Understanding the Creation of Adam and Eve

This morning, as we turn to focus and to look at God's design for Adam -- as we've just spent some time marveling and looking at the wonder, and the joy, and the delight of what God has done in creating -- we're now going to turn to look specifically at the creation of man. And, while we've had some fun thinking about various things about the glory of creation, I now want to turn with you to really an area of contention, an area of debate, and step back a bit into history with you. [00:00:00]

In the nineteenth century, a great challenge arose to the gospel as European and American theologians sought to use scientific and literary methods to try to discover Jesus -- a Jesus they believed was not entirely revealed by the text of the New Testament. They began to believe increasingly that this text of the New Testament lacked sufficiency; it lacked clarity; it certainly lacked infallibility and inerrancy. And so the quest for the historical Jesus was born. [00:00:40]

Well today, among evangelicals not only in America but also globally, we face another quest -- the quest for the historical Adam. There's a flurry of publishing as evangelicals are once again revisiting Genesis driven by the issue of how to reconcile the text of Genesis on human origins with mainstream views of cosmic and human origins. And the result is now that -- whether from publishers like Zondervan, or organizations like BioLogos, or at some Christian colleges and evangelical seminaries -- we have developing a crowd of possible Adams. [00:01:45]

But what happens if we say that the dust is figurative, the rib is figurative? I would argue that when we say something like this, when we adopt this kind of a hermeneutical principle, we've adopted an erosive hermeneutical principle of interpretation of the text. Why is it erosive? Well it's because if we say these things here are figurative, there is no textual, there's no exegetical reason for drawing a line, an end point of using a figurative approach to the text here. [00:12:17]

Friends, one way or the other, if we hold that God did this marvelous work as we read it here -- simply, plainly, and gloriously in the text -- there's a marvelous consistency with the whole of Scripture. But if we move, it's true, why not continue with the consistency of our shift? But that's a devastating consistency. It threatens to, and has every reason to erode the entirety of the teaching of the Word of God, and it's happened over and over again. [00:15:07]

The millennia-long battle over our origin is crucial. It's crucial because it is about you. It's about us. Are we evolved animals? Were your ancestors the great apes, and at some point you became an image-bearer of God? Or were you specially created by God -- intimately, immediately, gloriously; a creature created uniquely in the image of God? Again, if we hold to a literal understanding of human origins, as presented here in the text, there's a marvelous distinction between man and animals. [00:15:57]

Now theistic evolutionists are all over the map here on how human origins are to be reconciled with Genesis. Some say Adam evolved but he had non-human, hominid parents. And then God imparted a soul into him at some point of maturity and then created Eve from his rib, perhaps, in a special act of creation -- that's perhaps the most conservative view. Others argue that Adam became human simply because God entered into relationship with humanity at some point in its evolution and made man religious. [00:17:54]

Finally, let's turn to consider Christ as Creator and Redeemer. 1 Corinthi -- or, sorry, Colossians 1:15 through 17 tell us that Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. By Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible -- all things were created through Him and for Him." Hebrews 1 reiterates this, as does Ephesians 3:9 -- "God created all things through Jesus Christ." [00:21:14]

The doctrine of God begins at Genesis 1, verse 1. The doctrine of Christ begins at Genesis 1, verse 1. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ begins at Genesis 1, verse 1. God has inspired, has specially revealed this entire book for our salvation, from Genesis 1, verse 1 through the end of Revelation. And so, we see that this is all about the gospel -- to know God as Creator and Redeemer. The two are inseparable. And so, there's a marvelous mystery here. [00:21:47]

God the Son, intimately involved in fashioning Adam's body from the dust of the ground, the breath of life being breathed into him, Eve being formed from his rib, the Son of God with the Father and the Spirit together involved in this work of creation knowing, the Son knowing that this very creaturely body of flesh and blood created in His image would be the very nature He would take to Himself as our Redeemer. This is the gospel begun here in Genesis. [00:22:47]

Our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; how we thank You for Your Word. We were not there when You laid the foundations of the earth, but You have revealed Yourself to us as Creator of the marvelous universe, as Creator of ourselves. We are Your creatures. Oh God, we pray that You would help us to hear You voice in Your Word without confusion or distraction. [00:23:41]

Cause us to worship You with awe and wonder, and to be reacquainted marvelously with the fact that You intimately care for us -- body and soul -- and that You have shown that to us in You own dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. [00:24:19]