With God it is all about Relationship NOT Religion
Understanding the One true God of the Bible Series
Picking up where we left off last time…God created Adam from the dust of the ground on the 6th day of Creation and decided early on it was not good for man to be alone. So He took a rib and formed a mate suitable for Adam. At this point she had no name. keep that in mind.
Read Genesis 1: 26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and…
In OUR Image:
- To help explain IMAGE let’s first look at Chapter 2:7 as it gives more details:
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Flesh and bone with a spirit)
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4: 24
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8: 16
We are spiritual beings – the only ones of God’s creation. God is Spirit and we have a spirit within us that relates to Him. Our bodies die our spirits are eternal.
Relationship – God created us for His glory and because He wanted to enjoy a personal relationship with us. He gave us dominion over the earth and creatures in a perfect place.
Rebellion Genesis 3 World – The Fall of Mankind
- One rule or negative command given to Adam – Eve was not there yet. Gen 2: 15-17
- Then came Eve
- Gen 3: 1 (enter the serpent)
- Deceived mankind and broke the perfect Relationship
- Satan the fallen angel or cherub embodied this creature; (Rev 12: 7-9; 20: 2)
- Paul refers to the serpent deceiving Eve (2 Corinthians 11: 3)
- Deceiver – partial truth using God’s words vs 1-4
- Temptation – v5 – Temptation is not a sin (yielding to it is)
- The Fall – she looked, lusted and ate…then she got Adam to do the same
- So why is Adam blamed for the first sin if Eve succumbed to temptation first?
- He was created first and God gave him the order – His was direct disobedience
- He was supposed to be the leader and protect his family and all God put him over.
The perfect relationsihp was broken. Sin had now entered the world and began corrupting everything beginning with mankind.
The Blame Game begins: Genesis 3: 9 – 13
- Adam blames God then Eve.
- Eve blames the serpent.
Marital strife entered the world and marriage became one of the hardest areas of life. That was followed by,
The Three Curses:
- Serpent – v15 Protoevangelium (the first foreshadowing of the Gospel)
- Enmity means hostility
- He (Jesus) will bruise your head (meaning crush it thru His victory over death Satan brought into the world thru sin)
- Bruise His heel means Jesus would die suffer and die physically
- Woman – childbirth pain; submission to husband over her (enter marital conflict)
- Adam – hard work, sweat of his brow to provide for his family all his days.
Redemption Plan
- V 20 Adam changed the name of his mate from woman to Eve -life giver. That means He believed God’s words in the Protoevangelium otherwise why bother? (See Hebrews 11: 13) they believed God and That gave the promise of a coming Messiah who would destroy sin and Satan
- V21 – God redeemed their lives by the blood of animals – He covered their nakedness with skins not just fig leaves. Blood was used from that point forward to cover sin until Jesus blood cleansed us from our sins.
- V22 – 23 The GRACE and Compassion of God putting them out of the Garden
- V24 – Protection
Ongoing Rebellion and the consequences of sin is the Old Testament story of God’s people. It becomes a sad cycle one of sin and rebellion, God calling them out, some repent and sacrifice, and God restored them to Himself until the next time.
The Protoevangelium Fulfilled
God promised He would one day satisfy this death penalty once and for all. So at just the right time and place in eternity, Jesus came to call us to repentance and be the perfect Lamb Whose blood would CLEANSE us from our sins.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3: 16
If you have never done so before, I invite you now to accept God’s gracious offer of Redemption and Reconciliation through the blood of Christ and His resurrection and receive Him as your Savior today. Then you will begin to understand what I mean when I say,
With God it is all about Relationship NOT Religion
For Christ’s sake,
