The Gospel in Genesis - Part 1

The Gospel in Genesis Part 1

The focus of the entire Bible is the person and work of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, the Son of God. We call Him Jesus Christ, but His last name isn’t Christ. Christ is His title—well one of them. It describes His vocation. Christ is the English derivative of the Greek word Christos. In Hebrew the word is mashiach. This is the word from which we get the English word messiah. Christ and messiah are equivalent words. They just derive from different original languages. Christ literally means, “the anointed one.”

When we talk about the person and work of the Anointed One, we use the word gospel. The Greek word for gospel is euangelion. The meaning of this word is good news, or good message. The root, euangelizo, means to announce good news or to bring glad tidings. It’s the word the angel used in Luke 1:10 to announce good tidings of great joy. From this word comes our English word evangelism.

God’s loving and generous communication of the good news began right at the outset of human history. The very first example is given in Genesis chapter 3. In fact, theologians call verse 15 the proto-evangelium, or first gospel.

Before we dive into the passage, lets look at a few verses from Genesis chapter 2 to remind ourselves of the context. God has placed Adam into the garden and told him that he may eat freely from any tree in the garden; except one.

Genesis 2:15-18 (NASB)

15  Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

16  The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;

17  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

18  Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."

So God places Adam in the garden, gives him a wife, and says, “enjoy.” There’s only one rule. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I’m sure you recall that there were two trees of special significance in the garden. So it might seem curious that God didn’t tell Adam not to eat from the tree of life. In fact, He said that Adam could eat freely from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so at that time it would have been perfectly acceptable for Adam to eat from the tree of life.

However, as we’ll see at the end of our study text in chapter 3, after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God forcibly prohibited them eating from the tree of life.

We’ll pick up the account after the serpent has said his piece planting doubt about God’s character.

Genesis 3:6-10 (NASB)

6  When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Eve was enticed to grasp for godlikeness. Jesus showed the righteous way to go about it.

Philippians 2:6 (NASB)

6  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

8  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

9  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

10  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Although He was God, He looked like sinful mankind and walked by faith rather than by sight, doing only what the Father said and trusting that the Father was good, loving, and righteous in His commands.

But Eve didn’t take that approach. Everything about this fruit seemed good to Eve’s senses. The tree was beautiful, “a delight to the eyes”. It was good to eat. It was “desirable to make one wise.” The enemy told Eve that the fruit would make her like God, knowing good and evil. It sure seems sensible.

 At this point we might wonder why God ever put that tree into Eden at all.

God is love. He created us to be objects of His love and to have a relationship with Him. What He didn’t do, and because of His character—who He is—couldn’t do, is create us in such a way that we were programmed to love Him. That isn’t real love; it’s manipulation and control, and it’s inconsistent with who God is.

Instead, He made us in such a way that we could choose to respond to His love for us and have a relationship with Him; or not to. The only way we can genuinely love God is if we have the ability not to love Him. This ability to choose how we respond to God is demonstrated when we trust Him with regard to who He says He is. This is why we have to walk by faith and not by our senses.

7  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Once the first couple had eaten from the prohibited tree, they gained the ability to judge the difference between good and evil. They chose to trust what they could see, taste, hear, smell, and touch, rather than what God said. Consequently, they died spiritually so all that was left for them was to live by their senses.

This is the reason we today can’t help ourselves when it comes to judging. When we walk according to the flesh we judge everything. The only way out of being judgmental is to trust God. When we walk according to the flesh, we judge. Only when we walk according to the Spirit within us, can we escape.

So Adam and Eve, now slaves to their senses, took action to correct things. Notice here that they covered their sinfulness, their nakedness, with leaves. No blood was shed, and we know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

We see this repeated in the account of the offerings presented to God by Cain and Abel. Cain brought the fruit of his labor—vegetables. Abel brought animals as his sacrifice and spilled blood. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was rejected because Cain’s was based on works and Abel’s was based on faith. Abel did what God required rather than reasoning that anything he had done would be good enough.

8  They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9  Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

10  He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

The result of knowing good and evil was fear of punishment. Once Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree they could see that they had disobeyed and failed to trust God, who had showed them only pure love. This resulted in fear, an attempt to cover it up, and an attempt to hide from God.

1 John 4:18 (NASB)

18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Adam even tries to misdirect God’s attention away from his outright disobedience to something over which he had no control. He told God that he hid because he was naked. God is not confused however. He got right to the heart of the matter.

Genesis 3:11 (NASB)

11  And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

“Have you eaten?” So Adam and Eve are clearly in a bad place. They have placed their faith in themselves. They have decided to trust their senses rather than God’s word. There is clearly no way they can fix this.

As God declares the consequences of all this, He also declares that He has a plan to fix it. Let’s just jump to verse 15.

Genesis 3:15 (NASB)

15  And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

The proto-evangelium, literally, the first gospel, is actually the first revelation of the Covenant of Grace; this was the first dawning of the light of the Gospel on earth. –Paul Mizzi

Genesis 3:21-24 (NASB)

21  The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Adam and Eve had covered themselves with leaves. This made perfect sense to them. They were covered—by their own reckoning. When each looked at the other, neither could see the other’s nakedness. This covering was inadequate however, because it was the result of their own effort. Although God was the offended party, He was gracious and loving toward them (because that’s who He is) and he covered them with the skins of animals.

Not only was this a more serviceable covering from a practical perspective, it foreshadowed the gospel, in which the shedding of blood would provide the perfect and all-sufficient payment for sin.

The Bible uses the perfect English word to describe this, but it’s not a word we use much these days. The word is “propitiation” and it means not only payment, but complete and full satisfaction in every regard.

22  Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—

23  therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

24  So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sin has consequences and it leads to death. God cursed the serpent, He cursed Eve, and He cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin. God had told Adam that in the day he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die, so how can it be that God was concerned about Adam eating from the tree of life and living forever?

I used to see God’s expulsion of Adam from Eden as part of the curse, but I don’t think that’s a correct understanding of why God did what He did.

I think it’s important that we look at God’s actions in the context of what He has revealed about His character. It’s also important to read the Old Testament, and all of Scripture, in light of the fulfillment of the gospel promises found in Jesus’ finished work at the cross. We know that God is love, and James 1:17 tells us, every good and perfect gift comes from above. James 1:17 goes on to say that the good and perfect gifts come down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. He does not change, so whatever God does He does from the context of love. He is always the same, so we can count on Him to act consistently—even when we can’t understand His reasons. Therefore it is very comforting that He sometimes gives us insight into His reasons for things.

In the light of who God is and in light of the gospel, I believe that God was very concerned about Adam because Adam had died spiritually. If he were to have eaten from the tree of life in his fallen state, there would have been no hope for him. If he were immortal no death to sin would have been possible. Remember, we have been crucified with Christ.  By forcibly preventing Adam from eating from the tree of life, God blessed him and left open a way for Adam, and his seed, (that’d be us) to be restored to the perfect relationship with God that He intended when He created mankind.

God is looking for our hearts. He wants us to trust Him implicitly. Our value, our hope, our righteousness, even our life, comes from Him. This is the relationship He wants to have with us.

God has made a point of telling us that He has a plan for us. He has been doing it from time immemorial; right from the beginning of human history. He has backed up His promises with examples of His benevolence and grace throughout Scripture. He loves us and He never changes.

What an awesome God.