Image Bearers of Yaweh (God)
Mankind is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Man was designed to be His “image bearer”, meaning we are to reflect God’s character responsibly by mirroring His image. God provides life; a beautiful home (earth); instructions and the ability to dress and keep our beautiful home (in the beginning it wasn’t work, that came later); a variety of animals to enjoy; a mate for expressing joy, love, and companionship; children to birth, love, and teach; and most importantly a God who seeks us out and will one day tabernacle with us.
Man was to enjoy the fruits of God’s work for him. The entirety of Adam’s life came from God and would always continue to come from God. Adam started in rest. The main things Adam and Eve needed to do was to trust God, learn, and image His ways. “Rest” had nothing to do with sleep, but much more with trusting, enjoying, living and experiencing God. One can become awestruck when thinking what kind of world it was and the pure relationship man had with God…a true Paradise! Be encouraged for this is the promise, a fully restored Paradise. Praise God, Halleluah, and Amen.
Genesis 2:16-17 reflects a Lord/vassal situation. The name of Yahweh is used (Gen. 2:4, 5, 7, 8…); and the human creation is mentioned which is male and female (Gen. 1:26-27). Adam and Eve is created to be Yahweh’s image bearers, which is in every other covenant; man is to image God thus, has a duty to perform. This presents the situation of “covenants” there is a stronger power who assures promises (sustaining all the elements for life) to a weaker element, and the weaker element has certain responsibilities. They were to tend the garden, rule over the earth as ambassadors of God, representing His Sovereignty and doing it in the express way that modeled His character. Being God’s image bearer is a covenantal relationship. This is a covenant of love, one that unfolds and is enlarged over time.
Wellum (2015) and many other scholars note that there is an evident “Creation Covenant”. It is found present in the creation story Genesis 1-2. These chapters introduce the situation of “covenant”, as stated above where a Sovereign power assures promises to a weaker element (mankind), the weaker element has certain responsibilities, such as representing His Sovereignty and doing it in the express way that models His character. Likened to mirrors, which do not make changes to the image, rather they are a perfect reflection of that image. Though the word covenant is not present, it does not indicate there is no covenant. Hosea 6:7, “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.”
What is the Character of God?
The next logical question is “What is the character of God?” The expressed character of God, according to scripture, is love (1 John 4:8). Naturally man is to embrace the character of God which gets more and more explained as the Scripture unfolds. God prepared man to bear His image by making mankind perfect, innocent, and righteous, and in doing so mankind had every possible element necessary to perform. In the beginning, God’s offer to mankind was eternal life in His divine family (Trinity). Adam and Eve fellowshipped with God face-to-face in this flawless state of being, sadly man altered God’s picture perfect plan for mankind.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
God instructed Adam and Eve to abstain from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were well aware of the tragedy that would befall them if they chose to take that which did not belong to them. They had access to everything else including the Tree of Life, but was exempted from the one thing that belonged to God alone. God created human beings with free will—giving them freedom to choose what to do with their lives. This meant that they could choose to sin – and separate themselves from God knowing that it would brings misery and death (Jude 1:12; Revelation 2:11, 20:6,14, 21:8). The other choice is that of life – which brings the joy of perpetual life with our Lord and the rest of humanity. Sadly, we know what Adam and Eve ultimately chose. This choice affected the whole of all life, mankind, plants, and animals.
We must take note, the tree was not itself an evil thing (Gen. 2:9). God stated that His creation was “very good” and that included the tree of knowledge of good and evil which was in the garden. In fact, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were in the very center of the garden. The tree of life certainly represents that, it is God alone who provides the way for life to exist, be animated, and who contains the ability to process abstract, perfect, and complete thought (our universe is an example of this). The tree of knowledge of good and evil reflects that it is God alone who has the ultimate perfection to judge what is good and what is evil. God did not create evil, but that potential existed with the freedom that He endowed to His created beings that we know of (angels and humanity). That was not something given to man; man is simply not divine.
The Fall and The Remedy
“Adamah” fell from that created purpose, and God stepped in to provide grace because humanity immediately fell under divine judgment. God promises the Redeemer in Genesis 3:15. He makes clear the conflict that will occur between the serpent and the women; serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed; and the women’s seed and the serpent. The serpent will bruise the heel of the woman’s seed, and the woman’s seed will crush the head of the serpent. This is known as the first mention of the gospel…good news of a Savior. The eternal covenant of love which is life itself (Titus 1:2) and the eternal Gospel (2 Timothy 1:7-9) were each present not only at creation, but in fact existed “before time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-9, 1 Peter 1:18-20, 2 Cor. 2:7). God then declared and put in motion this covenant with the entire human race that descended from Adam and Eve at creation. Genesis 3:15, records that it is God alone who establishes the covenant, He Himself would do the work and provide the Redeemer.
Since all of this was expected of “Adamah”, it was intended for the entire human race. The whole human race was to embrace God and His character and live in love imaging Him. Every single person on the earth that ever lived in any age has their lineage from “Adamah”. There is one race, the human race. Cultural differences developed over time – over centuries, but we are still one race. Today is no different than in Adam’s day, we are to embrace being “image bearers”, even though it has been tarnished with sin.
God’s predetermined plan to deal with a sin problem would be through His Son (woman’s seed). Through God’s grace the repentant sinner receives help (a state of overcoming) and eternal life (just to site a few verses: Psalm 62:1; Luke 19:9-10; John 3:16-17,5:24-27, 6:47; Acts 4:12, 13:47; Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews 9:27-28; 2 Timothy 1:9-10).
One cannot, on their own, earn the eternal reward. In fact, we are told that we are all an unclean thing, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all fade as a leaf with our iniquities like the wind taking us away – there is none that does good (Isa. 64:6, Ps. 14:3). Our condition is made crystal clear. It is only through God’s grace that one can accomplish eternal life. As the Bible tells us, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). He clothes us in His perfect righteousness so we can be presented as acceptable before the Father (Isa. 61:10, 2 Cor. 5:21).
God made a covenant with the entire human race that descended from Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:15, reveals, that it is God alone who made the covenant, He Himself would do the work and provide the Redeemer.
We Have as Much of the Story that we Need
At this point we need to note that, the story is very concise, likely only a brief summary for our consideration. Before the fall, man was created to image God, which naturally includes resting on the seventh day. It wasn’t just a rest from physical labors, it was resting/trusting in God – tabernacling with and worshiping Him. This was done face-to-face, and we cannot fathom what that was like. Only Adam and Eve had that experience in a perfect world. However, all mankind will once again come face-to-face with God, and for those who choose to follow Christ will tabernacle with and worship Him (Rev. 21:3, Isa. 66:23, Rev. 14:7, 15:4).
God established, prior to the beginning of time, a plan. Before we even existed, God the Father and the Word (who came as Jesus Christ [John 1:1-3, John 1:14]), in Their awesome love were willing to pay the ultimate price. The plan was for the beloved Son of the Father to come to earth in the flesh (Jesus), to be sacrificed in suffering and death as a substitute for our sins.
This is why Scripture says 1 Peter 1:17-20: “17 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18 knowing that you were not [a]redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared [b]in these last times for the sake of you 21who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (NASB).
- 1 Peter 1:18 Or ransomed
- 1 Peter 1:20 Lit at the end of the times
God Enlarges the Covenant as History Unfolds over the Course of Time
His Covenant at Creation, a covenant of love, unfolds with history as He worked towards the coming of the prophesized Messiah. As God worked His purpose, the Scripture further describes aspects of the covenant which we see when we come to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. We will look at that in more detail as we come to each of these patriarchs.
We have nothing to fear if we are on the side of God. Though Paradise was lost through sin and death came, we have the promise of salvation for those that want it. The journey towards eternity begins with one’s repentance, confession of our Lord, and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. He gives us the faith and ability to become an “image bearer”. His promise is one of redemption and restoration. Christ, prior to His ascention, promised that we would not be alone. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth, comfort us, and seal us for the coming Day of the Lord. Although our journey may be temporarily interrupted by “sleep” (the first death), it is not the end. We can embracethe hope, and trust that we will be raised when He returns.
A “thanks” to Michael Bledsoe a content contributor.