Genesis 1:26-2:25

Notes compiled from my BSF group

GOD CREATED ADAM AND EVE
- God created man in His image (Genesis 1:27).
- God told them to be fruitful and increase in number (Genesis 1:28).
- God gave them reign over all living things (Genesis 1:28-30; Psalm 8:6-8; Hebrews 2:6-9).
- God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7).
- God made a woman for Adam from one of Adam’s ribs (Genesis 2:22).


GOD GAVE ADAM REIGN OVER ALL LIVING THINGS
Genesis 1:28-30
Man continues to reign over all living things. However, we abuse that position. We pollute, we destroy, we trash the Earth. We take care of nothing that has been given to us. We take advantage of everything we have.



JESUS IS THE GREATER ADAM
Psalm 8:6-8
Hebrews 2:6-9

Jesus is given reign over all.

In Hebrews, the author elaborates on why Jesus became man (which is why He was made “a little lower than the angels”).

Adam was given reign over all, but he was deceived by Satan and brought sin into world.

Jesus is God, so clearly He rules over all. However, He does not rule just as God. He also rules as the Son of Man and assumes His kingship through the line of David.

Jesus will one day reign as the King of kings because He redeemed mankind. He lived in perfect righteousness, and therefore only His blood could wash away all sin. 


GARDEN OF EDEN
- Adam was essentially a gardener of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15).
- The region between the two main rivers of Eden today is Mesopotamia (Genesis 2:10-14).
- All kinds of tress grew out of the ground of the Garden of Eden. These trees were pleasing to the eye and good for food. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil were in the center of the Garden. The Garden was surrounded by rivers, which is mostly likely why the Garden was so lush (Genesis 2:8-9).
- When God made Earth, there was a period of time where He did not send rain to Earth. To water Earth, streams came up from Earth (like mist) (Genesis 2:5-6).


THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
- God told Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17).
- Adam and Eve were allowed to eat anything from the Garden except for the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. However, when they chose to disobey God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life.

BSF asked two questions: 1) What the Tree of Life represents; and 2) if there is a spiritual sense of a "tree of life" given or promised to us today. These questions honestly confuse me, and I am not sure where it is coming from. The questions almost suggest allegorization of the Tree of Life. 

Let me be clear about where I stand: The Tree of Life is REAL. It EXISTS. There is no allegorizing it away. It is not a symbol for something. When God says the Tree of Life is in the center of the Garden of Eve, THERE IS A FREAKING TREE IN THE GARDEN OF EVE CALLED THE TREE OF LIFE.

Now, I can sense that the direction BSF is going with this question is to suggest that the Tree of Life may be Jesus and the Holy Spirit that are tossed in the mix, because through them we receive eternal life. I could be wrong if this is the direction they want to take. I will stand corrected if this is the case.

Point here is, let us not grasp for answers not supported by the Bible. The Bible speaks about the Tree of Life as a tree in the Garden of Eden. No where else does it try to link that to represent ANYTHING. No other passage links that to represent Jesus. No other passage links that to represent the Holy Spirit. I do not think God could be any clearer: The Tree of Life is the Tree of Life. That's it. Before the Fall, it appears that Adam and Even ate from the tree to sustain eternal life. (There is a deeper teaching for this, but I'll leave it alone for now.) After the Fall, the Tree of Life is removed.

Yes, through Jesus, we are saved and receive eternal life. But this does NOT make the Tree of Life a symbolism of Jesus.



THROUGH SATAN'S DECEPTION, SIN AND DARKNESS ENTERED THE WORLD

God created everything and declared it all good (Genesis 1). There was nothing wrong with being naked, and therefore Adam and Eve felt no shame (Genesis 2:25).

The key point here is not just about physical nakedness. This applies to spiritual nakedness as well. Adam and Eve were innocent and pure. They had no evil thoughts. They did not hid from God, because they had nothing to hide.

However, when Satan deceived Adam and Eve and caused them to doubt the heart of God, darkness entered into their heart, and they chose to sin, instead of trusting God.

Satan introduced sin into this world, bringing in darkness along with him.



THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH (Romans 6:23)

Genesis 2:17
John 8:24
Before we can fully comprehend the significance and the full impact of the Fall, we must first understand the seriousness of Sin.


All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). ALL. Not some. Not many. Not most. ALL.

I believe the reason why God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and Evil is because they were innocent and pure. They were young and could not appropriate use the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is total speculation, not substantiated by other passages of the Bible, so please take that view with a huge grain of salt.

Looking at past human history and looking at where we are headed, I would conclude that we do not have control over our Knowledge of Good and Evil. That knowledge controls us.

We are selfish. Even the nicest person in the world has selfish moments. We love our family more than others. There is nothing wrong with that, but that does cause us to be selfish toward others. We wish our enemies deserve punishment in the form of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is why we are ALL sinners. Because no matter how good of a person we try to be, when we wish something better for ourselves at the price of other people's lives, we do not love with the heart of God. We do not measure up to the heart of God. We do not measure up to the righteousness of God. And thus, we have sinned.

This competition, this survival of the fittest, this was not the heart of God. Jesus came and showed us, taught us the heart of God. We are to LOVE ALL.

Look at what Isaiah has prophesied about our future: "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:6-9).

What are some of the key points here?

1. "Survival of the fittest" is the RESULT of Sin
Notice that in Isaiah's prophecy, there is no survival of the fittest. ALL living creatures will live at peace with one another in God's kingdom.

This may sound preposterous in our world today. Go out on an African safari, and immediately we see survival of the fittest at work. Heck, just go to work come Monday morning, and we see survival of the fittest at work.

However, we cannot fathom a world that Isaiah describes, because our world is the only world that we have come to know, a world that has been CORRUPTED by Sin.

There is no peace because we are selfish, because we are contentious. We do not live in peace, because we envy. We compete. We want to be the best, and when we are not, we get bitter and jealous against those who are better than us. We are selfish and prideful.

Yet, one day, God’s peace will be restored, and ALL living creatures will live in peace.

2. Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD
In due time, God would have his knowledge be revealed.

This is why I think God prevented Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was because the time had not yet come. I believe that when Adam and Eve were ready, God would have taught them all of His knowledge.

As I mentioned above, this is my own speculation. However, speculations aside, the fact is, God told them to not eat from that tree. Satan told them, really? Come on. "Surely, you will not die" (Genesis 3:4). And what did they do with that information? They chose to turn their backs on God and take Satan's counsel. Bad, bad move.

Yes, eventually, God will restore EVERYTHING, including our Sin problem. And yes, eventually, God will share His knowledge. But look at what pride has gotten us. If Adam and Eve had just trusted God, we would not have to deal with this Sin problem today. But since they chose to trust Satan instead and plunged the human race into Satan's world, we, too, are faced with Satan's cunning deceptions on a daily basis.

Because of Isaiah's prophecy, I am confident that Satan's comments in Genesis 3:4-5 are lies. God's knowledge would be revealed in due time. God was not withholding because He feared we would have knowledge. Frankly, God wouldn't be such an amazing God if He feared the things we could do. He breathed life into us. I'm pretty sure we'll never be as powerful as He, no matter how much we know.

Bottom line, our future with God is glorious. Living in peace with the knowledge of God, that has always been the heart of God.

What we have in this world today? This is the result of SIN.


SIN IS SO SERIOUS, JESUS HAD TO DIE

How serious is this Sin thing that Christians keep talking about? So serious that Jesus had to die for us. GOD HAD TO DIE TO FIX THIS SIN PROBLEM FOR US!

Sin is not just that we have bad thoughts or make mistakes. Sin is much bigger than that. To fully comprehend the seriousness of Sin, we need to first grasp how perfect God is. To do this, God gave us the Law. Look at the Ten Commandments. Can we honestly keep them PERFECTLY? Have we never coveted? Have we never disrespected our parents? Have we never lied? Any one mistake, and we are declared unrighteous.

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).

The Law points out how impossible it is to live up to the perfect righteousness of God.

Sin is not just about us making mistakes. Sin is about dying. We die because we are away from God. If we take nothing away from Genesis 1-2, we should really come to grip with this: We are not meant to die. We are made to be eternal. Yet, when we ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, death entered into our lives.

Looking at the Law, we must come to a shocking realization that it is IMPOSSIBLE to live up to the perfect righteousness of God. Looking at the Law, we must realize that we need a savior. Every one of us needs a savior. And God, knowing we would never measure up to His righteousness, sent His only Son, Jesus, as our savior. Jesus was the only perfect man to have ever lived. He was the only man to live perfectly according to the righteousness of God. And because he was perfect, his blood was able to cleanse us forever.

So, just how serious is sin? JESUS HAD TO DIE IN ORDER TO WASH IT AWAY.

To minimize the seriousness of Sin minimizes the sacrifice of God. If Sin was "not that bad," then what the heck did Jesus die for? Why bear all that torture? Why tolerate all that ridicule? For fun?! When we realize how serious Sin is, we can then fully appreciate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And then, perhaps we can fully understand why we all need Jesus and repent of our Sin. Humble ourselves and kneel at the feet of God.



SIN CANNOT BE IN THE PRESENCE GOD, BUT WHEN CLOTHED WITH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS, WE CAN ONCE AGAIN RETURN TO GOD 
When we disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we sinned, and death entered into our lives. That Sin keeps us separated from the presence of God. However, God didn't just leave us to die. He so loved us, He sent His only Son, Jesus, to redeem us (John 3:16). Jesus came to take away that Sin so that we can return to the presence of God, where we are meant to be.

Without Jesus, there is no forgiveness of sin. Without Jesus, there is only death, no life.

Adam and Eve caved in to Satan's deception. What will you do? God or Satan? It is up to each one of us to make that choice.