Genesis 2:4-3:24

Who am I and why am I here?

Genesis 2:4–25 amplifies in greater detail the compressed statement of God’s purpose for humanity in a narrative of the creation of humanity in the garden-sanctuary of Eden in chapter 2 — such as naming the animals.

When God’s command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16–17 is disobeyed in chapter 3, at the instigation of the serpent, consequences ensue for everyone involved.

Sin invades the universe. Read Romans 8:19-21 together.

• What was the scope of sin’s devastation?
• Share the negative effects of sin you’ve witnessed in your life.

Now the fundamental question of our existence has been thrown to disarray. The answer to these two questions have been obscured by the devastating entrance of sin.

We are still image bearers and as Christians bear a high calling on our lives to be a priest unto the Lord, salt and light of the earth, and co-heirs with Christ. And we are still familiar with this narrative of not living up to what God has called us to.

Man has failed God. At this point of the narrative, we seem to be dealing with leftover grace walking around in shame covering ourselves, putting on our best faces, attending ministry, serving in the church. Adam was our forefather and he has stained his human lineage forever, as evident in our sinful nature. This sets the stage for the Bible storyline. If we don’t get what we missed out on in the Garden, we undermine the beauty of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

Christ becomes the second Adam.

• Read 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. What does it mean for Christ to be the second Adam?

Where Adam failed in his confrontation with the serpent in Genesis 3, the second Adam Jesus succeeds. When Jesus, the “son of Adam” (Luke 3:38) confronted the serpent (4:3), he did not take what was “good for food” (Gen. 3:6) but declared “man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4), refused what was “a delight to the eyes” (Gen. 3:6) when he saw “all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5–6), and was not led astray by what would “make one wise” (Gen. 3:6) by casting himself down from the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9–12). As a result, “as one trespass [of the first Adam] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness [by the second Adam] leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom 5:18).

John 20 — For John, a new “week” has begun: “John turns the clock ahead in his dual reference to [‘the first day of the week’], thereby signaling that re-creation begins at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Jesus’ resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene also includes another potential Genesis echo. When Mary sees the resurrected Jesus, she doesn’t recognize him. Instead, she mistakes him for the gardener. Jesus is analogous to that first gardener, Adam. He is the new Adam of the new creation. As N. T. Wright concludes, “Mary’s intuitive guess, that he must be the gardener, was wrong at one level and right, deeply right, at another. This is the new creation. Jesus is the beginning of it… He is: the new Adam, the gardener, charged with bringing the chaos of God’s creation into new order, into flower, into fruitfulness.”

Nevertheless, God’s grace still abounds in his judgment, as the offspring of the woman will conquer the serpent (Gen. 3:15) and procreation and dominion will continue, though only through pain (Gen. 3:16–19).

Humanity, the crown and pinnacle of creation with a commission to fill the earth with image-bearers, fails in that calling and faces consequences.

• How did they fail?

The weeds of sin grow quickly when God’s Word has not taken root in our hearts. As John Calvin reminds us:

And surely, once we hold God’s Word in contempt, we shake off all reverence for him!… For Adam would never have dared oppose God’s authority unless he had disbelieved in God’s Word. Here, indeed, was the best bridle to control all passions: the thought that nothing is better than to practice righteousness by obeying God’s commandments; then, that the ultimate goal of the happy life is to be loved by him. — Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.1.4

The serpent did not tempt with radical departures from God’s command but only slight deviations. However, the best “bridle to control all passions” is the power of God’s word. This illustrates the truth of the psalmist: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).

On Work

Work is not a result of the fall. Meaningful work was present even before the fall (Gen. 2:15). Although the fall brought pain and toil to our work (Gen. 3:17–19), work itself is part of God’s perfect plan in the sanctuary of creation.

Proto-Euangelion

Genesis 3:15 is widely seen to be the proto-euangelium (“early gospel”), the earliest declaration of the divine grace of the gospel. Although the serpent would bruise the heel of the offspring of the woman, the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. As a result, Genesis focuses on the offspring of the woman by tracing this line through many genealogies. The hopes of this offspring finally crystallize around the seed of David. Eventually, the serpent does bruise the heel of Jesus at the cross, but Jesus crushes his head at the resurrection. Furthermore, a glorious promise is given to those who are in Christ, that “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20).