Who were the first image bearers? Since God made man, and he made me by means of my parents, who were the first parents he ever made?
Q: Who were our first parents?
A: Adam and Eve.
(Genesis 2:18–25; 3:20; 5:1, 2; Acts 17:26; 1 Timothy 2:13)
I recognize that in this cultural moment, this is going to seem backward and unnecessary. But, dear Christian reading this, it is not. The Bible is true and trustworthy, and there is no credible way to argue that the Bible teaches anything about human origins other than the special creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible certainly says more than this about who man is. However, it can never be construed to teach anything different than the special creation of Adam & Eve by God. So much of the Christian/Biblical worldview is founded upon this truth.
In Genesis 2:18-25 we find God creating the first woman as a corresponding companion and help for the first man. In a scene that we attempt to emulate in our wedding ceremonies, God brings this woman to the man and presents her to him. This first man, Adam, joyously exclaims the first human song, extolling God’s work in making woman. The Scriptures then tell us that this relationship between the first man and woman is the basis for marriage.
When we catch up with this couple a chapter later (Genesis 3:20), they have fallen from their lofty position. They have rebelled against God and his law. They have heard both the pronouncement of the curse of God, and the promise of future reconciliation. Here, perhaps in response to that glimmer of hope, the Scripture records that Adam continued the task of naming that God had given him. He names his wife Eve, a name that sounded like “life-giver.” Truly she is the mother of all living. Everyone in the human family ultimately traces their lineage back to this first couple.
In Genesis 5 we are given the genealogy of Adam down to Noah. In this we see not only that Noah’s family lineage goes back to Adam, and not to some other first family, but also that we are not fundamentally different from our first parents. We come after their own likeness. Over time the human family has had longer or shorter lifespans. We have been taller or shorter. We have been lighter, darker, or some variation of skin tone. What we have never been is anything other than male & female, created in the image of God. This confronts the contemporary idea of sexuality, God made only male and female, in his image. It confronts the idea of gender fluidity, God made them male and female, in his image. It confronts the idea that we are just evolved pond scum. God created man in the likeness of himself.
We don’t get to call ourselves New Testament Christians, and abandon what the Old Testament teaches about this either. This truth that Adam & Eve are our first parents is central to the Apostle Paul’s gospel proclamation to gentiles. These gentiles had different beliefs about the origin of the world and mankind than he did, but he did not let that stop him from proclaiming the truth of it. In Acts 17:26, Paul says that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth…”. He wasn’t there to argue over creation, but the truth that God made all men from one man is vital to the gospel. If God didn’t make everyone, he doesn’t have a right to command “all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
If we don’t all come from Adam, then we don’t really need to be reconciled to God. Adam, our first father sinned, and in him we all sinned. Again, these aren’t my own musings, this is the word of the Scripture. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). If he isn’t our first father, then sin and death aren’t ours, because we got them through him. If you reject the idea of being “in Adam”, then you reject the idea of salvation as well. Paul says that we have salvation “in Christ.” According to the Scriptures, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those in Adam, and those in Christ.
In this cultural moment, there is disdain for exclusive male leadership in the church, and the exclusive teaching of men by men within the church. Even within evangelicalism, there is a disdain for these ideas and those that hold them. Yet if you accept the Biblical account of creation, which you must if you would accept the Biblical basis for salvation, then you must accept Paul’s instruction in 1 Timothy 2:12 that women are neither to teach or exert authority over men. His argument isn’t founded upon the culture of the day, and therefore open to change with changing culture. It is founded upon the Biblical account of the creation and fall of Adam and Eve. I am aware that this is controversial, and I take no joy in that nor do I seek it. Yet, we must believe all of the Bible, or none of it. We must obey all that it teaches or none. God has not granted to any of us the authority to take it piecemeal. I would encourage you to submit yourself under the mighty hand of God, rather than to assert that you know better. Adam & Eve acted as if they knew best, and it is only by the power of God in Christ will that ever be resolved.
Yours in Christ,