THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM  GENESIS 5:1-5

INTRODUCTION

 

The primary purpose of this genealogy of Adam is to record and catalogue the descent of the promised seed, the godly line.

A secondary purpose of this genealogy is to demonstrate that God’s curse is in effect. The reign of death is repeatedly shown by the words, “and he died”.

A third purpose of this genealogy is to verify the fulfillment of God’s command that mankind should be fruitful and multiply: it tells us that each in the line had “sons and daughters”.

 

MANKIND’S BEGINNING IN ADAM

5:1-2 This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day that God created mankind He made Him in the likeness of God. Male and female He created them. And He blessed them. And He called their name mankind on the day He created them.

The record of the generations of Adam was written, not just transmitted orally. Old
Testament Scholars believe that Adam himself was quite possibly the human author of Genesis 1-4 and then Noah was the probable original author of Genesis 5:1-6:9.

The first book of the Old Testament speaks of the origins of the first Adam; the first book of the New Testament speaks of the origins of the last Adam, who is “the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47).

The writer of the first two verses of chapter five takes us back to the account of creation of humanity in Genesis 1:26-28.

 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; 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 of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Though fallen in Adam, God nevertheless commits Himself to blessing mankind with many children and long life. Yet because of the curse of the fall, their long life would come to an end and they would face death.

More importantly, for those whose worship was acceptable to Him, God would offer the blessing of the promised seed of the woman who would one day crush the head of the serpent and bring eternal redemption for fallen sinners who put their full trust in Him.

 

ADAM SUCCOMBS TO THE CURSE OF PHYSICAL DEATH

5:3-5 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

Genesis 5:5 gives Adam’s obituary announcement, fulfilling the physical aspect of the death sentence pronounced on him in Genesis 3:19 and assuring all of humanity that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The reason Seth is mentioned is because it is said that he was the one whom God revealed would be the true substitute for Abel, the son from whose line the promised “seed of the woman” (Jesus Christ) would eventually come.

Seth receives the likeness of God as it has been passed through his father Adam. It is a nature that is twisted, frail, mortal and miserable because of sin. Thus the imputation of Adam’s nature to his descendants is here recorded.

 

APPLICATION

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was the covenant representative of humanity. When he broke God’s command not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he brought judgment down, not only on himself but on all mankind.

Because Adam sinned, not only do all people die, not only do we share the same curses, but we are all born sinners and are by birth held accountable for Adam’s original sin. God imputes, or credits, Adam’s sin to all who descend from Adam.

Man comes into this world in a state of separation from God so that God considers man his enemy. Individual acts of sin result from the condition of sinfulness we share as fallen men.

Regarding original sin, one theologian said, Our first parents are the direct cause of the original sin, from whose impure nature the original stain had penetrated into our hearts. Everything follows the seed of its own nature. No black cow ever produced a white dove, nor does a ferocious lion give birth to a gentle lamb, and no man polluted with inborn sin ever produces a holy child.

The imputation of Adam’s sin upon the human race required that one would come who would not only take care of man’s individual sins but would also take care of man’s sinful nature. One was needed who would make sinners righteous before God. That one was the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, the only hope for sinners.

Romans 5:17 & 19 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ… For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many (his physical race) were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many (His spiritual race) will be made righteous.  

Christ did much more for His people than just remove the imputed guilt of Adam’s one sin; He also made complete satisfaction for all of their personal sins and imputed to them perfect righteousness as a free gift, thus causing them to reign in life!

As Adam, by his one transgression, brought condemnation to all connected with him through physical birth, so Christ by His act of righteousness (His sinless life and substitutionary death) brought justification (righteousness) to all connected with Him through spiritual birth.

What the first Adam failed to do, to merit salvation for his race, Christ the last Adam did for his race. Through the disobedience of the first Adam, paradise was lost; through the obedience of the last Adam, paradise is gained for all those who put their full trust in Him.