Lesson 1 Supplement

- Question 1 (Genesis 1:26)Notice it says, “Let US make man in OUR image...” Who else is there creating with God? Some say it was aliens, others it was the angels, but the Bible gives no evidence of either of those. However, the Bible dose support the fact that Jesus was there (See John 1:1-3 & Colossians 1:15-17), and that the Holy Spirit was there (See Genesis 1:2). So we see that God the father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were all there saying, “Let us make man in our image…” This will be covered more in lesson 14.

In this verse the Hebrew word for “image” (KJV) is Tselem, which in context means to be internally like God, having agape (unconditional) love naturally indwelt inside the heart and mind; internal characteristics like God; righteous; perfect; and resembling the holiness of God, without sin. What a privilege right? The verse also says that we were made in His “likeness.” The Hebrew word is Demuwth, which in the context means to be externally, physically built in the same pattern like God! This is also confirmed in Genesis 3:8 where it says, “they (Adam and Eve) heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden…” So God created humans to be internally and externally just like Him! Indwelt with Agape love flowing naturally from the heart and mind. Then God gave us another privilege: to rule over a perfectly created world! Notice how we didn’t work for, or earn such privileges, but they were freely given to us because of God’s Agape Love. This is how we were, before sin.

- Question 2 (Genesis 2:7) In Genesis 1:1-25 God speaks and things appear: “God said let there be light and there was light”-Gen. 1:3. In chapter 1 we see Him “speaking” many other things and creatures (animals) into existence. But for the first man it says “God formed Him out of the dust of the ground.” Imagine God bending over on the ground and with His hands forming a clay figure. Is the clay figure moving yet? No. It’s just a clay figure. Then it says, “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and then man became alive.” Well how close do you have to get to breath into somebody’s nostrils? Can I breath into your nostrils standing 2 feet away from you? No! God had to be intimately close to this person’s face in order to breathe into his nostrils. And just imagine who is going to be the first face that Adam (The clay figure) sees when He opens His eyes? He’ll see the beautiful face of God ever so near to him. Even today, God amazingly still desires an intimate relationship with us just like this.

As we covered in the lesson, this clay figure’s name is Adam, which in Hebrew means mankind. The NASB version uses the word Adam and mankind/man interchangeably (in the margin) for Job 31:33, and Genesis 2:20, and therefore confirms this fact. Any Hebrew and Greek concordance will also confirm this.

- Question 3 (Acts 17:26)What is the context of verses 24-26 speaking about? Creation right? How many “nations of men” were made from this “one blood? (KJV)” ALL! Does that include us? Yes! Every nation of man! The whole human race! That’s why the word Adam (Gen. 2:19) in Hebrew means mankind! According to scripture, God created Adam uniquely to be the representative of the whole human race!

- Question 4 (Genesis 2:21-23) Did it say that God had to “form her out of the dust of the ground” like He did to create Adam? Why not? Because mankind already came into technical existence when Adam came into existence, so all God had to do to make Eve, was pull her out from within Adam, our representative! Amazing right? Notice how God doesn’t name this women mankind or appoint her as our representative, but named her Eve, which means mother of all, because she was the first woman to come into physical existence.

- Question 5 (Genesis 2:16-17)Do you ever wonder why in the world would God put a tree like that there? Let’s think about it: Who had provided Adam and Eve with perfectly functioning bodies? Who had given them their every need? Who would be the one to educate them on things they may have needed to learn? So who was their source for every need, want, and wisdom? God. And so if that tree were not there, would they have any other choice besides depending on and loving God? Would they have any alternative choice different from what God was giving them? No. So without that tree, there was no freedom of choice for them. But what’s the big deal of freedom of choice? True love cannot be forced. True love can only exist if the persons involved, love out of a free will and choice. And being that God created us with a nature like His who’s purpose is to love and be loved, He desired us to have the free will of choice to choose the love experience or reject God the lover all together. The tree left them with the choice to either continue depending on and enjoying all their perfect surroundings and love relationship with God, OR to reject it all by turning their backs to the word of God that clearly warned them not to eat from the tree, for they would die; after all God is the source of all life.

In 2:16 God tells them that they can eat from every tree in the garden, except one. In Gen. 3:1-5, the devil comes disguised as a snake and gives Eve a misperception saying, “Wow, God said you cannot eat from every tree huh?” So he approaches Eve making their situation appear very negative instead of positive, the way it was originally introduced by God. Then the devil mixes truth with error by lying to her in vs. 4 saying, “You’re not really going to die.” And then in vs. 5 He tells her that the reason why God doesn’t want them to eat from the tree is because they will gain the same power and wisdom as God. So in other words, “God is holding out on you.” And then in vs. 6, Eve eats the fruit and then gives to Adam, and so then they both sin. Then when they hear God’s voice in the garden they both hid out of fear in vs.8. Now look at the misperception chart attached to this supplement: A misperception of God’s character, led them to doubting His word, which then led to disobedience, which then (in vs.8) led to guilt and shame, and then a bigger misperception of God’s love. And the cycle goes round and round.

Can’t we see the same pattern of the Devil today? He comes to us in different situations, and paints a very negative picture, that makes God look unfair, or too strict. And though the picture is not completely true, we tend to entertain it in our heads. Then the devil lies to us, and assures us that there will be no consequences at all, if we give in, and that God is just too strict sometimes, “so enjoy your self this one time, it’ll be alright in the end,” he says. So then we fall, and BOOM, reality sets in, usually after the fall, not during. Then what do we do? Exactly what Adam and Eve do right after they fell in vs. 7. They tried to cover their mistake/sin with leaves they sowed together. God comes later in Gen. 3:21 and clothes them with “garments of skin” (probably animal skin). After the fall in Genesis 4:4 we see the first example of animal sacrifices given to God. These sacrifices done in the Old Testament times (Lev.4) were simply a representation of Jesus, the “lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” according to Jn. 1:29. By clothing them with “skins,” God showed Adam and Eve that their own man made works of sown fig leaves couldn’t cover up their mistake, but instead it was going to take the very life/blood of Jesus to save them from sin. How many of us today often put our assurance of salvation in our own good works, rather than in the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus? So what’s the solution to help us get out of the misperception chart/cycle? Well let me ask you something: When you first met your spouse, did you ask him or her to marry you on the first date? Most likely not. Why not? Because you didn’t know him/her well enough to trust him/her as your eternal mate. But what began to happen as you got to know them? The more you got to know him or her the more you began to trust them. Did you have to plan out the amount of trust you gave? No. Trust came naturally as you were getting to know him/her. And the more your trust began to grow, the more likely you obeyed things they said to you, because you knew they were looking out for your best interest. Well God has given us relationships to learn from them principles that will help us relate to our heavenly father in heaven. Refer now to the Perception chart attached to this supplement (A Clearer/right) Perception of God, leads to Trust/Faith, which leads to Obedience, which leads to Joy/Happiness and back to a (Clearer/right) Perception. The devil wants us to focus our attention on obedience and anywhere else except for perception. As long as he keeps us focused on our obedience or other areas, we are focusing on ourselves instead of on Jesus. Therefore we’ll find ourselves falling into sin again, feeling guilty, and right back on the misperception cycle again. But if we keep our focus on Jesus Christ and Him alone, our trust/faith will naturally grow, which will then allow us to depend on God to change our hearts and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Ezekiel 36:25-27), which will then produce obedience naturally, and then true joy and happiness in our lives as we see that the gospel of Jesus Christ truly works! That is why we should continually be “looking to Jesus the author/beginner and finisher of our faith…”-Hebrews 12:2.

-Question 6 (Romans 5:12) I appreciate the way the KJV translates this verse in the margin: “Wherefore, as by one man, (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men in whom all sinned.” Some misinterpret this scripture and think that when it says, “all sinned” it is referring to our sins we have committed today. But the context of this chapter in Romans and the verse itself is not focusing on our sins that we have committed but instead the sin problem that was introduced to all humanity through Adam. Therefore when he sinned, it was as if we “…all sinned.” Because “all sinned” in Adam, we all deserved death since the “wages or consequences of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23), which is why this verse says, “so death passed upon all men…”

-Question’s 7-12 (Romans 5:18)Many people including theology professors and pastors have a misunderstanding of this scripture. We can avoid this misunderstanding by simply looking at the tenses and grammar of the verse. The first half continues with the point made in Romans 5:12, (which is why in the KJV there are parenthesis sectioning off verses 13-17) which is “by the offense of one (Adam) judgment came (past tense) upon all men to (or resulting in) condemnation.” Romans 5:18 and throughout chapter 5, the terms “condemn/condemnation” and “justify/justification” are used. Deuteronomy 25:1 says, “If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they (the judge(s)) shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.” So in Bible times these words were mostly used to describe a “legal” case or verdict given to someone from a judge, and not just some minor slap on the wrist or punishment from any person in town. God is mentioned in the Bible as the “judge” of the universe (In Dan. 7:22-“the ancient of days…” is God) so when Adam disobeyed God’s command in the garden (Gen. 2:17) He (Adam) passed onto us sin, which brought a “legal condemnation”to all of humanity! God did not tell Adam that the day he sinned he would just get scolded or put on time out for a while, but God said that sin=condemnation to death, and so that LEGAL verdict given by the Judge got passed onto us all according to Romans 5:12,18. As Ro. 5:18 makes clear, “through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.”-(NASB) Notice this legal condemnation came to all the moment Adam sinned! In other words we stood condemned even before our personal sins committed today! This is definitely bad news. Remember this condemnation was a legal matter since through the representation of Adam, the human race violated the Holy Law of God! This aspect of condemnation is usually overlooked and misunderstood. Most scholars won’t disagree with the fact that Adam brought the entire human race to condemnation with his “one offense” or sin. But it is the second half that many have the hardest time accepting the verse for what it truly says: “even so (or in the same way) by the righteousness (or righteous act) of one (Jesus), the free gift came (past tense) upon all men unto (or resulting into) justification of life.” Notice how simple this verse is if we pay close attention to the context and grammar: Through Adam all were condemned, but through Christ’s righteousness or righteous act, ALL became justified (set free from condemnation)! Both of these events clearly have already happened and has benefited all of humanity. Christ became our second representative, which is why in 1 Corinthians 15:45 He is called the “second or last Adam/mankind!” God had planned “even before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4) to have a Savior, in the case of Adam bringing us all to condemnation. Therefore Jesus came and was made into a human (Galatians 4:4, Romans 8:3, John 1:14), and was called Emmanuel which means God with us (Matthew 1:23), and He lived perfectly not committing any sin (1Peter 2:22) which met the righteous requirements of the Law of God, and then died on the cross meeting the “wages or consequences of sin” for all of humanity, since He was the “last or second Adam/mankind. Therefore when He resurrected, the human race no longer was condemned to death, but instead justified because of the blood of Jesus! (Romans 5:9, 18) That is why the Bible can say justification truly has already passed unto all men as a free gift of God because of His amazing unconditional love for us! This is the incredible good news of the gospel!

Some paraphrase Bibles actually change the tenses from past to present, and even add the word “offers” which completely destroys the true message that the original Greek manuscripts have, and which the majority of our English Bibles have. Because of those added changes to Romans 5:18, they change the gospel from unconditional good news that already happed for all of humanity, to just a conditional offer based on your present initiative and response, rather than God’s unconditional love. These same versions change other scriptures that support God’s unconditional love and gospel: 1 John 2:2 in the KJV reads: “And He (Jesus) is the propitiation (payment) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Notice the good news emphasis the KJV leaves in tact. Some paraphrases substitute that “good news” emphasis with this emphasis: “And He is the payment for our sins, not for ours only, but also for anyone else who believes in Jesus.” Did you catch that? They just added a condition (believing) to a verse that originally was unconditional good news for everyone! And these are just 2 examples! That is why it is so important for us to read scripture carefully, contextually, and grammatically, if we are genuinely interested in interpreting it the way it was written for us. May God continue to guide us in our study of His wonderful, beautiful gospel that truly is unconditional good news for all mankind! God wants us to simply believe in what He has already given to us so that we will experience all of the gifts joys and blessings, including spending eternity with Him. (John 3:16)

Misperception