According To His Own Image

When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his own image, and he named him Seth. – Genesis 5:3 (NET)

From the beginning, Seth was looked upon as something of a replacement for Abel. His name means “placed” or “appointed”. Upon his birth, Eve, who is said to have named him, declared “God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him” (4:25). In the name that is given to him, and in the statement of Eve, there is a faint echo of what was said by Eve when she gave birth to her first son, Cain. When Cain was born, Eve said, “I have created a man just as the Lord did!” (4:1b) We can expand on this, and considering the ordinary course of the process of giving birth, it is possible to hear Eve saying, “God brought forth this world in which we live from the waters, and I brought forth a man through the waters.” We can imagine her repeating this upon the birth of Abel, and along with what is recorded, also doing so upon the birth of Seth. With the name given to Seth, there is almost a sense of “Not only can I create a man just as the Lord did, but I can also appoint and replace that which was lost. God can restore His creation. So can I.”

From there, we move to the genealogy of Adam, which is then traced through Seth. We read that Adam “fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth” (5:3b). Seeing this, we look to the first chapter of Genesis so as to consider the creation of man. “God said, ‘Let Us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the creatures that move on the earth’.” (1:26) In this we have creation and vocation. The divine image that humankind was intended to bear includes ruling over the earth, and exercising that rule in the image and likeness of God, reflecting His glory. We can continue on to the next verse to read: “God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them” (1:27).

In accordance with the plan that went along with His original consideration of their creation, God said to the humans that He had created, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground” (1:28b). When humankind took up the charge to multiply, with this occurring (according to the Biblical record) after the fall, doing so induced some measure of pride in achievement. Indeed, the words that the serpent had spoken to Eve rang true. Eve had been told that if she ate the fruit of the tree of which her and Adam had been commanded not to eat, that she would become like a divine being (3:5). Interestingly, the very first words that we hear on human lips following the expulsion from the garden were “I have created a man just as the Lord did” (4:1b).

Prior to reading about Adam fathering a son in his own likeness and according to his own image, we read “When God created humankind, He made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female; when they were created, He blessed them and named them ‘humankind’.” (5:1b) This is quite the contrast to that which is said of Adam. God created humankind in His likeness and image, but Adam fathered a son in his likeness and image. The being that is the first to be called the son of God (Luke 3:38), was fathered in the image of God. He was given dominion and rule. He was given “every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has seed in it” (1:29b). God said, “They will be yours for food” (1:29c). With what is an obviously very careful choice of language, it is said of the first being to be fathered by humankind, that he was fathered in his father’s (Adam) image. Unfortunately, due to faithless rebellion against God’s command, the dominion and rule had been forfeited. This son would be told, in stark contrast to that which was first told to his father, that “cursed is the ground… in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground” (3:17b-19a).

So it is to this day. As the Scripture says: “This is the record of the family line of Adam” (5:1a), as generation after generation come into being and pass away, all fathered in the image and likeness of Adam. Though we live within a world in which the kingdom of God has been established, and in which Jesus (the second Adam-Romans 5), Who is the Son of God that is the representation of God’s essence (Hebrews 1:3) and the image of the invisible God that is the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15), Who has rule and dominion because of His death and death-conquering Resurrection through which God began to set His creation to rights, we still struggle with the cursing effect of the fall, in the inaugurated but not yet consummated kingdom of God.