Lesson 1: Adam and Eve

When God created Adam and Eve, He had a plan for them; He had promises of blessings for them.  

Here’s the exciting thing:  any promise God has ever made can be ours too, when we are “in Christ.”  

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV)  

So let’s find out what God’s plans and promises for these first two people were! In Genesis 1:26-31, we read:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish …and the birds … , over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

… God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

And chapter 2:25 says that

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (NIV)

Questions:

1.     In 1:31, how did God feel about people, and everything that He had made?

2.    In 1:28, God gave Adam and Eve their purpose.  What is their purpose?

 be F_______ and I______ in number, and R_______ over every living creature

3.    In chapter 2, verse 25, how did Adam and Eve feel about themselves?

         They were naked, but they felt no ________

4.  How "good" do you feel in God's eyes?

 Answers:

1.    He felt that people were very “good.”  

This is just like our God.  He is a good God, and He wants to bless us and do “good” for us.  This goodness was lost after the fall, but restored at the cross.  Once we accept Jesus, His blood washes away our sins and we are “good” in God’s eyes. (see Colossians 1:22)

2.    Fruitful….Increase …Rule over every living creature  

Man’s purpose comes in the form of tremendous blessings:  We are good, we have been created to rule, be fruitful, and increase.  In Christ, we are once again good (holy in His eyes), we have ruling authority over the devil, we have fruits of the Spirit like love, joy, peace…, and we increase by adding souls to the Kingdom!

3.    They felt no shame… they felt “good” in God’s eyes. 

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, His blood makes us clean and “good.”  He says that He takes our sins and throws them in the deepest Sea.  That means that when we ask forgiveness, God forgives AND forgets.  God doesn’t remember our sins, and He doesn’t want us to either. 

4.   The good news of the cross is that regardless of how feel about ourselves, the blood of Jesus has a cleansing affect.  Once He washes us in His blood, we are good in the Father’s eyes, just as if we had never sinned!  If we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. (1 John 1:9 TLB)

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.