We saw
previously that many of the foundational doctrines found in Genesis 1-11 are in fact principles upon which a stable society is founded . Everyone of
these fundamental doctrines, particularly
those of Genesis 1- 3 have
been challenged in our day
i.e.
- the doctrine of God the Creator has been challenged by atheists ;
- the doctrine of the Trinity (The Unity of God in three persons) has been challenged by more human institutions than one cares to mention[1];
- the creation of everything has been challenged by evolutionists;
- the doctrine of the image of man as male and female has been challenged by the “gender egalitarian agenda” ;
- the biblical doctrine of the stewardship (ecology) of the earth has been taken over by various secular organizations such as Greenpeace and PETA who care more for animals than people and who worship the created rather than the Creator ;
- the biblical doctrine of marriage has been assaulted by the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender lobby group;
- the biblical doctrine of sin has been downplayed to ‘sickness, lack of education and ignorance’.
The book of Genesis
is a fundamental book of the
Bible, and the enemies of God, inspired
and helped by the devil have worked
hard at subverting those basic truths upon which a viable society
has been built by God. Societies
in history have collapsed many times because they have chosen to ignore God’s designs. It is tragic
that many Christians do not see and do nothing about the erosion of the foundations of their society.
Were it not for the fact that God foresaw all this,
and were it not for the fact that God
had planned a day of judgement
and a way of escape for His righteous people, of which the
story of Noah and the flood is a foreshadowing , this would have all amounted to
a very depressing prognosis.
We are thus very happy to introduce the Good News in Genesis !
CHRIST IN
GENESIS
Today our task will be to discover how the
Lord Jesus Christ is seen in Genesis 1 –11.
In Christ’s day on earth, the
teachers of the law and the Pharisees did not see Christ in their Scriptures (the Torah) which included Genesis 1 –11!
When the Lord Jesus
once rebuked the Pharisees in John 5, He told them that they diligently studied
the Scriptures, thinking that by this very exercise in itself they would
receive eternal life. But they missed the point entirely. They failed to see
Him who is the Inspirer of Scripture! Jesus said to them: “These are the Scriptures that bear witness about me…” (5:39). In this text Jesus
showed them that He was sent by
the Father (5:36,37) and that He had
come in the Name of God the Father (5:43), and He reminded them that His many
(miraculous) works that the Father had given Him to accomplish
testified indeed that He was who He was – the promised Messiah (5:36).
And here they were. They were searching the Scriptures for clues
about the Messiah’s appearing , and yet they failed to see Him. Jesus reminded them “… yet you refuse to come to me
to have life…” (5:40).
When Jesus
spoke about the Scriptures that were
testifying about Him, He referred to the OT law (Moses) and the prophets. He was talking about
Genesis.
Truly, there are none as blind as those that will not
see. What a privilege it is to have
one’s eyes opened to see Christ for who
He is. Listen what Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew
13:11-17 :
“To you it has been
given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been
given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an
abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the
prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never
understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people's
heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes
they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see,
and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and
righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear
what you hear, and did not hear it.
I say therefore again – with the fullness of Christ’s
revelation we are singularly blessed that our eyes can see and our ears hear
God’s truth. I say this to, because
there are those who would want to accuse me of reading into the OT what the original authors did not intend.
I am not intending to tell you what I think. I will use the NT (the full revelation
of God in Christ) to prove the existence
of Christ these first 11 chapters.
We will consider 6 instances in which Christ is revealed in the OT:
1. Genesis
1:1 Christ is God , Creator , Light and
Life
Last time we established that the doctrine of Christ has its origin in
Genesis: “In the beginning God…”. We know with hindsight and with the full revelation of the NT Scriptures that Christ is equal to God in three important regards . It
is therefore important that we should read
John Chapter 1 in conjunction with Genesis 1.
We note that the very opening verses of Genesis correspond to
the opening verses of John’s gospel. Let us consider then what John the gospel writer saw by divine inspiration.
- Through him all things were made (John 1:3
à Gen 1:1) : CHRIST
IS CREATOR
- In Him was life… (John 1:4
; 11:25 à Gen
1: “Let there be…”). CHRIST
IS HE IS THE ORIGINATOR AND GIVER
OF ALL LIFE .
- He is the light
of the world (John 1 :4,9
; 8:12 ; 9:5 à Note that in Genesis 1 the light of v.3 precedes the heavenly
lights of v.14 ) CHRIST IS LIGHT. 1 Jn. 1:5 also asserts that
God is light.
Christ shares the very attributes of God in Genesis :
Creator, Life - giver , Light.
2. Genesis
2:20 Christ is the second Adam
The Name “Adam”
is the Hebrew word for “the man”. Man was created and he shares this fact with the other creatures
that God has made. They are all created out of the dust (cf. 2:19). Man feeds as they feed (1:29,30) and man reproduces
with a command similar to theirs (1:22,28a). But the man is distinct from the animals in that (i) He rules over them (1:26b ; 28b ; 2:19 cf. Psalm 8 :
4 – 8; James 3:7 ). (ii) Man is also
distinct from the animals in that He is
said to bear the image of God (1:27). He has a unique intelligence and a unique capacity to relate to God. Man has an eternal soul and he is a spiritual being. He is a moral being, and He is expected to be accountable to God. He is created for God’s
glory.
Man was also
created as a free moral agent.
According to this ability we see
that man when tempted by Satan freely chose to disobey
God’s explicit command (2:17). This act is called ‘sin’ . Animals were not the
cause of the human fall , but animals have
been affected by sin and the human fall. (Rom.
8:22). The result of man’s sin was
catastrophic! Man lost his innocence and his access and nearness to God. And so
earth’s darkest day came when the first Adam chose to disobey God and to follow
the counsel of the devil, a created being who himself chose
the path of sin and rebellion , and who was cast out from God’s presence. (Gen. 3). The result of it all is
seen in Genesis 6:5:
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every intention of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually”.
So the great question now becomes : How will man escape the wrath of God ? The apostle Paul discusses this problem
in Romans 5: 12-21 (read!). In Adam
all die. The whole human race is affected by the sin of one man .
But thank God that it does not end
here. God has provided
a second Adam ! 1 Cor.
15:45 says : “So it is written:
“The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving
spirit.” The second Adam lives the
life that we could not live, and gives the life as a ransom for the sin of the world (which no animal or
other human being could offer , since all is corrupted by sin). All who look to
Him by faith are redeemed from the consequence and the curse of sin. So far
then we have established 2 facts from
Genesis 1: Christ is VERY
GOD and VERY MAN.
3. Genesis 2:20 – 25 : Christ is the heavenly bridegroom of the
church
We can only make these deductions
because the NT makes them. In Eph. 5:22
– 33 Paul makes an analogy between wives & husbands and Christ and
His church. The model for the Christian marriage is Christ’s love for His
church. In Eph. 5:31 Paul
quotes from Gen. 2:24 : “For this
reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh.“ He adds in v.32:
“This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” Paul is using this text to show us something
more profound in this text than human marriage – it is the love of Jesus for His
body , the church. We see the completed picture
in Revelation 21:2,9!
4.
Genesis 3:15 : Christ is the seed of the woman that will crush
Satan’s head
This is not easy to understand at
first. But look carefully at what it says here
The context is that of God judging Satan, Adam the man and his wife . But take careful notice to who he
speaks in vv.14 – 15 . He speaks to Satan. What is God saying to him? He is saying that Satan will have a
formidable adversary. There is going to
be enmity between the woman’s offspring
( ‘seed’ - KJV) and his offspring (seed). The true church and the world will always be at loggerheads. But not only that. Satan is guaranteed to
loose. Yes, he will strike the seed of
the woman – as it were on the heel – but it is only the heel; but the seed of
the woman will crush his head.
Jesus (the second Adam) was born
to crush Satan’s head. Satan did strike Him on
the cross but He did not reckon with the fact that Christ also
had the power over death ( 1 Cor.
15). So when Christ rose from the dead, He triumphed over Satan, setting
the captives free (i.e. people like you and me, who are captives to sin and
Satan) and He is presently doing so ,
and shall complete all things at His second coming – including the effective
judgment of Satan and his offspring – in everlasting hell! The gospel was therefore announced right
here, after the fall, in Genesis 3:15.
5. Gen 3:21 : “Clothed in the righteousness of our Lord
Jesus”
This follows from what we have just
said. The gospel of God’s promised
deliverer is announced. When God sees
the pitiable state of Adam and Eve, He
takes initiative to clothe them. Need God have done that, after what they had done? He kills animals to
clothe them. The lives of the animals for their lives. Here is a hint of the atonement . The sacrifice of animals later
becomes the prescribed method for making atonement in the OT à all this off
course points forward to that great atonement – the “once for all” offering of Christ
(Hebr. 9: 12,26,28; 10:10,14)
by which He bears the sins of many and
clothes them in His righteousness. He is
“Yahweh Tsidkenu” – the Lord our
righteousness (Jer. 23:6; 33:16)
6. Gen 4: 1 –11 : “Abel,
his offering and death which speaks of Christ’s offering and death”
We read here about the offerings of
Cain and Abel. Cain’s offering was rejected whereas Abel offered a true
sacrifice - the firstborn of His
flock (Gen.4:4). Note that Abel’s
sacrifice was a blood sacrifice. Abel is thereafter killed by Cain as an act of jealousy. The wicked
often become angry by the
faithful testimony of the righteous. And so , the first person to die in human
history is a righteous man – a martyr. In Matt. 23:35 Jesus refers to the blood of righteous Abel .
It is full of significance when God says in Gen. 4:10 : “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the
ground…”. Jesus blood was also shed by lawless men and in Heb.12:24 it speaks of “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant ,
and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel”. What
comfort that we have the voice of the blood in heaven speaking for those who
believe in Him on their behalf. Heb. 9:24 states that “Christ
entered heaven itself , now to appear for us in God’s presence.”
We have seen at least 6 instances in which the first few chapters of the book of
Genesis are directly connected to Christ and the New
Testament. Christ and the early church
used the OT to preach the gospel
, and so must we.
Don’t let go of your OT. See Christ on
every page of the OT .
You have heard the account of the two disciples who met
the Lord on the road to Emmaus and yet did not recognize him. When he met
them, they had lost all hope. Then the
Lord Jesus revealed to them the meaning of the Scriptures. Beginning with Moses
and quoting one prophet after another he showed that everything that he had
suffered had been foretold. The Lord went through the whole Old
Testament.
Augustine ( AD 354 -430)
once said : [2] The Scriptures are in fact, in any passage you care to choose, singing
of Christ, provided we have ears that are capable of picking out the
tune. The Lord opened the minds of the Apostles so that they understood
the Scriptures. That he will open our minds too, is our prayer.
AMEN !
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