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Genesis 1-3

1. What does it mean to be created in the image of God? (Genesis 1:27)

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27).

Most theologians that I know associate this image with function rather than form; that is, that we are like God in terms of our "rule and dominion" or our abiity to reason or our capacity to make moral judgments rather than anything physical, especially since the Bible makes clear that "God is a spirit" (John 4:24).

I think a case can be made that this likeness has to do not simply with moral ability but moral perfection (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:29), so that our depravity caused by sin has led in part to a loss of this image. Salvation, then, is a restoration of us into the image of God, even the image and likeness of Christ. So Paul talks about his aspiration for the Galatian believers, that Christ be formed in them (Galatians 4:19). God sent His Son in the "likeness of sinful man to be sin offering" (Romans 8:3) for us in order that believers might be conformed into the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29). As a son reflects his father, so we reflect ours. The child reflects the moral and volitional image of his father, just as Seth, rather than the first born Cain, was said to be in the image of Adam (Genesis 5:3). Jesus said that the murderous Jews reflected the devil, because he too was a murderer (John 8:44). But those who love Christ would be true sons of God, because this reflected the will of God (John 8:42).

Some other verses that suggest this:

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9-10)

What is the image and likeness of God? In the immediate context of Genesis, perhaps it has something to do with man's reflection of God's "rule and dominion," which immediately follows the designation. But, as I have argued, it may also refect a moral perfection that would be severely marred by sin, such that only in the sacrifice of Christ would that image be restored.



2. How was the woman deceived by the Serpent? (Genesis 3:1-6)

Serpent: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1).

Notice the ever-so-subtle alteration of God's Word. God said, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gensis 2:16). Satan just moves the words "must not" from the one tree and applies it to every tree, highlighting the restriction and diminishing the blessing. It is as if he is implying, "How unfair God is not to let you eat from every tree!" As is the nature of selfishness and greed, people crave what they don't have more than they appreciate what they do have. Even if a person receives a thousand blessings, he will still resent the giver for the one blessing that was withheld from him. 

Woman: We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die" (Genesis 3:2-3).

The woman takes the bait. She too diminishes the magnitude of God's blessing. Even though she acknowledges the availability of the trees, she highlights the one restriction, accentuating it by adding to God's restriction the words "and you must not touch it." No wonder the Bible so adamantly warns against adding or taking away from God's Word (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelation 22:19-22; 1 Corinthians 4:6). The woman not only added this additional restriction, she also diminished the penalty by leaving out the emphatic word "certainly," where God said, "When you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Serpent: "You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).

Now, the serpent brashly contradicts God's command, saying, "You will not certainly die." Now, unlike the woman, he is more precise in citing God's words, but only to deny it outright. Thus, the serpent presents himself as being fully aware of the restriction, but knowing even more than this, namely, that God has withheld something good from them. What is this good thing? That they could "be like God, knowing good and evil." The serpent entices the woman with the very thing that may have precipitated his fall, the desire to be "like the Most High" God:

How you have fallen from heaven,
    morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
    you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
    on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-14).

WomanWhen the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Genesis 3:6).

Now, while the serpent was crafty to twist and contradict God's Word, the woman was still culpable for embracing and acting upon the serpant's lies. With rare exception, temptation only bears fruit where there is a fertile heart:

But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15).

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world (1 John 2:16).

Notice that the woman exhibited every aspect of what John describes as "evil desire," namely "the lust of the flesh" ("saw that the food was good for food"), "the lust of the eyes" ("pleasing to the eye"), and "the pride of life" ("desirable for gaining wisdom"). And once her evil desire conceived, it gave birth to sin ("she took some and ate it"). What is more, as we discover throughout Genesis and biblical history, sin rarely remains alone and isolated: "she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."

Thus, the inescapably infectious and fatal plague of sin entered the human race:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12).

The woman was certainly deceived by Satan, but let us understand that Satan did not make her sin. She was deceived and sinned because her heart was ripe for the deception. The woman was guilty for listening to the serpent rather than God. Likewise, the man was guilty for listening to the woman rather than God.