Genesis Overview

GENESIS

Overview

The Book of Beginnings: The Triumph of the Man of God In Genesis you have the beginning of the triumph of man to fulfill his destiny of reflecting the glory of God, having dominion over the world that God placed him, and prevailing over the enemies of God.

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Genesis: the Book of Beginnings – Genesis is about the beginning of the triumph of the man of God. The Bible is written to give man knowledge of the redemption that is in Christ. It is the redeemed man that will triumph over Satan, the world, the flesh, and death. His triumph is an everlasting victory that will bring God eternal glory.

The crowning work of God in creation was the making of mankind in His image to reflect His glory. This enables man to have dominion over the world that God placed him. Man’s dominion would give him power over the satanic forces in his environment. God would use man to destroy the kingdom of Satan. In Genesis, God invades Satan’s darkness, creates a material world, brings light, and makes man in His likeness to defeat him. Satan takes up the challenge (Gen. 3) to corrupt mankind. In what looks like a defeat for man and a victory for Satan becomes what will lead to Satan’s downfall and destruction. The fall in Genesis 3 is not so much about the fall of man as it is about the fall of Satan. Man was not destroyed by his fall into sin, but was confronted, forgiven, and provided with the righteousness of Christ in the form of animal skins. Man, even though fallen, returned to God and was restored. He was justified by faith. God provided a sacrifice for sin, the blood was applied, and Adam as a believer in God’s ordinance was atoned.

Adam’s children would have to do the same because man now had a sin nature that was not present before. Satan only had complete knowledge of God, but he did not have absolute knowledge of God. He knew nothing of the mercy of God that would extend to mankind.

Because Satan’s actions toward man were against God, God pronounces judgment on Satan which will lead to his personal destruction, and the demolition his anti-kingdom. Satan, his hosts, death, Hades, and the unredeemed will be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:13-15).

The exaltation of the righteous and the downfall of the wicked.

Genesis is primarily about two things: the redemption of mankind, and the redeemed man’s dominion over the wicked one. This sets the tone and theme of each book of the Bible. The Bible is written to conform people into the image of Christ, that is, to restore man to his original 2

designed state of being a living reflection of God through an intimate and personal knowledge of Him. This enables the redeemed to have dominion over the enemies of God (Satan, the world system, sin, and troublesome situations). Adam was not destroyed after he sinned. He returned to God and was given animal skins to wear that he accepted as the righteousness of God (based on the coming sacrifice of Christ for the sins of mankind, Jn. 1:29). He was also promised that a champion of mankind would come from his offspring to destroy the works of the Devil (serpent) in Genesis 3:15. Adam had God working on his behalf through faith, humility, grace, love, and personal communion.

Genesis also reveals the downfall of the reprobate man (that refuses God). Because of the fall, there are two types of people: the elect, those “called out” by God who respond to His call by faith; and the reprobate, which are those that refuse the call of God, the things of God, and do not retain Him in their understanding. It is the man of God that reflects the glory of God through his mind, heart, and will. He walks with God and delights in doing what is pleasing in His sight.

The reprobate man is opposed to God. He delights in the pleasures of this world and seeks his own personal glory apart from God. He is not interested in his salvation or in the things of God. For example, Cain rejected God’s sacrifice for sin that Able offered. He took pleasure in his personal works and offered them to God. It was a bloodness offering. In contradistinction, Scripture reveals that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). The shedding of blood points to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. So, his religion of works was disapproved by God and did not lead him to a place of righteousness but unrighteousness. This is reflected in the killing of Able. He bludgeoned Able in mockery of the bloody sacrifice that God would accept. Another example was Esau selling his birthright because he had no regard for the things of God. Heb. 12:15-16, states, looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God… lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright.1 A consistent theme in the book of Genesis is that God uses those that believe in Him because it is they that can accomplish His purpose of setting right what is wrong in the world. When the world was filled with wickedness and violence from the reprobate (hardened unbelievers), one man (Noah) and his family stood up for God. God would use Noah to begin again. After the unbelieving sect of society united against God and tried to create a people and nation absent of God at the Tower of Babel in Babylon, Abraham in contradistinction obeyed God. He left his people and country (Babylon) to be used of God to create a new nation of redeemed people that would be under God’s rule and authority. Abraham was led to a place where Melchizedek, the King of Salem (which would become Jerusalem) and priest of the Most High God, was offering sacrifices to God on Mount Moriah near Mount Calvary (where Christ would die on the cross for the sins of mankind). Salem was at the very center of what would become the Nation of Israel geographically. The purpose of Israel was to become a model nation to all nations of a person

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Scripture quotations is from the English Revised Version of the Bible. Public Domain

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justified by faith and made righteous before God, where Messiah, the Savior-King, would rule forever.

Then, there are the examples of Enoch, Jacob, and Joseph that prove that the man of God cannot be held back from fulfilling God’s purpose in his life. Even though the wicked one (Satan) is working against the man of God, God is working for him. Glory is the manifestation of God. These men glorified God because He was manifested in their lives. There is nothing greater that a person can accomplish than to reflect the image of God in his or her life. In this, he or she fulfills his or her true destiny.

2 Cor. 3:16-18, states, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit. NET 2 This is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of the godly through the process of sanctification. Let us consider our calling to live out the image of God that has been restored in us and reflect (manifest) God in our everyday living and circumstances.

Overview: 1. Beginning with creation, God’s overall plan was to destroy evil and move toward the consummation of the end of the age, which ushers in a new era of the eternal state in which every tear will be wiped away and a new heaven, earth, and Jerusalem will be our eternal dwelling place in nearness to God. 2. The Bible is about the redemption of everything. The redemption of the universe and mankind through the Messianic Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Messianic Kingdom is revealed progressively throughout the Word of God. In every kingdom there is a king.

Christ is the king of the Messianic Kingdom that will destroy the anti-kingdom. The defeat of Satan and all evil is contingent on Christ, the Second Adam (who will accomplish what the First Adam did not). For Christ, this involves: a) the destruction of Satan along with the fallen angels, b) the condemnation of the reprobate man, c) the recreation of a new world without sin, and d) having the people of God dwelling in the presence of God forever.

3. There is also a counter kingdom. Satan seeks to rule in place of God, that is, he is invested in the overthrow of the Kingdom of God. He empowers mankind to deviate from the authority and holiness of God. So, there is war, even though the people of the world may not realize it, they do experience the effects of it; such as, death, pain, disappointment, spiritual failure, a lack of knowing God, etc. The earth is the place that God will fight His nemesis and destroy him by using His created being – man.

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Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

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4. Man is a created being that exists to know & love God. Throughout the Scriptures man struggles with living out the essence of his being. This is the struggle man has today. But the Bible is written for the redemption of mankind. Our personal redemption is revealed in the Word of God through the Spirit of God illuminating our understanding of the things of God that will help us fulfill our destiny of being a living illustration of God. 5. So, there is the overall redemption of the universe. Then, the personal redemption of the individual. This makes the Bible personal and effective to those that experience God’s salvation.

Regarding a personal outlook: 1. Understand that everything is moving toward the Messianic Kingdom of Christ. You, as a believer, are part of that kingdom. You have a personal duty to the Messianic Kingdom of Christ. You are to serve God in your time, place, and circumstances. You are to love God foremost as He reveals Himself to you in the Scriptures. Know that first comes knowledge of God, next comes faith, then comes experiencing personal redemption. You need not fail God anymore, but live in triumph over the situations in your life.

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