01. In the beginning…..

 

A. God made man in His own image

 

The Bible starts with the following words: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1), and It goes on to describe the creation of e.g. light, fruit trees, animals, etc. ( vv.3-25). And then in verses 26-28 we read: Then God said: Let Us make man in Our own image, according to Our own likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The Bible says, that God made us in His own image  -  like Himself. He thinks, and so can we; He feels, so do we; He enjoys things that are beautiful, and so do we. He made us like Himself !

 

Let’s have a look at the following Scripture: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Thess.5:23).

What we see here, is that we as human beings consist of a body, soul and spirit. Our body is that part of us, that we can see; but the body is not the real “me”. My soul and spirit live in my body. What is the soul? It is the psychological part of us, composed of our intellect, our will and emotions. And our spirit is the ability to know God. Adam knew God. He knew when God came to meet him in the cool of the day (Gen.3:8); the spirit had continuously fellowship with God, and this spirit is the real “me”.

So Adam (spirit) knew God, he had a soul (emotions, a will, intellect, etc.) and he lived in a body.

 

Adam and his wife Eve (Gen.3:20,21) were ordered by the Lord to subdue the earth and to rule over God’s creation. God had given them everything and they had to cultivate and keep it, in particular the garden of Eden, where the Lord God had placed them (Gen.2:15). God actually gave Adam authority to reign over the earth as a prince or a king.

And the greatest gift, that God has given to the first man, but also to us, to you and me and everybody, was a free will! A free will to choose, to decide. God didn’t make us like robots or computers, that can only do what they are programmed to do; no, He made us free, so free, that we could decide what to do with our lives.

Although man had been given a free will, the Lord God told him not to eat of a certain tree in the garden, namely “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die” (Gen.2:17).

 

 

B. The angelic hosts

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1). And although the Bible goes on to describe the creation on earth of light, the expanse, vegetation, man, etc., God also created in the heavenly realm: He created among others angelic beings. Throughout the Old and the New Testament we read about angels, archangels, seraphim, cherubim, etc.

Let us have a look at one of the mightiest angels that He created, and we can read something about his background and character in Ezek.28:12-19. It is said here, that this angel was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty (v.12), and blameless in his ways (v.15).

From some translations we derive, that he had an outstanding position in the heavens; he actually was the praise and worship leader, as in the heavens the angelic hosts praise and worship the God of creation continually.

But something went wrong. In v.17 we read: your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; so pride overtook this angel. Look what the prophet Isaiah says about him: But you said in your heart: “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…..I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself the Most High.” (Is.14:13-14). He even went so far, that he organised a rebellion against God and drew one third of the angelic hosts behind him, but he lost the battle against the archangel Michael, the captain of the angels that remained faithful to God. And God had no other choice than to expel the rebellious angel from His Presence in heaven. In v.17 it says: “I cast you to the ground”  (i.e. the earth). And Jesus says in Luke 10:18: “I was watching Satan (for this is the name of this fallen angelfall from heaven like lightning”.

 

C. Sin and its consequences

 

When God created Adam and Eve on this earth, Satan realised, although he was expelled from the Presence of God in heaven, that here on earth he again is confronted with the real Most High, as this first couple was created in the image of God (Gen.1:27), which means, that they had the character of God and were like Him (v.26), and in the Name of the Lord God they ruled in authority over the earth.

As Satan hated God, because he could  not throw God from His heavenly throne, he decided to destroy the image of God in Adam and Eve. He, using the serpent’s voice, deceived Eve (Gen.3:1-6), and she believed his lies, and Adam believed them as well. So they fell into disobedience towards God and believed the lies of Satan, and listened to him. Both Adam and Eve have used their free will to disobey God. And the Bible calls it: sin.

And that’s where you and I come into the picture. We have done almost the same thing. The Bible says: All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23).

Here’s what sin really means. It means failing to obey God. The Bible says: Sin is the transgression of the law (1John.3:4). If we were really trying to keep from sinning, we should at least work on what Jesus called the greatest commandment of all: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk.12:30). Do you know of anyone who has fully obeyed this commandment? Of course not. Now you can understand why the Bible says that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

Looking at this greatest commandment we see something very interesting. It speaks about doing something from deep inside. Jesus wasn’t just talking about loving God on the outside, but on the inside too! Jesus says, that with God our inner thoughts count the same as our outward actions, for example:

-       to look on a woman to lust for her God counts the same as committing adultery;

-       hateful or angry thoughts God counts the same as murder;

-       inner self-pity He counts the same as outward pride and boasting.

He counts them all sin !!

Probably the most common sin of all, of which I was once very guilty, was just plain living for myself, and thinking: “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want with it”. I used to think that! And then I realised, it was …..pure selfishness!

 

Just think what sin does:

      It spoils everything! For one thing, it spoils our character. Just think what things like lying or gossiping or just plain selfishness do to our character. Think how things like thoughtlessness and laziness spoil our family relationships and our friendships.

      And the sad thing is, that the effect of sin doesn’t just stop there. It develops into bad habits…..habits of deceitfulness, self-pity, temper, criticism…..habits that we cannot seem to break…..habits that cause us to lose our self-control…..habits that spoil our lives.

      And the worst thing of all is, what sin does between us and God. The Bible says: Your sins have made a separation between you and God (Is.59:1-2). God is holy and good. He cannot associate with people whose character and life and habits are spoiled by sin! Sin, therefore separates me from God. The Bible says: The wages of sin is death (Rom.6:23).

 

The Lord God had warned Adam and Eve beforehand, that, if they would eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die (Gen.2:17):

-       Did their bodies die? No, from the next chapters in Genesis it is clear, that Adam and Eve lived many more years.

-       Did their souls die? On the contrary. We see in Gen.3:10-13 that their souls became very active: they tried to justify themselves by accusing God and each other for the sin they had committed.

-       Did their spirits die? Yes. The death they underwent was a spiritual death. As we saw just now: they were separated from God.

 

Let’s look once more at the verses in Isaiah 59:1-2: Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short, that it cannot save; neither is His ear so dull, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. Since Adam and Eve sinned, mankind ever since has operated from his soul and body. And we know what this means, as we look at history. Because man lost his authority to rule over the earth to the devil, Satan, human history is a long record of hatred, bloodshed, cruelty and confusion. Human beings are dead spiritually  -  dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1), for not only the first couple was affected by the results of sin. Look at the following Scriptures:

      Gen.5:1,3: Adam received a son in his own likeness, according to his image. This is the image of a sinful nature, and not of a Godly nature any more. The whole human race, actually the whole creation (Gen.3:17-19) has been affected by sin.

      Ps.51:5 – David realised, that he was born in sin.

 

So we see, that through sin mankind had to go his own way, separated from God, and without hope and without a future. How sad. But: Praise the Lord, not forever  -  see Gen.3:15.