In the beginning God created man in his image and likeness. What are the implications of this important truth, and how was that image twisted and distorted after the fall? What was so significant about Adam and Eve’s transgression in the first place, and how do the effects of that original sin continue to echo and reverberate throughout the rest of Scripture? Finally, how is the gospel of Christ hinted at and foreshadowed in these early chapters of Genesis? Shane Rosenthal discusses these questions and more with Anglican theologian Justin Holcomb.

In Genesis 3:15, God promises that one day a seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. What would happen if we began to read the rest of Scripture in the light of this promise? What would result if we stopped to consider whether subsequent Bible characters and heroes qualified to be the one promised who would ultimately defeat God’s enemy and restore order to his creation? Reading the story this way helps us to see with greater clarity the ways in which other Bible characters are presented as failed heroes, as well as why Christ alone is able to triumph. On this episode Shane Rosenthal discusses this approach to reading the Bible with Justin Holcomb.

The story of Abraham is a record of both faith and doubt. While we’re told in Genesis 15 that “Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness,” in the very next chapter we find him agreeing with his wife Sarah to attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promises by impregnating her maidservant Hagar. Later in the story, Abraham actually falls on his face and laughs at God as he reiterates the promise that his wife Sarah, even in her advanced age, would conceive and bear a son. What is the point of this narrative, and how does it help us to better understand both the complexity of sin and the grandeur of God’s grace? Shane Rosenthal discusses this with Mike Brown, co-author of Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored.

In his Genesis commentary, Walter Brueggemann notes that in chapters 16 to 18, Abraham and Sarah “are not offered as models of faith but as models of disbelief.” In this part of the narrative, he says, “the call is not embraced, but is rejected as non-sensical.” This helps to explain why the couple sought to fulfill God’s promise with Hagar’s assistance. But as Paul explains in Galatians chapter 4, this entire narrative is a tale of two covenants: one of grace, and another of works. Shane Rosenthal talks with Mike Brown about these issues and more as we continue our series on the Gospel in Genesis.