What is the significance and how does the account of God
creating Adam and Eve relate to us as individuals and as the church today?
In the beginning, in the record of creation in the book of
Genesis we are given essential information and the answers to the questions we
often wrestle with in life. Genesis gives us an answer to our questions about
identity and our purpose on the earth. It is very easy to read over the account
of creation (especially if you are familiar with it) and completely miss out on
what the Lord is really communicating. Though there is much that is revealed
about God in Genesis, I want to focus more on his purposes for us and what is
revealed about us.
In Genesis, after God creates all things He says, “Let us
make man in our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion…And 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). The key phrases in this passage are:
in our image, according to our likeness, dominion, His own image and in the
image of God. You can clearly see the emphasis in that we are created to be
like Him, that is what “image” means. In these two verses we see that God
created us to be like Him in life and nature. Genesis 1 says that each of the
living creatures were created, “according to their kind” (v. 21, 24, 25),
however we were not created according to man’s kind but according to God’s kind,
we are of a divine species, we are God-men. This reveals our identity and our
purpose. God created man to be like him and to be his expression on earth, that
we may express his life and nature. This is also demonstrated as God says “let
them have dominion” (v. 26), just as God has dominion over all things he
designed us that we would represent Him
by exercising authority over all that was created. From the very
beginning we see God’s desire for us to partner with Him and to rule with Him
and this will be fulfilled in the Millennium when the Saints will reign with
Christ as the King.
In God’s creation of Eve we see yet another aspect of our
identity, our identity as the Bride of Christ.
Genesis 2:18 -25 says, “And Jehovah God said, It is not good for the man
to be alone; I will make him a helper as his counterpart,” and God brought all
the animals to Adam for him to name them, “but for Adam there was not found a
helper as his counterpart. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the
man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its
place. And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a
woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, This time this is bone of
my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman because out of
Man this one was taken. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother
and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become on flesh. And both the man
and his wife were naked and were not ashamed before each other.”
This
scripture passage is an illustration of Christ and His Bride the Church
(meaning the Saints collectively), this is our corporate identity. Let’s unpack
this passage. Adam is a picture of
Christ, who is in need of a counterpart, among all of God’s creation there was
no one who was His match, and His match was not found until He was put to sleep;
which signifies his death and resurrection. Through His sleep (death and
resurrection) the woman representing the Church was created, and as the church
we are made through Christ Himself just as Eve was made through Adam. Adam said,
“this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” this is Jesus declaration
over his Bride, through his death and resurrection we
are made one with Him even as scripture says “they shall become one flesh.” And
lastly Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed, this speaks of the
intimacy that we have with Jesus as His Bride, there is no shame, no hiding.
The account of Genesis with Adam and Eve is God telling our
love story, it’s a picture of what he desires for our relationship with Him and
it tells us our identity and purpose in Him, we were made to be his expression
on the earth. We are His and He is ours,
in His first coming Jesus betrothed us to Him and in His second coming we shall
be married to Him in the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, it is then that we will truly
be made one with Him. This is the best love story there will ever be and we will be happily ever after.
