The Doctrine of Revelation: The Storyline of Scripture (Part 6)

Could there be a more boring or more depressing chapter in all of the Bible. Genesis 5 is a genealogy list. When most of us read it we skip over it. After all we can’t even pronounce the names, let alone find some meaning for our lives in that list of ancient names. But God didn’t include that list because he was trying to reach a divine word count or page number, it is there as part of His Holy Inspired Word. Interestingly enough it too points us to the person and work of Jesus.

There is a recurring phrase throughout the entirety of this genealogy. After we read of each man’s legacy we read these important words: And he died. For example:

4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.  5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.  6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh.  7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.  8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. (Genesis 5:4-8) 

This is the pattern for 31 verses. Each man leaves a legacy and then he dies. It’s an incredibly important reminder of what has taken place just within the book of Genesis.

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden man now faces the reality of spiritual and physical death. This recurring phrase is the author’s way of pointing us to that reality and its permeation across time and human existence. Sin has forever damaged our world and our being. Man is born to die. The Apostle Paul spoke of it this way:

12 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-  13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14)

Paul’s point is that despite not having a divine law to transgress (i.e. the law and commandments formed under Moses) all men still reaped the consequences of sin (i.e. death). Sin has permeated this world to such a degree that all men are born to die. But Paul doesn’t leave us there, we have one hope.

In Christ, Paul says, men receive the gift of life. Jesus is the second Adam who ushers in life. Where Adam brought death into the world through his sin, the Second Adam brings life into the world through His obedience. Paul says it this way:

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.  16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.  17 If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:15-17)

Don’t miss what is packed into this “boring” “depressing” genealogy in Genesis 5: The good news of abundant life found in Jesus is there.

The storyline of Scripture permeates the whole Bible and we can find it wherever we look. Jesus changes that pattern we find in Genesis 5. “And He died” becomes “And He lives again,” which leads to “and so shall we!”