There are many distinctions made in the world which divide mankind into groups and classes. Through our social contacts and the news media, we become aware of race discrimination and especially where it pertains to color. Then there is the distinction of class which is judged by wealth, education and culture. There are sex discriminations which legislation endeavors to correct by insuring equal rights and equal pay for the female as for male. There are innumerable divisions created by religious denominations ─groupings which are very confusing to the average man and woman.
But there is really only one distinction which the Bible recognizes─that between the family of Adam and the family of Jesus Christ. The words “generation” or “seed” will occur frequently through this study as these are Bible terms.
The basis for this study is in the first three chapters of Genesis (the first book of the Bible). Read these chapters over at least three times to familiarize yourself with the story of creation and the fall of man.
After the story of creation, the Word of God opens with a statement in Genesis 5:1 which introduces the remainder of the Old Testament with the genealogy followed by the history of Adam’s family during the period of almost 4,000 years. The New Testament opens with almost identical words but introduces us to the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, the Head of a new family.
Look up the verses of the two Scripture references listed below and fill in the blanks with the proper words.
Gen. 5:1. “This is the _______ of the ______________ of_________.”
Matt. 1:1. “The _______ of the ______________ of _______________.”
Your Family and Mine
By our physical birth, we involuntarily took our place in the family of the first Adam. We all have, regardless of our nationality, but one father─one head of the human race; that is, the first Adam. From him we derive our being, our family likeness and from him we inherit a nature prone to evil tendencies.
The Old Testament is the history of this family. It contains stories of murder, hatred, greed, jealousy, bribery, adultery and conquest resulting in endless wars. We have heard people objecting to the gruesome stories of human behavior. But how could the Old Testament be a true picture of the family of the first Adam if it did not graphically portray man’s repeated failure to achieve righteousness and goodness of himself. Two radiant beams lighten the blackness of this picture─one the predictions of a coming Savior, and the other the story of men who by faith apprehended the coming Redeemer and lived as new men.
The inspired writers of the Old Testament anticipated the coming of Jesus Christ and over and over again their prophecies concentrated on only one figure─another Adam, Jesus Christ the Messiah. His coming was such a major event that it divided time and started a new story─the New Testament.
A.T. Pierson once made a study of these astounding predictions and we quote from him: “Three hundred and thirty-three distinct predictions about our Lord and Savior are found between Genesis and Malachi, entering into the minutest details of prediction, telling when He should be born, and where He should be born, and under what circumstances and outlining all the great facts of His life, death, resurrection and ascension. The Old Testament Scriptures closed four hundred years before Christ appeared on the earth, and the collected body of Old Testament Scriptures was in the hands of the Jews at least two hundred years before Christ was born. . . . When Malachi lays down his pen, there stands a complete and majestic portrait of the coming Messiah, like the perfect picture of some great hero of the future.”
Running also, like a bright thread through the dark, bewildering background of the Old Testament are the accounts of men who, looking forward by faith to this “seed of the woman,” the Messiah, discovered exactly the same grace which we may obtain by looking backward almost 2,000 years to the same event.
If you will turn to the 11thchapter of the Book of Hebrews you will find the names of Old Testament saints listed there. Will you name eight of these heroes of faith?
1.__________ 4.____________ 7.____________
2.__________ 5.____________ 8.____________
3.__________ 6.____________
What Went Wrong With Man?
In order to understand what had gone wrong with man, hitherto the summit of God’s creation, we must peruse the account more closely. First we notice that man was first created in God’s image and likeness.
“And God said, Let us make ______________________, . . . and let them have ___________ over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God ______________ in his ____________, in the image of God _________________ ______; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:26-27).
George Whitfield, a renowned minister of the Gospel, said of this verse: “Moses (inspired author of Genesis) remarkably repeats these words, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,’ that we might take particular notice of our divine Original. Never was so much expressed in so few words; none but a man inspired could have done it.”
Created in the image of God, made in His likeness and yet head of a fallen race of men! How could such a catastrophic event affect the entire human race? As we read the first two chapters of Genesis we see all that God had made was good. Adam and Eve, the highest of all God’s creation had been situated in an ideal garden. God’s intention was that man should subdue the earth, but should himself be subject to the Sovereign Creator and in partnership with Him discover the secrets that lay hidden in the bowels of the earth. He was to find curative properties that lay concealed in herb, leaf and tree. Being the receptive partner of the Initiating Almighty One, he could unleash for humanity’s good the latent power in sky, sea and earth, and enter into other of God’s hidden purposes too vast for human mind to contemplate.
In the Scripture below we note two words which convey to us the planned submissive relationship of man toward God.
“And the Lord God _______ the man, and ____________ into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
As Sole Proprietor and Creator of heaven and earth, it was essential that God decide concerning man’s good, but such a claim upon man’s obedience would never have given God pleasure if man were a mere robot doing good only because there was no alternative. Man’s love for God could only be tested by giving him a choice of two alternatives. This choice involved two trees among all the other trees in the garden.
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the ________________ also in the midst of the garden, and the _____________________________________” (Gen 2:9).
The First “Don’t”
“And the Lord God ___________ the man, saying, Of ____________ of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of ___________________________ _____, ____________________________: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).
Adam’s first test of loyalty came with God’s first command. No one can break a law unless there be first a law to break. “Sin is not imputed where there is no law” (Rom. 5:13).
God did not demand a strenuous doing of Adam; rather it was an easy not-doing. Only through obedience could man attain to maturity. “Adam is put in a position in which good is not the only thing he can do; an alternative is presented, and the choice of good in contradistinction to evil is made possible to him. Childlike innocence was no longer possible in the presence of the tree. The prohibition made obedience a thing of will, and made Adam conscious of the distinction between good and evil.”
Adam was in a strait. Would he accept unquestioningly God’s verdict as to what was evil, or would he “be as the gods” and reason his own way out and make the decision independent of his Creator? The serpent suggested that it was not wrong to judge of good and evil by other standards than God’s own immutable Word.
An African father one time related the account of Adam’s disobedience to his small son, showing him how we had all become involved with his sin. The small boy objected to this seemingly unfair involvement of all in condemnation. The wise father demonstrated the truth to his son by placing a red-sealed box in their garden, and instructing the little chap that he must under no circumstance open that box. The little fellow could not long enjoy the garden while the little box kept its secret. Temptation finally overwhelmed the child; the seal was broken; the box opened. A bird flew out and as the little boy watched with dismay the flight of that which would condemn his disobedience, he was overcome with a sense of guilt. The little offender shunned the company of his father, who sensed the boy’s questionable behavior.
“Now,” he said, addressing himself to his son, “You have committed the same sin as did Adam. You are now guilty in your own right.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
This thinking and acting independent of God is the sin that has fastened itself upon us all. This is seldom ever treated as sin by the majority of persons, but in God’s sight it is the height of folly. God, being all-wise, alone knows what is good for us; we, not seeing beyond the moment, could not possibly choose wisely. What insolence it is on the part of man to distrust God so that he will not place himself and all his interests at the disposal of infinite Wisdom and infinite Love! It is red-handed anarchy and brazenness to believe that God will not plan with our highest interests at His heart, but such is the blindness that happened to Adam when he tasted the forbidden fruit, that all posterity needs an awakening to see how sinful is that independence which the world counts manly. All the baser evils which we abhor and deplore are but the result of this innocent-appearing, independent action.
Just listen to any panel on radio or TV as they debate some moral issue concerning which God has plainly spoken in His Word. You seldom if ever hear one panel member refer to God or His Book as an authority on the question. We, in our day, are wise in our own conceits and desire to be “as the gods knowing good and evil.” This is our sin.
How grieved God must be with such arrogance when the earth and everyone on it belong to Him! (Psa. 24:1-2). In our day when education and scientific research have reached an all-time high we find man unable to discover how to control violence, permissiveness, cruelty and anarchy.
“For it is written, I will __________ the wisdom of the _______, and will bring to _________ the _______________ of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the ____________________________? Hath not God made __________ the _________ of this world?” (1 Cor. 1:19-20).
One of the very last eight verses in the Bible mentions the tree of life, and it specially indicates those who will be permitted to eat of it.
“_________ are they that ________________________, that they may have ________ to the _________________, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14).
So we see the tree in the midst of a garden in the end of this age, and there too are the obedient ones who have repented of their anarchy and rebellion in the first Adam. Repentance ever precedes true faith, and without it one cannot truly believe unto righteousness.
Two sound limbs are provided for every genuine Christian─“repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). But repentance toward God does not sound well in respectable ears. It savors too much of the law, so we tell the enquiring sinner only half of the Gospel story─the glorious half it is true─but insufficient by itself. We urge the sinner to only “believe.” We slide over the subject of repentance, if we mention it at all. The awfulness of sin is avoided. Hence men and women enter the visible Church feeble and limping.
Repentance is essentially a New Testament doctrine. We find it in the old Testament only eight or ten times in relationship to man’s actions. But the New Testament shows us that this was the message of Jesus, the disciples and Paul.
“The Lord is . . . not willing that any should ________, but that all should come to ______________” (2 Pet. 3:9).
“Jesus came . . . preaching . . . saying . . . _____________, and _________ the Gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).
“And they went out, and preached that men should ________” (Mark 6:12).
“Then _________________________________, that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them . . . thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that _____________ and ______________________ should be preached in his name ______________________” (Luke 24:45-47).
“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; But showed first unto them of ___________, and at _____________, and __________________________ _____________, and then to the ____________, that they should _________ and ________________, and do works meet for _____________” (Acts 26:19-20).
“Repentance is not a feeling. Repentance is primarily a radical and great executive act of the soul; it is the negative side of which faith if the positive side. In the Epistle to the Hebrews are three great expressions, very small but pregnant with meaning. One is “lay aside,” another “lay hold,” and the third “hold fast”; and they cover the whole territory of our experience. Laying aside is repentance; laying hold is faith; and holding fast is perseverance. And observe that laying aside and laying hold are essentially the same act in different aspects. If I have my hands full, and you offer me something that I desire, I can only take it by dropping what I have got. And you can only take eternal life by dropping what you have got, laying aside what you are now holding, and laying hold of that which is proffered. The one is repentance, and the other faith. But repentance is a great executive act; it implies a change of attitude. You are turning your back upon that to which you turned your face, and turning your face to that upon which you turned your back. Repentance is a radical and revolutionary change of attitude.”─A. T. Pierson.
Testing Time
1. State in a sentence or two what you think was Adam’s sin.
2. In view of the nature of Adam’s sin, can you explain why a return to God’s family could never be accomplished by man’s good works?
3. Why did God permit Adam to be tested?
4. What event marked a dividing line in both time and Scripture?
5. Read over the parable of the Prodigal son as told by Christ in Luke 15:11-32 and draw any similarities you can find with the story of Adam as told in the first three chapters of Genesis.
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