Fix Our Eyes On Jesus

Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus!" 

“In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heavens and the Earth.” Gen. 1:1

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

We all know the creation account in Genesis chapters 1:1 through 3:24. Chapters that require much study. And those of us who have put in much study (relatively) need to put in much more study...unless we think we know it all (again, relatively and with all due respect).

In those chapters, some very key topics are the creation of man, the fall of man, the curse, and redemption. Adam was the sinless son of God ...until he sinned. In 1 Tim. 2:14 we read that both Adam and Eve sinned. “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” So I understand Eve sinned through deception by satan, which is how it normally happens... by deception. But Adam sinned willingly. Adam knew what he was doing. It is hard to contemplate a willingness to defy God.

Adam loved Eve. I believe God put in Adam the intention and commandment of Eph. 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.”
In Gen. 2:23-25, Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
The woman was IN Adam before she became Eve. Ponder that one!

Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Adam loved Eve and gave himself for her sake. He was not going to let Eve “die” by herself... he would go her way. Jesus went the way intended for us.

Because of what Eve did, God curses the serpent above all cattle and beasts of the field. The serpent may well have been the most beautiful of creatures, exceptionally shrewd beyond mere animal instinct, perhaps even with voice, if we are to take scripture literally. God turned him into the loathsome, repugnant, writhing reptile he is today, to me.

In Gen. 3:15-22, we are to see the promises and prophecies concerning Christ, fulfilled in Jesus at the cross. God puts a curse on the woman (who is not yet named) ...verse 15, I... (the LORD God... this is now Jehovah, the Redeemer in His work toward man’s salvation)) ...I will put enmity between you (satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; IT shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise HIS heel. Notice the pronouns here... IT and HIS. The woman’s seed is Christ, Gal. 3:16. “IT” (her seed = Christ) shall bruise the head. To kill a snake, one must attack it at the head... satan. But he (satan) will brutalize Jesus, the Christ.

3:16, Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17, And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

In Rom. 8:2:20-21 we read, For the creation was subjected to futility (vanity), not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God

Gen. 3:18, Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

I presume to understand that there were no thorns or thistles before this curse; and now, they were to eat the “herb of the field” by the sweat of your face, “in sorrow” (pain, labor, hardship, toil) instead of the herb and fruit which God GAVE.

20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
So Adam now names his wife Eve because she is the mother of all living... the mother of the Seed.

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.
Rom. 3:21-22, But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus (the) Christ, to all and on all who believe.
Isaiah 61:10, My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me (atonement) with the robe of righteousness.

Gen. 2:25, ...and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Adam and Eve began life naked but clothed in righteousness (sinless). After they sinned, they became “ashamed” not of naked flesh, but the loss of righteousness and their “nakedness” before God... that is, their sinfulness was laid bare, and they tried to hide their humiliation. Phil. 3:21 says, “the Lord Jesus Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” “vile body” is translated to mean “body of humiliation.” The Blue Letter Interlinear indicates it to mean, “spiritual abasement, leading one to perceive and lament his (moral) lowliness and guilt.” The LORD God took on a body of humiliation (Jesus) to procure our glorification! Acts 8:33.

3:22,  And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil (conscience): and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.

So, God restored man to fellowship by His own atoning sacrifice, which is Christ, but removed him from the Garden wherein was eternal life.

The Tree of Life is Christ. Jesus came as God-man, the Christ. Jesus now is the fulness of God in Christ, Col. 2:9. We are made a new creation in Christ, 2 Cor. 5:17. So...

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.