdom age of a thousand years, the overcoming saints will be priests and kings (Rev. 20:4, 6). They will be priests expressing God and kings representing God.
In eternity, all the saints will serve God as priests (Rev. 22:3b-4). They will express God and bear God's image. The saints will also reign as kings, representing God with His authority (Rev. 22:5b).
Finally, the New Jerusalem will bear God's appearance. Revelation 4:3a tells us that the appearance of God is like jasper. Eventually, the wall of the whole city of New Jerusalem will be built with jasper (Rev. 21:18a). The entire city will have the appearance of God (Rev. 21:11). Then the city will exercise God's authority (Rev. 21:24, 26). In eternity the whole body of the redeemed saints will bear God's image to express God and exercise God's authority to represent God. That will be the climax and the ultimate consummation.
We don't have to wait for that day. We can all have a foretaste today. We can enjoy the image of God and the dominion of God. Today we are priests and we are kings. We must keep our birthright. We are here expressing God with His image and we are here representing God with His dominion. Hallelujah! What a position this is and what a responsibility—yet what an enjoyment! Praise the Lord! We are God's priests and we are God's kings. We bear God's image and we have God's dominion. Now we are the people in the church who express God and represent God. Hallelujah! We do have the image and the dominion.
I hope that you all can see that the whole Bible is a record of the development of image and dominion. It is not a small thing that these two items are the climax of the record in Genesis 1. That chapter began with darkness, emptiness, waste, and death waters. Then the Spirit brooded, the light separated, and the expanse divided. The dry land appeared to generate life. Then came the lowest life, the lower life, the higher life, and the highest created life—man. Look at all of the life forms. With the grass, the herbs, and the trees there is no face. A fish does have a face, but it is not very distinct. The face of a bird is more distinguished. Then we have the cattle and the beasts. Eventually, we have man's face. We all must admit that the human face is the most distinctive. This face is the face that bears God's image. With this face, that is, with this expression, God's authority has been committed.
Everything is determined by what you look like. If you look like a scorpion, that is something related to demons. If you look like a serpent, that is something related to Satan. But if you look like a real man, that is related to God's image. A real man has authority.
What is a real man? A real man is a priest to God. If you are a priest, then you are a king. If you are in the priesthood, you surely have the kingship. This means that if you have the image of God in life, you certainly have the authority of God for His dominion.
The whole Bible is a record of the development of image and dominion. In Genesis 1 we have Adam in God's image and with God's dominion, but that is only a little seed. We go on to Abraham. Abraham was the first person who matured and developed something of God's image and authority. He contacted God and defeated the enemy. Then we come to Joseph, a very matured person. As we read Joseph's story, we see a man bearing God's full image of holiness and victory. We see the man Joseph exercising authority. At that time, the authority was not Pharaoh of Egypt—it was Joseph. Joseph ruled over the whole earth. As we continue through the Old Testament, we see that God called out a people to be a nation of priests. The whole nation was to contact God and bear God's image as His priests. Therefore, they would be kings in every kind of situation. There would be no need for them to fight. The whole situation would be subdued under their feet. Then we come to the kings and the prophets. Finally, we come to Jesus. He is fully a priest as well as a king. With Him there is the priesthood to express God and the kingship to represent God. Christ is the Head. Following Him, is the Body, the composition of all the redeemed saints. As the Body, we are the same as the Head, bearing the image as priests and exercising the authority as kings. Today we are priests to God and kings over every situation. We express God in the church life and represent Him in every situation. Then will come the millennium, the fullness of time, during which all the overcoming saints will literally be the priests expressing God with God's image and the kings representing God with God's authority, having full dominion over this earth. Eventually, we will have eternity. In eternity we will see a wonderful consummation—the New Jerusalem. That will be the real climax. Nothing can be higher and fuller than that. The whole city of New Jerusalem will bear the image of God and the whole city will exercise God's dominion. Hallelujah! This is the record of the Bible. The Bible records the development of God's image with God's dominion. God will be eternally expressed and God will be eternally represented by His redeemed people.