LESSON 1 Adam - Part I
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LESSON 1 Adam - Part I Scripture References · Genesis Chapters 1, 2 and 3 Meaning of the Name · Adam means "earth." The Creation of Man · God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days, the last thing He made was man. · Adam was not born of earthly parents like us. He was made by God out of the dust (a lump of soil) of the earth as a full-grown man, not a tiny baby, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being (Gen. 2:7). He was the first man on earth, the first human son of God (see Lk. 3:38), created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27) · Note: We lost our sonship because of Adam's fall, but restored through the redemptive work of Jesus, the second Adam. * Note: God is a Spirit without physical body like ours. "Image" means "representation of God." "Likeness" means the "character or model of God." Here means that Adam was made in the moral and spiritual image of God, a free rational being, possessing something of God's knowledge, righteousness and true holiness before the fall. Man's Three-fold Nature (Genesis 2:7; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12) · Man is a creation of God who possesses a three-fold nature: 1. Spirit - The dimension of man which deals with the spiritual realm, the part of man that knows God. 2. Soul - The dimension of man which deals with the mental realm, man's intellect, the sensibilities, feelings, emotions and will. The part that reasons and thinks. 3. Body - The dimension of man which deals with physical realm, the house in which we live. · Man's soul together with his spirit makes him an immortal spiritual being. That is why the Bible teaches that man has an immortal soul! · Animal has a soul and a body, but not spirit because God only granted the "breath of life" (the spirit) to man. Animals have souls because they have limited reasoning faculties which are of the soul. Animals also have affection, and this too is a part of soul. · All plants and vegetation have a body only, because they do not have feelings or emotions, nor can they think. 1 The First Home in Paradise · God told him to be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth; and made him master of the fish and birds and all the animals (Gen. 1:28). · Note: man was a vegetarian until after the flood (Gen 1:29; 9:3-6). · The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him (Gen. 2:18). · And the Lord caused the man fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which He had removed it, and made the rib into a woman, and gave the woman to Adam as his wife - this must be a very beautiful wedding in that Garden of Eden, the most beautiful place that ever existed; with birds singing, angels watching, God united them in holy marriage. And that was the first human home on earth (Gen. 2:21-25). · The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). Man's Duty and Limit (Gen. 2:15-17) · Man was to till the earth and keep it. · Man was to obey God, or he would die. · Man was given full permission of freedom in the garden with one simple, but significant limitation, that he was not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What Have We Learned Today? 1. God is the Maker of all, everything that is in the heavens and on earth. 2. He made the first man, and all human life derives from Adam and Eve. All people in the world are supposed to be of one family under God. Memory Bible Verse: Genesis 1:27, "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." 2 Assignment for Lesson 1 Adam - Part I Scripture Readings: Genesis Chapters 1, 2 and 3 1. Who was Adam? Who created Adam? How was he created? (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:4-9; 15-17) 2. What made Adam unique, different from animals, since both man and animals were formed out of earth of the ground? (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7,19) 3. What does it mean when God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..."? What was the significance of God's breathing into man's nostrils the breath of life? (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7) Note: In Genesis 1:26, God uses the words "us" and "our" to reveal His Trinity, three Persons in one Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not three Gods, but one God in three Persons (cf. Matthew 28:19). We must accept this Biblical doctrine by faith! 4. What duty and limit did God place on man in the Garden of Eden? (Genesis 2:15-17) Memory Bible Verse: Genesis 1:27,”So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” 3 LESSON 2 Adam - Part II Scripture References · Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:21-22 The Temptation and Fall · In Gen. 3:1, serpent was used as a pictorial and symbolic reference to Satan. · Satan, the fallen evil angel, the adversary of God and His people and all that is good, made Eve doubt about God's word, "Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?” The woman answered,, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You must not even touch it, or you will die.’” Then Satan made Eve defy God and listen to his big lie by saying, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:2-5). · Thus, Satan incited the woman to unbelief and eventually led her to disobedience and rebellion. She took of its fruit and ate; and also gave some to Adam to eat.(Gen. 3:6). · After Eve and Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they suddenly became aware of their nakedness, and were embarrassed, so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons, trying to cover their sin and shame; then they hid themselves, for they were afraid to see God (Gen. 3:7 -8). · And God came and called to the man, "Where are you, Adam?" God already knew what happened; with a sad heart He was patiently and graciously seeking a lost man and his wife (Gen. 3:9-13). · Ever since then, God has been trying to seek and save lost sinners (Lk. 19:10). The Judgment of God · After the fall of Adam, God pronounced judgment upon the offenders: (1) The serpent, the devil, was cursed; (2) the condition of womanhood was changed in two respects: (a) multiplied pain in childbirth and (b) a status of subjection to her husband; (3) the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles; (4) man was to earn his living by the sweat of his brow; (5) physical death was to be the lot of all human beings; (6) man became separated from God, for the Lord drove the man out of the Garden of Eden; henceforth, sorrow, hardship, toil and death have become man's portion. · Note: Genesis 3:24, "... God placed cherubim... to guard the way to the tree of life." Cherubim (plural of cherub) are winged creatures of some heavenly angelic order. They act as guardian for God and His interests (cf. Ex. 25:18-22; I Samuel 4:4; II Kings 19:15). The Promise of A Savior 4 · In the midst of His wrath, God remembered mercy. The Lord graciously promised mankind a Redeemer and Savior. In Gen. 3:15, God said to the serpent, the devil, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He (the promised Redeemer and Savior) shall crush and tread your head under foot, and you will lie in wait and bite His heel." · Note: this is the first promise of a Savior, picturing Christ's victory over Satan by dying on the cross to redeem us from sin - "He shall crush your head and you (the devil) will bite His heel." · After this, God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen. 3:21). Here were two goats or lambs killed and sacrificed; they died and shed their blood for Adam and Eve; and their skins were made garments, instead of the tattered aprons made of fig leaves, to cover our first parents' guilt and shame. And years later, God's Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came and died and shed His precious blood for us, to wash and cleanse us from sin and guilt. What a wonderful and gracious Savior we have in Jesus Christ! Death through Adam, Life through Christ · When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.