A little note on the Noahic covenant

There are three aspects to the Noahic covenant:

1. God promises to hold back from exercising his authority. God will "never again... curse the ground because of man" however evil they are.
2. God delegates the rights and responsibilities of his authority to humanity:
• Man is to be fruitful, and fill the earth;
• Man is to eat of every creature on the earth, in the sea and in the air.
• Man is to judge any man or animal that kills another man.
3. This is bought at a price - a price that continually needs to be paid:
• The Noahic covenant is founded on sacrifice, because it is given in response to Noah's sacrifice on the altar he builds in 8:20.
• The Noahic covenant requires continual sacrifices - that is the implication of the seemingly strange command not to eat the blood in animals. The reason being that "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and ... it is the blood that makes atonement" (Lev 17:11).

God didn't give up on this promise to delegate authority to humanity, even though "at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to" man (Hebrews 2). He has already given it to "a man whom he has appointed" who "will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31) and share his power to judge with his brothers (1 Cor 6:2).

We can now eat meat with blood in it. Not for some arbitrary reason, but because the blood of Jesus was the one sacrifice for all time, God demands no more sacrifice as the price of the promise.

Jesus received the promises of delegated authority given to THE image of God, THE man (Adam). He received those promises because he paid the full price in blood. Graciously he shares the promise of delegated rule (and, to a degree, the cost) with those united to him by faith.

[Aside:

"Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image." (Gen 9:6)

I have always assumed that the "image of God" in this passage refers primarily to the person who is murdered, but I think it is more likely to be the person who executes the murderer. As I've long been convinced - "image of God" is more functional than ontological.]