The book of Genesis tells us that God created man in His own image. This is something universally known but do we realize the profound magnitude of this statement? Many casual readers or listeners may just brush aside this revelation as another legend of the Bible. But this statement is not only profound, magnanimous and groundbreaking but is also inevitable if we are to truly understand the logic behind human history, religion and philosophy and the reasons for our existence, sufferings and quest for eternal life.
Many people even after reading and listening multiple times that God created man in His own image fail to realize the profound essence of this statement. But for an avid seeker of the truth this statement would be an eye-opening revelation and it is intrinsically linked to the gospel. This statement means that we have the moral image of God and that we have the potential to become like God Himself someday if we realize and accept the truth and righteousness of God. And thus we are so precious in the sight of God that He even chose to die for us on a Roman cross some 2000 years ago to open our eyes to this truth.
God has no beginning and no end and He is all powerful, all knowing and all pervasive and he cannot perish or die. He is the alpha and the omega. He is self-sufficient and self sustaining and can survive on His own. Then why did God create man or why did God start reproducing Himself through man. The reason is because He wanted to be in fellowship with someone like Himself and enjoy their company. So in His grand design of creation, God created man in His own image not because He had to but because He wanted to.
And the whole story of man and God revolves around this dilemma of trying to make the man realize that he is a created being and that he has a Creator who needs to be acknowledged, revered and worshipped. But the irony is that this seems to be so simple and yet so complex. When God created man He bestowed man with independent thinking power. And so it is up to the man to decide for himself whether the ways of God are good and righteous or whether they are illogical and inconclusive.
After coming into existence, man, with his independent thinking power, starts to explore his surroundings on his own. He develops his curiosity and starts questioning everything around him and he even starts suspecting what his inner voice (his conscience) is telling him. Selfishness creeps into his heart and he starts to think that he can do everything on his own and live according to his own free will. Man becomes rebellious and starts to defy authorities. All these thoughts are what the scripture calls sin.
The manner in which the first man and woman disobeyed and rebelled against God in the beautiful garden is a perfect illustration of what was intended by God and what really went wrong in the story of the creator and the created being or in the story of God and man who was created in the image of God or in the story of God reproducing Himself through man.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed and rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, it did not come as a surprise to God because He knew the exact nature of man and He knew that this was bound to happen sooner or later. The forbidden tree in the middle of the garden was just a ploy in the strategy in God’s design of things. Think about this, if God did not want Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit He could have easily removed it from the garden or He could have never created the forbidden tree in the first place. But the tree was necessary to bring out the true nature of man and the inevitable episode of the story.
We do not know for how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. It could be some years, some decades, some centuries or even millenniums. But the duration of the time is not important here. What is important here is that no matter how short or long it took, Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree was bound to happen sooner or later.
Imagine yourself as being the first man or woman in that beautiful garden. At first you would be so full of gratitude, joy and overwhelming emotion just being there. You would not mind being told by the Creator that you are a created being and that you should acknowledge your creator. Likewise you won’t mind being told that you are not supposed to eat the fruits of the forbidden tree in the middle of the garden. You would consider yourself happy and grateful to have come into existence out of nothing.
But in due course of time, thoughts of curiosity, doubt, suspicions and ambitions are sure to creep into your heart. You are sure to start thinking who is this fellow (God) telling me what to do and what not to do. A time will surely come when you would start to think “maybe God has an ulterior motive or a hidden agenda in dissuading me not to eat from the forbidden tree”. Thus sooner or later the first man and woman were bound to disobey and rebel against the creator. When we read the story of Adam and Eve, many times we have the tendency to put all the blame on the serpent. But in actuality, it was a battle of the mind and the heart. Whether the serpent actually came and deceived them or not is not the issue here. The real issue here is what goes on in the heart and mind of man.
Man is by nature selfish, self-centered, rebellious, curious, suspicious and ambitious and so whatever happened in the beautiful garden was bound to happen even without the involvement of the forbidden tree or the serpent. And God knew all these from the very start.
The story of the fallout in the beautiful garden set in motion the whole history of mankind and God’s grand design to restore man to his rightful intended place. Man’s history actually started from the moment Adam and Eve were chased away from the beautiful garden. And God had to make use of history and the flow of time to reveal and bring about his plan of salvation and redemption to the world.
Adam and Eve rebelled against God and God cursed and chased them away from the garden. But God also revealed that a man would be born who would restore the broken tie between the creator and the created beings. So when Eve gave birth to a child she thought that the child was probably the savior of the world.
Yes, the messiah could have been born in the Garden of Eden itself and got himself murdered and resurrected there in the garden itself. But if it happened that way, we would have never understood. That is why it took many centuries for what was promised in the Eden garden to come to fruition.
And the moment the first man and the first woman rebelled against God, death came into the world because when they rebelled against God it was akin to them wishing that God was dead. In other words they wished God to be dead when they disobeyed and rebelled against Him. So if God did not chase them away from the garden they would have surely resorted to trying to kill Him sooner or later.
That was exactly what happened some 2000 years ago when God appeared in the flesh and dwelt amongst men. He went about proclaiming the kingdom of God, the goodness of God, the love and mercy of God and healing the sick and opening the eyes and ears of the blind and the deaf. He did no wrong but still then they nailed Him to the cross.
And today we can understand all these because these events took place not in the Garden of Eden or in the pre-historic era but in the lands of the Palestine (Middle East) at a time when man had already learnt the art of writing and had already started recording historical events.
The life expectancy of man varies from country to country. But whether a person lives for 20 years or 200 years or for 17 years or 70 years, his life’s real divine purpose is fulfilled if he can comprehend and accept what actually went wrong in the garden of Eden and how God is making use of history to restore man back to his rightful intended place.
