Scripture: Genesis
5:1-3
When God
created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He
created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them
“Mankind” when they were created.
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son
in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
In Genesis 5:1-3, we are reminded that God made
Adam in His own likeness. Adam was created to be like God. We are then told
that Adam's son, rather than being in God's likeness, was born into Adam's
likeness.
What does that contrast mean to you, that Seth was
born in Adam's likeness rather than God's?
Part of Adam and Eve having been made in God's
likeness means that at the moment of their creation, their souls were pure.
Their natural desire was to serve God obediently and joyfully.
As we know, however, that does not mean that they
could not be tempted to break their natural state of purity, and sin did
eventually become part of their experience.
I wonder how many times Adam and Eve sinned after
they first sampled that forbidden fruit. Did they sin just that once and then,
live saintly, repentant lives afterward, having learned their lesson? Or did
that sin simply open the floodgate to more rebellion?
Whatever the case, Adam and Eve had experienced
sin, and whether they committed sin from then on, it would always be a
temptation for them, a temptation that would be passed on to their children, as
we saw in the case of Cain.
Seth, being in Adam's likeness rather than God's
shows the very real effect that Adam and Eve's sin had on their own souls and
on the spiritual state of their children.
Though not quite the same thing, it would be worth
it at this point to consider what effect your sins and your spiritual health
have on your children. Are your actions and your spiritual disciplines worthy
of emulation? Would God be pleased with your children if they grew up treating
and reacting to others the same way you do?
Adam and Eve passed their spiritual likeness on to
their children and, to some degree, so will you, not only in what you teach
them verbally but even more so by what your example teaches them.
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