The Gospel of Genesis

I try to write short, concise pieces for my blog, but I would like to share something longer today. Can you handle it? Can you focus in for a few minutes longer to see something glorious from the book of Genesis? God, from the very beginning, has been revealing the gospel to His people, and I want to give you a glimpse into a tiny fraction of the glorious riches of Christ found in the very first book of the Bible.

Pre-Genesis

But before I do that, did you know that the gospel message was before the beginning? Before God ever spoke anything into creation, He had perfect Trinitarian unity with Himself, and He had all glory (John 17:5). He eternally existed as God over all things (Psalm 90:2). In this state, the Triune God waited to enact the gospel plan to save sinners through the death and resurrection of the Son, to the praise of His glory (1 Peter 1:20, Eph 1:4, John 17:24). So it should come as no surprise, that even “in the beginning” the gospel plan begins to be spelled out.

Genesis

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

God is the Creator of all things who existed before the beginning. He created light, the heavens, water, land, plants, sun, moon, stars, sea creatures, flying creatures, land creatures… “Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Gen 1:26-27). In the next chapter we get a zoomed in picture of how God did this: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed” (Gen 2:7-8). God gave mankind LIFE and FELLOWSHIP with Himself. God also gave a command to keep.

Gracious Command and Grievous Sin

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…”

Genesis 2:16-17

God gave a very generous command. What gracious words: “freely eat”! But of one tree they were not allowed to eat. They were not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). Despite the gracious words of God, we know the tragic story. The serpent deceived Eve, and Adam walked headlong into sin. “So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:1-6). They broke God’s gracious commandment.

According to God, “the day that you eat of it you shall surely die;” but you might say, “I thought they hid themselves and were thrown out of the garden?” True, man and woman did not physically die in that day, though sin would surely bring about physical pain and death. There was a more serious death that occurred in their act of disobedience. “And you [He made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph 2:1). “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Man became spiritually dead. They were air-breathing, heart-beating dead men. God had breathed into man, making him a living being and giving him fellowship with God. But now, because of man’s rebellion against his Creator, man was dead in sin and separated from God. Just as Adam and Eve hide themselves from God’s presence, so all sin separates us from God’s favorable presence. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear” (Isa 59:2).

Hopeful Curses

God in justice dealt out curses because of Man’s disobedience. And within the curse of God towards the serpent we see HOPE. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). God promised that there would be war between the serpent and the One that would come from Eve, but that seed of the woman would “bruise” the head of the serpent, though He Himself would be bruised. Death came because of sin, but God promised to destroy the devil and his work through the One to come.

Adam and Eve were separated from God because of sin, and they lost access to the tree of life and the presence of God (Gen 3:23-24). Yet the promised hope remained that One would come and to save. For now, Adam and Eve would live, work, and have children under the curse. And those children to be born would inherit something from their father: “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen 5:3). Adam was created with life in the likeness of God. After his sin and spiritual death, Adam had children in HIS own likeness, without life. And this progression continues on throughout the ages. Men have children in their likeness, with spiritual deadness inherited from their father Adam. “For as in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22). “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom 5:12).

With this as the backdrop for all of humanity, God began to deal with mankind as they awaited the promised Seed. He worked in the history of His people in order to give types and shadows of the One to come. If only we could have been there to hear Christ, “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27)!

The War Rages

In Genesis chapter four we begin to see the enmity promised between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman. Adam and Eve had two sons named Cain and Abel. God gave Cain this warning: “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Gen 4:7). Cain did not heed God’s warning and killed his brother Abel. After this happens, Adam had another son and named him Seth. Hear Adam’s hopeful response to the birth of Seth: “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed” (Gen 4:25). Adam, aware of the promised Seed of the woman, knew that God would not forsake His promise, and still awaited the Seed that would destroy Satan and his works.

By Genesis chapter six, we see more of the war being waged by the serpent. Man’s rebellion against God had grown to an intolerable place for the Holy One of Heaven, and God set His mind on righteous judgement (Gen 6:5-8). Yet God found Noah, a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet 2:5) and a man of faith (Heb 11:7), and God granted him GRACE through FAITH. God warns Noah of judgement and provides one way of salvation. Noah believes God and builds an ark in response to God’s impending judgement. Noah finds salvation from God’s judgement through believing in God’s provision for salvation. Here we see a blessed picture from God to show us that GRACE and FAITH are necessary to salvation, and only God’s provision will save from judgement. As the writer of Hebrews says, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb 11:7). Once God’s judgement had subsided over the earth, Noah offered sacrifices to God.

Glorious Genealogies That Narrow Our Focus

In this war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, it seemed as though the serpent had the upper hand. Yet God, in His mercy and grace, provided a remnant to be saved, and He preserved the heritage of the promised Seed. Noah and his household were saved from God’s wrath! From this place in the Scripture we get an account of Noah’s lineage. Glorious genealogies! This account traces the line of the Seed all the way to a man named Abram. And God gave Abram a promise: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed… To your descendants [SEED] I will give this land” (Gen 12:1-3, 7).

Abraham

God promised Abram that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed, and that his Seed would receive God’s inheritance. According to the New Testament, this “Seed” is in reference to Christ. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal 3:16). God, faithful to His promise, pushes us forward to look for the promised Seed to deliver us from sin and death. He also narrows our focus from the lineage of Noah to the lineage of Abram. God promised Abram again in Genesis 15 that his descendants would be numerous and that the heir would come from his lineage. Abram responded with faith. “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6). This sets the stage and confirms what we already know about righteousness before God. Righteousness before God is “accounted” and not earned. It has always been by FAITH, and not by works. About these words, Paul says, “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom 4:23-24).

Isaac

Late in life, Abraham (as he is now called), is given a son named Isaac and is told, “in Isaac your seed shall be called” (Gen 21:12). So our focus narrows even more from Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, and now to Isaac. And as a great test of faith and for a sign of the coming Seed, God told Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Gen 22:2). And in obedience to God, righteous Abraham offered up his only son on the altar to God. In a stunning act of substitution, the faithful God stopped Abraham before he carried out the act, and He provided a ram. Abraham’s faith is confirmed by his works. This divine test was a picture of the coming Lamb of God who would act as our substitute and die in our place. God confirmed His promise to Abraham again and draws our eyes forward yet again to the promised Seed that would bless all nations and bring salvation (Gen 22:18).

Jacob and Judah

Moving throughout the book of Genesis, we see that God continued to narrow the lineage to whom the Seed would come. Abraham: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Gen 22:18). Isaac: “And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 26:4). And now Jacob: “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God’s promise moved from Abraham to his son Isaac and to Isaac’s son Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons, and we see this blessing pass to one of them: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people” (Gen 49:10). Now we learn that this Seed that will bruise the head of the serpent will also be a King from the line of Judah.

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Here the book of Genesis ends, setting the stage for the glorious gospel to be revealed. Man was created by God to have life and fellowship with Him. Man rebelled against God and disobeyed his command which brought about death and separation from God. God in righteous wrath promised judgement on sin, yet He also promised that One of Eve’s descendants would bruise the head of the serpent. We know that this Seed will destroy the devil and his works, will come from the line of Judah as King, and yet will suffer as a substitute to save those with faith from God’s judgement. He will be raised up like Isaac and receive the promises of the Father.

All this has been gloriously fulfilled in Christ. We can and should be encouraged by the types and shadows that give our faith its backbone, but the substance is here! Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the substitute for sinners. He is the One who saves from the wrath of God. He is the snake crusher who defeats the devil and plunders his goods. He is the One who was bruised in our place, and He is the One who has raised from the dead. May God receive glory for His gospel, and may we see Christ on every page of Scripture.

Jacob Crouch 2024

*This is a portion of a longer study from Genesis to Revelation on the gospel. If you would like to see more, I have over 60 pages written that I can share in larger chunks like this. If you want to see it, leave me a comment and let me know.