We know the story of Adam and Eve but what are the lessons we can learn from it?
In this article, we will discover 14 lessons from it.
1) Created By God, Humans Originated From Adam and Eve

When it comes to the origin of humanity, there’s a bunch of myths, legends, and theories floating around, right? One of the most popular ones is the evolution theory by Charles Darwin, which says we evolved from a common ancestor.
Do you believe that? What other stories about the origin of humanity have you heard of?
Well, let’s go back to what the Bible says about the creation of man, which we can find in the story of Adam and Eve.
In Genesis 1:26 (NKJV), God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
And He did as He said, creating the first men on earth in the form of “male and female” (verse 27, NKJV). As we all know, they were no other than Adam and Eve (Genesis 2).
After creating them, God blessed them to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28, NKJV).
With this blessing, several generations of humanity descended from this first couple (Ellet Joseph Waggoner, The Glad Tidings 220.2).
These descendants include us. Indeed, we are a big, big family.
2) God Created Us According to His Likeness

As we’ve learned above, God created man in His image (Genesis 1:26).
His image? What does it mean?
Christ the Son, in virtue of His nature, is “an eternal image of God” (Raoul Dederen, Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, “God’s Image in Man”).
He is the “radiance of God’s glory,” the “exact representation of His being,” and the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3, NIV).
With this image, He created mankind (Genesis 1:27).
So, does it mean that humans were made to be an extension of His image?
No! Humans are created “not as an extension of His being, but as a portrait achieved by His creative design” (Raoul Dederen, Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, “God’s Image in Man”).
He endowed him with noble qualities, gifts, powers, and capacity to do good (Ellen White, Christian Education 63.3 and Counsels for the Church 175.5).
But this likeness was “not only in character, but in form and feature” as well (Ellen White, Heaven, 36.1).
With this, Adam and Eve bore the likeness of their Creator in the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of their nature (Ellen White, Education 15.1). And so we do.
How humbling it is to know we were created in God’s image!
3) God Created the World to Manifest His Glory

Ancient thinkers like Plato believed that God created the world to express Himself (Raoul Dederen, Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, “God’s Image in Man”).
Is it true?
Well, “God was not constrained by His own nature to create anything, but freely decided to do so in such a way that His goodness, wisdom, and power—His “glory”—might be manifest,” Dederen confirmed.
True enough, “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night, they reveal knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2, NIV).
And mind you, these creations “have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.” Yet, “their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (verses 3-4, NIV).
Isn’t it amazing how God’s glory is manifested by nature?
4) God is an Intelligent and Skilled Creator

God could have made Adam and Eve anytime from day 1 to 5, but He took care of all the other things on earth first (Genesis 1:27).
That’s pretty impressive, don’t you think? Well, obviously, if they were created first, they would have nothing to enjoy, right?
God is such an intelligent Creator. But not only that.
“Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their Creator in the perfection of every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment” (Ellen White, Confrontation 10.2).
Physically, God created them “graceful and symmetrical in form” and “regular and beautiful in feature.” Their faces were “glowing with the tint of health and the light of joy and hope” (Ellen White, Education 20.2).
Mentally, God blessed them “with intelligence such as He had not given to any other creature,” Ellen White continued on Confrontation 10.4.
Spiritually, they were made “a little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7, NIV) that “they might not only discern the wonders of the visible universe” but also “comprehend moral responsibilities and obligations,” Ellen White added on Education 20.2.
God is indeed a skilled Creator worthy to be praised, isn’t He?
5) We Are Stewards of God’s Creation

God put Adam and Eve in a paradise, surrounded by everything that was perfect, lovely, useful, and abundant (Genesis 2).
With that in mind, it’s easy to think that Adam and Eve were just chilling in paradise and taking everything for granted without any responsibilities.
But no! The “image of God” covers more than just their relationship with the rest of God’s creation. It also implies a special relationship with God Himself.
And this relationship involves stewardship (Richard Rice, Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective, second edition, “Humanity as the Image of God”).
That is, “God entrusts the world to our care, but He holds us accountable for the use we make of it. We are responsible to Him for what He has given us,” Richard Rice elaborated.
For this reason, God entrusted Adam and Eve with a responsibility. That is, to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28, NKJV).
In other words, they were supposed to be the rulers, caretakers, or stewards of the earth and everything God created on it. Got it?
They “must have something to call into play the wonderful machinery of the human system” (Ellen White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 96.2).
If happiness implied doing nothing, “man, in his state of holy innocence, would have been left unemployed…A life of useful labor is indispensable to the physical, mental, and moral well-being of man,” Ellen White continued.
Does it make sense?
6) God Intended for Man to Have Companionship

We have the common saying that goes, “No man is an island.” What’s your personal take on this?
Well, even God Himself knew it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). “Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being” (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets 46.1).
But you may be thinking, “There were already animals then, right? Didn’t Adam enjoy their company anyway?”
Honestly, Adam enjoyed the company of the animals. But it was not enough (Genesis 2:20; Raoul Dederen, Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, “God’s Image in Man”).
So, God intended for him to have a companion of his own kind. And He created Eve to be his helper, companion, and equal (verses 21-23).
True enough, “two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NKJV).
Based on this, we can see that God created us humans with a desire for companionship.
7) Marriage is a Divine Institution Meant to Last

Did you know that Eve was made out of Adam’s body?
While Adam was sleeping, God took one of his ribs and covered it with flesh. And out of it, He formed Eve (Genesis 2:21-22).
Seeing her, Adam acknowledged her as the “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” calling her “woman” (verse 23, NIV).
And that was the first marriage that ever took place on earth. It must have been pretty special, don’t you think?
God sanctified, honored, and celebrated it as one of His first gifts to man and as a sacred institution symbolizing the union between Him and humanity (Ellen White, The Adventist Home 25.4, 26.1, and 26.2).
In this union, a man and a woman become “one flesh.” With this, “what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:6, NIV).
Indeed, as serious as it may sound, marriage is a divine institution and a sacred union. It is meant to last forever in love and harmony with God as the center.
8) Women Are Not Inferior to Men

God could have created the woman in the same way He formed the man.
But, as we’ve seen in the story of Adam and Eve, He took her out of his ribs (Genesis 2:21-23), specifically from his side, not from his head or his feet (Raoul Dederen, Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, “Sexuality in Its Original State”).
Why do you think it was so?
The word ṣēlā’, translated “rib,” is rendered “side,” as in the symmetrical counterpart to a leaf of a double door (1 Kings 6:34), the matching second wing of a building (Exodus 26:26-27), or the opposite slope of a mountain (2 Samuel 16:13).
With this in mind, God created Eve from Adam’s “side” to denote the “equality and complementarity of man and woman.” That is, they were to help and support each other, Raoul Dederen added.
As implied, Eve was not to dominate Adam, the head, “nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior.” Instead, she was to “stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him” (Ellen White, The Adventist Home 25.3).
Fair enough, don’t you think?
Being a part of Adam’s bones and flesh shows that Eve was his “second self.” It also demonstrates “the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation,” Ellen White adds.
It’s also worth mentioning that the “woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman” (1 Corinthians 11:11-12, NIV).
9) Sin on Earth Began in the Fall of Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve gave in to the serpent’s temptation to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of the good and evil (Genesis 3:6).
Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked (verse 7).
What does it mean?
Well, literally, their physical eyes were opened to see that they were nude. But more importantly, the eyes of their intellect were opened to realize that they were no longer innocent (Francis Nichol, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, volume 1, page 231).
So, continuing verse 7, feeling ashamed of their nakedness, they made coverings for themselves.
Needless to say, this marked the fall of Adam and Eve and thus the beginning of sin on earth, which infected all humanity. And we inherited this sin at birth, unfortunately (Psalm 51:5).
10) Sin Brings Negative Consequences

As a consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God cursed the serpent and the ground.
He said, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14, NIV).
He continued, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (verse 15, NIV).
To Eve, the curse involved pain during childbearing and the need to submit to Adam as her husband (verse 16).
And to Adam, the consequences included working hard all his life to make food out of what the ground could produce (verses 17-19).
As a result, they were expelled from Eden, bound to experience the consequences of their sin (verse 23).
These same consequences of sin apply to us as well, for sin has “separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2, NIV).
And, whether we like it or not, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23, NIV). For “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin…death came to all people because all sinned” (verse 12 of chapter 5, NIV).
Sounds heavy, isn’t it? Well, there’s hope for us, which we’ll discuss in a bit.
11) Freedom of Choice Should Be Used for Good

God gave Adam and Eve the freedom of choice—freedom to obey His instructions or not.
So, does it mean that they could choose evil? Well, yes, and in fact, they did. But that was not right in God’s sight.
Then why did He give them the freedom of choice if it would mean some risk of them disobeying Him anyway?
“Without freedom of choice…obedience would have been forced. Such a course would have been contrary to God’s plan, unworthy of man as an intelligent being, and would have sustained Satan’s charge of God’s arbitrary rule” (Ellen White, From Eternity Past 19.4).
In other words, God wants that we obey Him not out of fear but out of love because He Himself is love (1 John 4:8; 5:1-3).
Does it make sense?
12) The Plan of Salvation Already Existed Before Sin Even Entered the World

Adam and Eve’s fall opened the door for sin to enter the world, bringing negative consequences to all of humanity (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12).
For instance, “man’s physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, [and] his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death” (Ellen White, Education 15.2).
But the good news is that humanity was not left without hope.
God “chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” In Him, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:4, 7, NIV).
In connection to this, Revelation 13:8 (NIV) mentions that the Lamb, Jesus Christ, “was slain from the creation of the world.”
As we can see from these verses, the plan of salvation was in place before sin entered the world.
Ellen White reechoed this idea in Education 15.2, saying, “By infinite love and mercy, the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted,” which has been fulfilled by Jesus’ death on the cross.
With this, God intended “to restore in man the image of his Maker” and “bring him back to the perfection in which he was created,” Ellen White added.
What an all-knowing and intelligent planner God is! He has foreseen everything before it even happened and had a solution ready.
13) Satan, Not God, is the Liar

Another highlight in the story of Adam and Eve was when God told them, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17, NIV).
Meanwhile, Satan, disguising himself through the serpent, told Eve while tempting her to eat the fruit, “You will not certainly die” (Genesis 3:4, NIV).
And true enough, Adam and Eve didn’t die right after eating the fruit. Now, how about God’s promise that they would die if they did so?
Well, God didn’t say they would die right away. And even if He said so, let’s not forget that “with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8, NIV).
What God meant was that death would be the price of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Got it?
And this consequence applies to us as well. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NIV).
True enough, though the Bible says nothing about Eve’s death, we can assume that she died like Adam did (Genesis 5:5).
So, after all, God remained true to His words while Satan lied.
14) God’s Love Prevails No Matter What

Despite Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God never left them alone. He still took care of them outside of Eden.
For instance, in giving birth to her first son, Eve acknowledged that it was God’s help that made it possible (Genesis 4:1).
And the rest of their story shows us how God still took care of their needs, blessed their children and descendants, and so much more.
The same love of God is ours.
Despite our sinfulness, God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16). Though we deserved to take that punishment, He did it in our place.
Now, all we need to do is accept Him as our personal Savior and put our faith in Him, that we “shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
What an unconditional love!
We Want to Hear From You
Did you enjoy this article? What have you learned?
Aside from what we mentioned, what other lessons do you learn from the story of Adam and Eve?
Share them all in the comments below.
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2 Responses
Great message
Which side or rib of Adem’s Eve could be created?