Finding Jesus in Genesis

It’s no surprise that a closer look at the first book of Scripture reveals promises, pictures, foreshadowings, and geneaologies of the coming Messiah. These key texts in the Genesis account point to Jesus and the gospel of salvation.

Genesis 1—Creation

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26)

While the names Jesus or God the Son never appear in Genesis 1, Jesus’ personhood is apparent in God’s use of the plural pronoun us in verse 26, referring to the Trinity. The New Testament affirms Jesus’ presence at creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3). God the Father was speaking, the Spirit was hovering, and the Son was the Word that went out.

Genesis 3—The Serpent and Sin

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

This verse is the protoevangelium—the first announcement of the gospel. There are two he’s in this verse: the serpent (rightly understood as Satan) and the future offspring of the woman (Christ). Christ was indeed “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5, KJV), and one day Christ will destroy Satan forever (Revelation 20:10).

Genesis 3—Clothes

“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)

The penalty for sin is death, so an animal had to die to cover Adam and Eve’s sin. This act foreshadowed the coming of the future Messiah who would pay the penalty of sin and death so that those who repent of their sin and put their faith in him will be saved.

Genesis 5—Seth

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” (Genesis 5:3)

The offspring of the woman begins with the birth of Seth. From Seth, Genesis follows a single line of descendants to Noah, and continues through Noah’s son Shem to the father of Israel himself.

Genesis 6–9—The Ark

“Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.’” (Genesis 7:1)

The ark that kept Noah safe from the destruction of the flood is a picture of Jesus’ saving grace from the destruction of sin. All who are made righteous through Jesus’ blood, by grace through faith, will be saved from the wrath to come. Just as there was one door to the ark, Jesus is the one door to salvation (John 10:9).

Genesis 12—A Great Nation

“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2–3)

After Babel, Genesis introduces us to an older, childless man named Abram. God promised that from a great nation (Israel), through Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17:15–17), would come Jesus Christ—the one who would bless all families of the earth.

Genesis 22—Isaac

“God tested Abraham and said to him, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love . . . and offer him . . . as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’” (Genesis 22:2)

Isaac went willingly up to Mount Moriah with his father and was laid on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his only son and provided a ram in his place. A burnt sacrifice was the payment for sin according to the Levitical law given to Moses (Leviticus 1). This ram was a picture of the Lamb of God, “who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Genesis 28—Jacob

“In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14).

Isaac’s son Jacob earned a reputation as a deceiver, yet God chose him to receive the covenant first given to Abraham. God later changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and Jacob’s 12 sons became the nation and tribes of Israel. The Offspring who would bless all the families of earth was Jesus, born from the tribe of Judah, Jacob’s son.

Genesis 50—Joseph

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20)

Though his brothers had sold him into slavery, Jacob’s son Joseph became ruler of Egypt. When famine hit, Joseph summoned his family to survive in Egypt. After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers feared that Joseph would at last punish them for their sins against him. But instead, Joseph said, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (20). While Joseph saved a region from death by famine, Christ saves all who put their faith in him from eternal death.