God, Man, Sin, and Redemption Introduced in Genesis and Explained by Paul – Part 1

August 9, 2025

 

Part 1

by Dennis Christian

(As drawn from the pages of Holy Scripture)

Table of Contents

Part 1 – Overview
Before Creation
God’s decision to create man
God’s purpose required man to be made in His image
The foreseen sin of man an obstacle to God’s purpose for creating him
God’s predetermined solution (the Cross) to the obstacle

Part 2 – Creation
Creation’s beginning:
Creation completes with the addition of man
Possible interpretations

Part 3 – After creation – the first humans
God’s purposes for creation were ready to be fulfilled:
The commandment, which exposed mankind’s vulnerability to sin, Adam and Eve (the Fall):
Paul’s exposition on the Law from Romans 7:
Sin’s impact on creation, mankind:
Paul’s exposition on the Fall from Romans 5 and 8

Part 4 – God’s predetermined plan to rescue sinful man begins, unfolding over time
God’s love for Adam and Eve (mankind) despite their sin
God wants to walk with man, but few will
Enoch, a descendant of Adam’s son Seth, was one of the few.
God’s grief over mankind’s rampant sin
Noah and the Flood
God selects a family, which will become a nation, through whom the Messiah will come:
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: God’s chosen people Israel
Joseph a type of the Future Messiah
Israel grows to the size of a nation
Moses and the Exodus, Moses and the Law
Joshua leads the Hebrews into the promised land (Canaan)
The Battle of Jericho
Canaan is divided among the twelve tribes of Israel
Israel ruled by Judges
Saul becomes the first king of Israel
David, slayer of Goliath then becoming a mighty king
Solomon and the peak of Israel’s earthly strength, wealth, and glory
Israel’s failures, but God’s faithfulness

Part 5 – Jesus (the Messiah) comes:
The ministry of Jesus
The Cross – the pinnacle event of the history of God and man
What the cross did for mankind
How the cross did it
Man’s required response: Spiritual rebirth through repentance and faith
God’s fulfillment of promises to both Jew and gentile – united now as one people, the role of His chosen people fulfilled
God’s purpose for creating mankind fulfilled for believers

Part 6 – Jesus’ future 2nd coming and the end times
Uncertainties of the end time events
The rapture and great tribulation
The Day of the Lord
Judgment
The end state(s) of mankind and all creation

Overview: The Biblical account of God and His creation of the world and mankind in the book of Genesis was given to us by Moses who was directed by the Spirit of God. In it, God reveals the goodness of creation, the role of mankind, God’s sovereignty, man’s disobedience (the first sin) and its corruption of creation because sin entered it, the consequences for man, and God’s ongoing and future dealings with sinful man. His dealings including (1) His promise to rescue man through a Savior who would come through a people whom God would choose, and (2) the fulfillment of the promise by choosing Israel as the chosen people and coming Himself as Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind. Paul expounds and explains this in detail in Romans. The Genesis account and Paul’s expounding of it will be woven together with the intention that God’s salvation for mankind will be made clearer and easier to understand and believe.

 

Before Creation (Based on God’s character and Biblical truths revealed in scripture)

Did you ever stop to think why God created our world and us? What is His purpose for creation? What is His purpose for creating us humans? What does God want us to see as our purpose? These are existential questions we may not have the perfect answers for, but because we know God’s character from scripture, we can surmise what the answers to the questions would likely be.

What could the purpose of creation have been without mankind? This is hypothetical since mankind does exist, but the vastness of the universe, the unimaginable energy it took to make it, the extensive and complex laws of nature, the boundless creativity of plant and animal life alone testify to God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and eternal nature, to His glory if you will. But one has to ask who was God testifying His glory to if not for mankind? There is no other god or being like Him. Perhaps the angels, but I believe He had more in mind. I believe He wanted to make physical mankind, and He created a physical world in which mankind could live.  For certain, God did not need to make mankind; after all, we cost Him the cross. He wanted to make mankind. But why?

God’s decision to create man, His purpose for doing it, and the purpose of mankind (Every one of us)

The Bible is a record of mankind’s relationship with God. God did not just create us and then stand back and watch. Relationship is the key I believe in understanding God’s purpose for making us. John 3:16 testifies to God’s great love for us, and His first and greatest of the Ten Commandments for us is to love Him back with all that is within us. A mutual loving relationship is what God wants with mankind, with each one of us. This spells out both God’s purpose for creating us and our primary purpose in life. Of course, God also charged mankind to populate the earth and to be a steward of it and all living things. This leads to realizing the important characteristics mankind must have.

 

God’s purpose required man to be made in His image

In Genesis, God said,” Let us make man in our image.”  What does it mean to be made in God’s image? These characteristics are the ones that make us in His image:

• Intelligence: This implies self-awareness, ability to reason, discernment, prudence, and ability of language
• Emotions: Both positive (love, compassion, caring, humor, forgiveness, etc.) and negative emotions (grief, sadness, righteous indignation, disappointment)
• A conscience, or the ability to know right from wrong, and that we ought to do the right.
• An appreciation of beauty: God’s creation is a testimony to His appreciation for beauty appealing to each of our senses: – sunsets, rainbows, and flowers; beautiful music, wonderful aromas, sensuous foods, something soft to the touch.
• Free will: Freedom to make our own choices, whether good or bad. However, our freedom is limited by our capabilities. The relationship God desires cannot be forced; it has to be voluntary, and that required free will.

The foreseen sin of man an obstacle to God’s purpose for creating him

Though God would call His creation including mankind “very good”, He never-the-less could see in His foresight that mankind with his free will would be vulnerable to the temptation to sin, and all would end up sinners. Since God hates sin and is too pure to even look upon it, man’s sin would be an obstacle to the mutual loving relationship. A way was needed for God to see man as righteous so the desired relationship could happen.

God’s predetermined solution (the Cross) to the obstacle

God chose how He would solve this problem before ever initiating creation. He based His solution on a principle that Jesus would one day share with mankind – the principle of “no greater love.” Here is what Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

God chose to use this principle to demonstrate the greatest possible love for mankind by laying down His life for them. He would take the punishment for sin due all mankind on Himself. Scripture says that God (the Son) did indeed suffer and die on the cross, even becoming sin, that we could become the righteousness of God. That’s how He could see us as righteous rather than as sinners.

But God is an eternal being and cannot die. He would have to become one of us to do that. Therefore, at the appropriate point in human history, He would enter His creation as a person, who would be both God and man. He would live a sin-free life then lay down His life along with enduring the suffering leading up to it. Sovereign God would deem that this act of love on behalf of mankind would erase or cancel out all of mankind’s sin, close the separation gap, and make possible the relationship He desired with them. God would remain just because His saving act was based on His “no greater love” principle permitting one to die for another. This act of God would make possible the healing and forgiveness of each person’s sin and each seen by God as righteous – the righteousness of God Himself imparted to us. Forgiveness would be by grace – a gift from God – not anything the person could earn through good works. On each person’s part, they would have to have faith in God and His loving provision – not with the attitude that this let him off the hook and they could sin all they wanted, but with the attitude of acknowledging their sin and being repentant for it. The moment one repents and trusts in what God has done for them, they are renewed – born again as Jesus would say. Indwelled by God’s Spirit and with a new desire to please God out of gratitude for God’s great love for them.

That leads to the question “What does it please God for us to be doing in addition to having the loving relationship with Him?” The Bible is clear – there are things God wants His believers to be doing both corporately and individually on earth so that God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Corporately, we are to assemble in local churches to worship our Lord and to organize and carry out God’s work of evangelizing and discipling our world beginning with our neighbors and extending to our cities, states, country, and the world. Individually, we are to: study and learn God’s word, have a daily quiet time with God, tell others about Jesus, be salt and light to your fellow man, abstain from every form of sin, be kind and considerate helping others in need, love others as much as yourself, live by the golden rule, do your occupation as unto the Lord – as if He were your boss, be a good steward of the earth, and be a good citizen of your country.

This was God’s plan to reconcile sinful mankind to Himself, have the mutual, loving relationship He desired, and have His kingdom come to earth through Jesus’ coming, through the indwelling Spirit in every believer, and through the impact of salt and light of believers on the rest of human kind.

Next: Part 2: Creation