Faith Lesson 1: Adam
Lesson 1
The Crown Jewel of God’s Creation
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Audio from The Adventum, Volume 1, Disc 1: 5:59-8:01
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God Created Man Intimately
Until the sixth day, our Creator simply spoke, and there was light and dark, sea and land, trees and grass, fish and animals. …. but for his next creation, He added a more “personal touch”.
Take a moment to ponder this amazing truth! Notice what God didn’t say when He created man. He didn’t say, “let there be human beings”. Instead, God proclaimed, “Let us make man in our image, according to Our likeness!”
Let that sink in. Out of the dust of the ground, our Creator intimately formed Adam with His own hands and then personally breathed His Spirit into him. No other creature on earth was blessed with this divine touch!
“Let us make man in our image, according to Our likeness!”
Having God’s likeness means that we’ve been created to resemble Him – not by flesh and blood, but by a unique spirit given to us by the One who IS Spirit.
It’s astonishing that Almighty God created us to have communion with Him; it’s devastating that Adam’s sin turned that communion into enmity; but it’s remarkable that Christ’s sacrifice crushed this enmity and paved the Way back to God.
The first man, Adam, was the created one who rebelled. The “second Adam”, Jesus, is the Creator who redeems.
When we turn from the sin of Adam to the Son of God, we’re filled with a life-giving Spirit. This Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we’re God’s children – treasured sons and daughters with transformed hearts who cry out, “Abba, Father” – yearning for that Day when we see Him face to face.
Bible Passages: Genesis 1, Job 33:4-6, Acts 17:25, John 4:24, Romans 8:15, Ephesians 2:14-16, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-16
God Created Man for His Glory
The Bible clearly teaches that God created man for His glory, but if this is man’s purpose, how do we glorify Him?
Glorifying God begins with a deep, genuine devotion to God Himself and the things of God – His Word, His authority, His Gospel, His Truth. It’s practiced through honoring and obeying God in every thought, word and deed. But we must remember that pure, heartfelt obedience only happens supernaturally, not naturally. In other words, it’s only when we’re walking in the Spirit that we have the capability to live holy lives that impact God’s Kingdom.
We glorify God when we passionately pursue Jesus and recognize that apart from Him, we have nothing, and can do nothing. Christ is the “Author and Perfecter of our faith”, and the transforming work He begins, He completes.
"...apart from Him, we have nothing, and can do nothing."
It’s in Christ alone that we have His mind; it’s through Christ alone that we have His strength, and it’s by knowing Christ alone that we have His power.
Bible Passages: Isaiah 43:7, John 15:5, Philippians 2:5, 3:10,4:13, Hebrews 11:6
God Created Man for His Pleasure
The Scriptures also indicate that God was very pleased with His creation of man. Genesis describes the first five days of creation as “good”, but it was only after God formed Adam on the sixth day that He pronounced it “very good”.
It was very good “in the beginning”, but several hundred years later “the LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” In fact, things got so evil that God “was sorry that He had made man” and “was grieved in His heart.”
So what happened? Simply put, Adam’s sin spread, and mankind fell to such a wicked level that God brought a global flood to wipe out “everything that breathed air”. The wickedness on the earth had reached a point where every man’s heart was “evil continually”, so this was surely a just judgement on an unjust generation.
However, God didn’t have to scramble to find a “Plan B”. His sovereign plan to rescue humanity was established in eternity past. God spared Noah and his family, cleansed the earth of its sin, and provided a way to “start over”. Noah’s Ark was one of many ways in which God preserved a remnant of His people, but unfortunately, the world was still tainted by sin.
Noah’s Flood was one of many events that paved the way for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the One with whom God was well pleased.
God not only took pleasure in creating man, He takes “good pleasure” in adopting us through His Son, powerfully working through us by His Spirit, and fulfilling His goodness for His glory!
Bible Passages: Genesis 1-2, Genesis 3:15, Genesis 6:6, Psalm 147:11, 149:4, Matthew 3:17, Ephesians 1:5, 1:9, 2 Thessalonians 1:11, Revelation 4:11
