God created humankind in His image in order that a deep relationship might exist between Him and us. Adam’s and Eve’s disregard for God’s will broke that relationship. However, God had a back-up plan: the resto- ration of the broken relationship through Jesus, His Son.
Part II: Commentary
Irreverent curiosity is a diabolical faith trap in which one seeks to pene- trate truths that God never intends to be investigated (see Deut. 29:29). “But when God said to His Son, ‘Let us make man in our image,’ Satan was jealous of Jesus. He wished to be consulted concerning the formation of man, and because he was not, he was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.”—Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 145.
Turtles All the Way Down
In Genesis 1:1, the special Hebrew verb bara (create) expresses the Godhead’s divine ability to convert divine energy into matter. Some believe that the verb bara expresses the divine release of creative energies, which produced something out of nothing. Bara had been accomplished in “absolute origination, that is, . . . a beginning and bringing out of noth- ing (ex nihilo) and not any mere fashioning of some preexistent matter or pre-matter.”—Harold Kuhn, “God Makes,” in The Living God: Readings in Christian Theology, ed. Millard J. Erickson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1983), p. 481.
Perennial faith thrives in the midnight of our unknown about God, glit- tering like a storm-beaten lighthouse, which stands strong, despite waves of unbelief. It is faith such as this that survives the foggy haze of unscrip- tural belief systems in regard to humankind’s origin.
“Spiritualism teaches ‘that man is the creature of progression.’ ”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 554. “Social Darwinism . . . lays the groundwork for geneticists and biologists, under the cloak of science, to categorize human beings in a way as to support racial superiority, an idea brought to its apogee in Nazi Germany.”—Charles E. Bradford, Sabbath Roots: The African Connection (Silver Spring, MD: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1999), pp. 66, 67.
In the Image of the Maker
From the following resource, it has been suggested that “tselem (image) denotes the shadow outline of a figure, and damuth (like- ness) the correspondence or resemblance of that shadow to the figure.”—H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Excell, ed., The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 1, Genesis–Exodus (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1961), p. 30.
“Like God, they had the power of choice—the freedom to think and act according to moral imperatives. Thus they were free to love and obey or to distrust and disobey.”—Seventh-day Adventists Believe: An Exposition of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Silver Spring, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2018), p. 98.
God and Humankind Together
In the biblical sense, when “God blesses,” God empowers the function or fulfillment of the thing blessed. “God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family. It was God’s purpose to re-populate heaven with the human family, if they would show themselves obedient to His every word.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 1082; emphasis supplied. (See also Isa. 43:7.)
At the Tree
“His followers were seeking him; and he [Satan] aroused himself and, assuming a look of defiance, informed them of his plans to wrest from God . . . Adam and his companion Eve. . . . And if they could gain access to the tree of life in the midst of the garden, their strength would, they thought, be equal to that of the holy angels, and even God himself could not expel them.”—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, pp. 30, 31.
In simple terms, God warned the innocent pair to avoid a special tree held in divine reserve. “The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright. . . . The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants . . . were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. . . . Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attend- ing angel said to me, ‘None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree.’ ” —Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 39, 40. (See also Gen. 2:15–17.)
Breaking the Relationship
The theology of human rebellion is tied to Adam’s unholy reasoning, which imbibed the forbidden fruit of relativism.
Relativism, a new paradigm of evil in which self retains the tendency to decide its own parameters of morality, competes with God’s sovereign will, and it is wholly unconquerable except through divine intervention. (See Judg. 21:25.)
The results were tragic.
“They both ate, and . . . they obtained . . . the knowledge of sin, and a sense of guilt. The covering of light about them soon disappeared, and under a sense of guilt, and loss of their divine covering, a shivering seized them.”—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 40, emphasis supplied.
Part III: Life Application
For Reflection: We live with the effects of sin in every aspect of our lives. There is a theological doctrine called “total depravity.” Though it does not mean what the phrase commonly means today, it’s not a whole lot better. It deals with the idea that every aspect of human existence has been dam- aged by sin. That, unfortunately, seems to be the case.
1. How do we see the reality of this “total depravity” manifested in our own lives? What, if anything, can we do about it? Or, if we can’t do anything about it, in that it is our nature, how do we overcome that nature? And to what degree can we?
2. The Fall seriously hampers us from having a complete relationship with God. Jesus died so that our relationship with God might be restored. How does the power of the Cross enable us to regain that relationship?
3. Our Creator took extra time and care to create Adam and Eve. Why do you think He made their creation an event that would be talked about, marveled at, and debated throughout eternity? Compare God’s creation of humanity with the preparations that expectant parents make for their firstborn. How do these similarities help you to understand God’s love?
4. How does access to God’s power assist us in our spiritual growth and in our understanding of God’s plan for us?
5. Because He is all-knowing, God was well aware of the “risk” in creat- ing humanity in His own image. Imagine His heavy heart when He had to resort to “Plan B—Death of His Only Son.” What does Plan B mean to you when you step out of the boundaries of your relation- ship with God? How are your diversions and temptations similar to those that Adam and Eve faced?
6. When Jesus lived on earth, His touch healed many who believed. His touch was a glimpse of His creative power. Before He left, He prom- ised that we would continue to have access to His creative power (see John 14:12–14). Is this promise figurative or literal? Explain. How can this promise make a difference in your everyday life?
7. Genesis indicates that humankind originally was created in the image of God. Does this apply only to the state of existence before the Fall, or is it still, in some sense, true now? If so, how so?
8. God told Adam and Eve to master and subdue the earth and the forces of nature. How should we interpret this command in light of the often-irresponsible exploitation of nature for which humankind has at times been responsible?
9. Adam and Eve fell as a result of the exercise of their free will. This free will, while intended by God as a gift, was turned into a curse. Can you think of examples of other things that are good in themselves but can become perverted as a result of poor choices?
10. Adam, instead of following God, followed Eve. What does this say to us about the danger of allowing other people or things to distract us from our commitment to God?
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God created humankind in His image in order that a deep relationship might exist between Him and us. Adam’s and Eve’s disregard for God’s will broke that relationship. However, God had a back-up plan: the resto- ration of the broken relationship through Jesus, His Son.
Part II: Commentary
Irreverent curiosity is a diabolical faith trap in which one seeks to pene- trate truths that God never intends to be investigated (see Deut. 29:29). “But when God said to His Son, ‘Let us make man in our image,’ Satan was jealous of Jesus. He wished to be consulted concerning the formation of man, and because he was not, he was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.”—Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 145.
Turtles All the Way Down
In Genesis 1:1, the special Hebrew verb bara (create) expresses the Godhead’s divine ability to convert divine energy into matter. Some believe that the verb bara expresses the divine release of creative energies, which produced something out of nothing. Bara had been accomplished in “absolute origination, that is, . . . a beginning and bringing out of noth- ing (ex nihilo) and not any mere fashioning of some preexistent matter or pre-matter.”—Harold Kuhn, “God Makes,” in The Living God: Readings in Christian Theology, ed. Millard J. Erickson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1983), p. 481.
Perennial faith thrives in the midnight of our unknown about God, glit- tering like a storm-beaten lighthouse, which stands strong, despite waves of unbelief. It is faith such as this that survives the foggy haze of unscrip- tural belief systems in regard to humankind’s origin.
“Spiritualism teaches ‘that man is the creature of progression.’ ”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 554. “Social Darwinism . . . lays the groundwork for geneticists and biologists, under the cloak of science, to categorize human beings in a way as to support racial superiority, an idea brought to its apogee in Nazi Germany.”—Charles E. Bradford, Sabbath Roots: The African Connection (Silver Spring, MD: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1999), pp. 66, 67.
In the Image of the Maker
From the following resource, it has been suggested that “tselem (image) denotes the shadow outline of a figure, and damuth (like- ness) the correspondence or resemblance of that shadow to the figure.”—H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Excell, ed., The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 1, Genesis–Exodus (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1961), p. 30.
“Like God, they had the power of choice—the freedom to think and act according to moral imperatives. Thus they were free to love and obey or to distrust and disobey.”—Seventh-day Adventists Believe: An Exposition of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Silver Spring, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2018), p. 98.
God and Humankind Together
In the biblical sense, when “God blesses,” God empowers the function or fulfillment of the thing blessed. “God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family. It was God’s purpose to re-populate heaven with the human family, if they would show themselves obedient to His every word.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 1082; emphasis supplied. (See also Isa. 43:7.)
At the Tree
“His followers were seeking him; and he [Satan] aroused himself and, assuming a look of defiance, informed them of his plans to wrest from God . . . Adam and his companion Eve. . . . And if they could gain access to the tree of life in the midst of the garden, their strength would, they thought, be equal to that of the holy angels, and even God himself could not expel them.”—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, pp. 30, 31.
In simple terms, God warned the innocent pair to avoid a special tree held in divine reserve. “The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright. . . . The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants . . . were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. . . . Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attend- ing angel said to me, ‘None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree.’ ” —Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pp. 39, 40. (See also Gen. 2:15–17.)
Breaking the Relationship
The theology of human rebellion is tied to Adam’s unholy reasoning, which imbibed the forbidden fruit of relativism.
Relativism, a new paradigm of evil in which self retains the tendency to decide its own parameters of morality, competes with God’s sovereign will, and it is wholly unconquerable except through divine intervention. (See Judg. 21:25.)
The results were tragic.
“They both ate, and . . . they obtained . . . the knowledge of sin, and a sense of guilt. The covering of light about them soon disappeared, and under a sense of guilt, and loss of their divine covering, a shivering seized them.”—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 40, emphasis supplied.
Part III: Life Application
For Reflection: We live with the effects of sin in every aspect of our lives. There is a theological doctrine called “total depravity.” Though it does not mean what the phrase commonly means today, it’s not a whole lot better. It deals with the idea that every aspect of human existence has been dam- aged by sin. That, unfortunately, seems to be the case.
1. How do we see the reality of this “total depravity” manifested in our own lives? What, if anything, can we do about it? Or, if we can’t do anything about it, in that it is our nature, how do we overcome that nature? And to what degree can we?
2. The Fall seriously hampers us from having a complete relationship with God. Jesus died so that our relationship with God might be restored. How does the power of the Cross enable us to regain that relationship?
3. Our Creator took extra time and care to create Adam and Eve. Why do you think He made their creation an event that would be talked about, marveled at, and debated throughout eternity? Compare God’s creation of humanity with the preparations that expectant parents make for their firstborn. How do these similarities help you to understand God’s love?
4. How does access to God’s power assist us in our spiritual growth and in our understanding of God’s plan for us?
5. Because He is all-knowing, God was well aware of the “risk” in creat- ing humanity in His own image. Imagine His heavy heart when He had to resort to “Plan B—Death of His Only Son.” What does Plan B mean to you when you step out of the boundaries of your relation- ship with God? How are your diversions and temptations similar to those that Adam and Eve faced?
6. When Jesus lived on earth, His touch healed many who believed. His touch was a glimpse of His creative power. Before He left, He prom- ised that we would continue to have access to His creative power (see John 14:12–14). Is this promise figurative or literal? Explain. How can this promise make a difference in your everyday life?
7. Genesis indicates that humankind originally was created in the image of God. Does this apply only to the state of existence before the Fall, or is it still, in some sense, true now? If so, how so?
8. God told Adam and Eve to master and subdue the earth and the forces of nature. How should we interpret this command in light of the often-irresponsible exploitation of nature for which humankind has at times been responsible?
9. Adam and Eve fell as a result of the exercise of their free will. This free will, while intended by God as a gift, was turned into a curse. Can you think of examples of other things that are good in themselves but can become perverted as a result of poor choices?
10. Adam, instead of following God, followed Eve. What does this say to us about the danger of allowing other people or things to distract us from our commitment to God?