Study the Word

Thom Keller: Pastor Thom points out that some marital conflict and contention can be traced back to the curse in Genesis. So, as a part of the curse, we see here that God says to the woman, "Your desire shall be contrary to your husband." Well, why is that? It’s a part of the curse. There is a contention naturally because of the curse between husbands and wives. It’s a part of the curse.

And so in marriage counseling, we need to remember that the enemy kind of got a foothold in here as a part of the curse. We’re not destined to live in that contention, but it’s going to be almost the default that through dying to self, we need to become more Christ-like to get out of that, but we shouldn't be surprised when there's contention between husbands and wives.

Guest (Male): Today on Study the Word, we take you back to the beginning when God created the first man and woman, God’s ultimate creation. Pastor Thom Keller will describe the sixth day of creation for us as we continue our study of Genesis. We’ll be in chapter 1 and verses 26 to 31, so grab that Bible of yours as together we study the Word.

Thom Keller: Hey, we’re in Genesis chapter 1 today, and the title is "God’s Ultimate Creation." After being created and enjoying paradise for a couple of days, Adam went to God to tell Him how it’s going. Adam: "Hey, thanks for creating me and all, but I’m a bit lonely. Do you think you could create a partner for me?" God: "Well, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, I’d like her to be beautiful and voluptuous, smart but not too smart, hard-working and generous, eager to please, resourceful, a great cook. She should be a good listener and my greatest earthly desire would be that she would wait on me hand and foot." God said, "Whoa, that’s a tall order. I can create her, but it won’t be cheap. To make a partner like that, it’s going to take both your arms and one of your legs." He thought for a minute and said, "What can I get for a rib?"

Why a rib? Matthew Henry said this: "The woman came out of a man’s rib, not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal, under his arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved." Maybe that’s why a rib. And the subject at hand today is God creating the first man and woman. Genesis 1:26.

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and all the small animals that scurry along the ground." So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female He created them.

Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground." Then God said, "Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I’ve given you every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground, everything that has life."

And that is what happened. Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good. And evening passed, and morning came, marking the sixth day. In our lesson today on the final sixth day of God’s incredible creativity being unleashed upon an entirely new universe filled with billions of stars, which He created almost as an afterthought—then He made the stars—I love that line.

He achieved in this one day, this sixth day, more than all of the other five days combined. And God confirms this because after each of the first five days, God said that day’s work was good. But after the sixth day, after God created Adam and Eve, God said this in verse 31: "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." Very good. It was better than just good. It was very good.

Because the Westminster Catechism proclaims this: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." In the first five days, that really wasn’t a possibility. Although the skies and the moon and the sun, the daisies, the mountains, the elephants—they all point to God as their Creator—these cannot of their own volition either verbally or internally glorify God, nor can they choose to enjoy God.

No, only man can do that. And since man was made in the image and likeness of God Himself, how could anything that God created be as great as something made in the likeness and image of Himself? Note the words of verse 26 in the New King James. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.'" God said, "Let us make man in our image in our likeness."

Who is God talking to here? Who’s the "us" that He’s mentioning? Well, although other theories abound, as you would expect as to who the "us" are here, including some saying angels, that God involved the angels in the creation of man. As I think about that, the gulf between God and an angel is so enormous, how could an angel possibly add anything to the creation of man that God would need their help?

In essence, their help would be pointless. No, this to me clearly is an early passage pointing to the Trinity. "Let us make man in our image": Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Let us. Now, there are three aspects that uniquely link mankind to our Creator, things that make us common to Him in the likeness of God. Number one, humans are given knowledge, feelings, and a will. Knowledge, feelings, and a will.

The second aspect, humans possess a morality and a conscience given to us by God. And again, this separates us from the plants and the animals. This is the question that no atheist can answer: Why does man have this moral code that calls killing a baby or stealing a child from its mother wrong? Because God has placed within man a moral code.

When Sue and I had the opportunity to go to Russia many years ago with the Jesus film, we were assigned different cities, different college and high school locations where we were teaching the teachers how to present the Gospel. How do you like that? Public schools, teaching the teachers how to present the Gospel. And we had a special group of apologists with us who were only to deal with the atheists, because we had atheistic professors coming to be taught how to present the Gospel to their students.

And I said to them, "What’s your line of reasoning? What do you use?" And they said, "We use morality. Explain where morality comes from. You live in a natural world where only the natural is valid. How is it that man, above the animals, has a moral code that this is wrong morally, and everyone agrees to that? Why is that?" It can’t be answered by an atheist. So, humans possess a morality and a conscience given to them by God.

Number three, only humans possess spirituality. Man is made to be in a two-way communication, two-way relationship with God. It is on the spiritual plane that we connect with God. Only man has this. Dogs don’t talk to God. Cats don’t think about what happens to them when they die. I’m not sure cats could go to heaven anyway. I might have mentioned that before. I’m kidding, a little.

Cats have attitudes. That’s my problem with cats. But only humans share this trait. Then in verse 26 it says, "Let us make man in our image." The Hebrew word there is Adam (A-D-A-M), and it means a man, a human being. Adam, the first man. And God made both Adam and his wife Eve, who we will meet in just a moment. He made them to be masters over all of God’s creation, both together.

Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image to be like us. They will reign over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the wild animals on the earth, and all the small animals that scurry on the ground.'" I believe first of all it is reasonable to believe that the animal kingdom would have been completely tame at this time, with animals cohabitating in perfect peace with man prior to the Fall.

We do know with certainty that during the 1,000-year reign of Christ, yet ahead of us, the animal realm will once again be at peace with one another and man as well. We read this in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 7, speaking of the millennium: "The cow will graze near the bear, the cub and the calf will lie down together, the lion will eat hay like a cow. The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in the nest of deadly snakes without harm."

That’s where we’re going, and I think that’s where we came from. Don’t you love that picture? The lion laying down with the lamb. So when I picture Adam and Eve in the garden, I picture animals being naturally drawn to them due to Adam and Eve being placed in authority over them, just as a small fawn instinctively seeks the protection and care of its mother.

I suspect that in a similar way, they were drawn to Adam and Eve because of their role to guard and rule over them. And in verse 26, God said, "Let us make man." And now in verse 27, they actually now create man. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female He created them. Male and female He created them.

Now, chapter 5 adds a little detail here. Chapter 5 verse 2 says, "Male and female created He them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created." Note that. It says God created them and called their name Adam. One name for the two. Together they were called Adam. They shared the same name. You say, "I thought the Bible says that her name was Eve." That’s true, but not yet, not until later.

Eve is only given that name when they choose to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:6: "The woman was convinced. She saw that fruit. She saw that tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it, too."

And as a result of that sinful choice, the curse fell upon Satan, the curse fell upon man, and on the woman. Verse 16: "To the woman He said, 'I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.'" So, as a part of the curse, we see here that God says to the woman, "Your desire shall be contrary to your husband."

Well, why is that? It’s a part of the curse. There is a contention naturally because of the curse between husbands and wives. It’s a part of the curse. And so in marriage counseling, we need to remember that the enemy kind of got a foothold in here as a part of the curse. We’re not destined to live in that contention, but it’s going to be almost the default that through dying to self, we need to become more Christ-like to get out of that.

But we shouldn't be surprised when there's contention between husbands and wives. A lot more could be said about that. I’d suggest you do your research. And as to the curse that God placed on the man, we read that in verse 17. He said to the man, "Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life, you will struggle to scratch a living from it."

And it is only after God explains to Adam and Eve what this new fallen world will look like and its implications that then Adam gives his wife a name. 3:20: "Then the man, Adam—then the man, Adam, after the curse is proclaimed—then the man, Adam, named his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all who live." And in Genesis, we get a view of something fascinating and very rare.

In Genesis, we get a photograph of what a marriage relationship would look like before the Fall, what a marriage relationship would look like while it was still heaven on earth. You know we don’t get to see what a child-parent relationship would have looked like before the Fall, or an employee-employer relationship, or a teacher-student relationship, but we do get to see what a marriage relationship looked like before the Fall, which is exactly what God intended marriage to look like as we see it.

We find in this early photograph the intended extreme oneness He wants there to be in marriage. Verse 24: "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." One flesh. The two shall become one flesh. Two halves coming together to make a whole. In fact, so much so that only one name was needed before the Fall.

Why? Because they were one flesh. If you yelled, "Hey, Adam, come here," both halves came running. One flesh. Perfect unity. And it is extremely important to note that prior to the Fall, the man and the woman were co-regents. They were equal in authority. They were equal in responsibility. The male part of Adam was not above the female part of Adam in any way.

Listen to verses 27 and 28: "So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female He created. Then God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply.' To them, 'Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.'" Do you hear that?

God blessed them and told them to fill the earth. He told them to subdue the earth. He told them to be masters, plural, over all of the animal kingdom. Why equal? Because prior to the Fall, no authority structure is needed. No authority structure is needed in a world where there is no rebellion. The evidence of that is that everyone in a world without sin would fully comply with God’s design by way of perfect obedience.

That’s what a perfect world would look like. But once rebellion entered into the world, when Adam squared ate of the fruit, now authority structures would be needed. Police would be needed. Timeouts for children. Arguments between spouses. Metal detectors, prisons, bank guards. It’s sad what this began. But here is the good news, and this is really good news: God has a plan to restore mankind back to the garden, which for us will be our entrance into heaven one day.

He has a plan to get us there. I’ve often said this: God has a plan to bring us back to the garden, and the plan has a name, and the name is Jesus. And it is only because of Christ’s love for you that we have this hope. This isn’t in my notes, but I’ve often thought: Who would have held the Trinity to account if they would have looked at Adam and Eve eating of that fruit, realizing Jesus would now have to die on the cross?

And they said, "Look," you can picture God initiating this because Jesus would have been dutifully obedient. You can picture God initiating this statement and saying, "Jesus, let’s just start over. Just snap our fingers and create another version, Man 2.0, a little better behaved, a little more obedient, maybe they have a better chance of getting it right. I don't want you to go to the cross."

But there was something about Adam and Eve, just the two of them, that would not allow for that, even the cost of all the sin that would come through disobedience in the aeons to come. Even so, there’s a plan to get us back because of His love. Graham Mason, 1937, he wrote this. He was a founder of the Westminster Seminary. Listen closely. This is so good.

"Those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ are in a far more blessed condition than Adam was before the Fall. Adam before the Fall was righteous in the sight of God, but he was still within the possibility of becoming unrighteous. But those of us who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ are not only righteous in the sight of God, but we are beyond the possibility of becoming unrighteous."

"In our case, the probation is over. It’s not because we have withstood the trials of life successfully, nor is it because we have earned the reward of assured blessedness which God has promised on the condition of perfect obedience. But it is because it is over. It’s over because Christ has merited to us the reward that Jesus deserves, a reward that we do not deserve, by the way of Christ’s perfect obedience to God’s law."

Isn’t that beautiful? Christ’s obedience, not your obedience. Christ’s performance, not your performance. Always remember this: Whenever performance enters a relationship, that relationship becomes conditional. Whenever performance enters a relationship, that relationship becomes conditional. If someone loves you based on performance, they love you conditionally.

God doesn’t love you conditionally. He loves you unconditionally. So performance is not a part of that relationship. He loves you—you know what the Bible says? He loves you because you love His Son, Jesus. That easy. That simple. And then God sets up for both man and animals their cafeteria plan. Verse 29: "Then God said, 'Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.'"

"And I’ve given you every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground, everything that has life. And that is what happened." Verse 29: "I’ve given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth." Back in the 70s, some of you remember this, but hippies used this line to legitimize the smoking of marijuana.

"Hey, gave us every seed-bearing plant, baby. I’m all in. I’m all in on His plan." And I knew a lot of those guys. I knew a lot of those guys. But think it through. God also created poison hemlock, poison mushrooms, deadly nightshades, poppy pods, and many other poisonous plants—Chevrolets, you know. But note the entire diet for both humans and animals excluded meat.

Only plants, fruit trees, and grasses. So when did that change? When did man begin eating meat? Immediately after Noah and his family left the ark. In Genesis 9 verse 1, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth," same as to Adam and Eve. "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast." This was new.

"The fear of you, the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, all the fish into the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Listen, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything." Everything.

Also note that up until Noah, animals were not afraid of humans or vice versa. That’s because back in the garden, every Thanksgiving meal was either a tofu turkey or a plant-based ham. How many here have ever had a tofu turkey? Oh, how many? Anyone else? There were a bunch in the first service. They’re horrible. I’ve had one. Don’t eat a tofu turkey or plant-based ham.

But I do want to say for people that are vegetarians, that’s fine, and I know there are a lot of great benefits for being a vegetarian. And there’s nothing wrong with promoting that position. There isn't. Nothing wrong with extolling the virtues of a vegetarian diet. I would never try to say that it’s what the Bible says we should do, because it isn’t what the Bible says we should do.

And if you try me on that one, I’m going to bring you right back here, show you this, and I’m going to eat my hamburger with great joy. Yeah, so. And before taking His seventh-day rest, God looks over the sum total of His six days of creative wonder and He says this in verse 31: "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good."

Guest (Male): We’ve been learning about God’s ultimate creation today on Study the Word, the creation of the first man and woman. It’s just part of Pastor Thom Keller’s study in Genesis, and you can hear it again online at ccleb.com. C-C-L-E-B dot com. Or visit our YouTube page. Subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and you can watch our services live or on demand.

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