Genesis 3

What’s Happening?

Adam and Eve were made in God’s image, given the garden to enjoy, and told simply to tend it, multiply, and fill the earth with God’s image and presence (Genesis 2:15). Bearing God’s image meant reflecting his life to the world. That was all the wisdom of good and evil they needed to thrive.

But into the garden comes a new character. The serpent—a spiritual being described as looking like a snake (Genesis 3:1)—approaches the woman. His strategy is subtle: he suggests another way to bear God’s image, a way that depends not on God’s life but on their own grasping. He tells Eve that if she eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she will be like God (Genesis 3:5).

This should have been a pointless temptation. Eve was already made in God’s image and given everything she needed by God himself. But the serpent’s words offered the illusion of independence. They could bear the image of God on their own terms, apart from his life.

So, they ate. And in doing so, they traded the image of life for the image of death. Instead of reflecting God, Adam and Eve reflected the serpent. They bore his likeness, becoming like beasts—grasping, hiding, and afraid. Their eyes were opened, but only to shame and alienation (Genesis 3:7–8). By choosing independence, they stepped outside of God’s life and blessing. Cut off from the garden, from God’s presence, and from the tree of life, they returned to dust (Genesis 3:19, 23–24).

But even in judgment, God speaks a promise. He tells the serpent that one of Eve’s children will crush its head (Genesis 3:15). To “crush the serpent’s head” means the power that enslaved humanity and deformed their image will one day be destroyed. Adam and Eve were meant to rule over the beasts (Genesis 1:26), but now the beast ruled them. For life to return, the serpent’s dominion must be broken.

Where is the Gospel?

Only three chapters into the Bible, God promises a child who will restore humanity’s life-bearing image. That child is Jesus.

Where Adam and Eve were deceived, Jesus saw through the serpent’s lies. Where they grasped, Jesus trusted that God was enough. Where they bore the serpent’s image of death, Jesus perfectly bore God’s image of life.

On the cross, Jesus entered into the full consequence of humanity’s choice—death itself. But death could not hold him. In rising from the grave, Jesus crushed the serpent’s head. He proved that the power of death has been broken, and the image of God can be restored.

Now, everyone who trusts in Jesus is re-created in God’s image. No longer conformed to the likeness of the serpent, we are filled with the life of Christ. In him, we bear God’s image again—not death, but eternal life.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who offers true life in himself. And may you see Jesus as the promised one who crushed the serpent’s head, defeating death and restoring us to bear God’s image.