The Great Transmission and the Drumbeat of Death Text: Genesis 5:3-5
Introduction: A Tale of Two Seeds
After the catastrophic rebellion of our first parents, and after the first murder, the book of Genesis slows down. It begins to do the careful work of tracing a scarlet thread through the generations of men. We have already seen the line of Cain in chapter 4, a line marked by technological prowess, urban development, and a boastful, murderous spirit. It is the line of the city of man, a city built in defiance of God. But now, in chapter 5, the camera shifts. Moses, under the inspiration of the Spirit, gives us a different kind of list. This is not a list of accomplishments, but a list of names and years. It is the genealogy of the promised seed.
To the modern mind, a chapter like this is a desert. We are tempted to skip over it to get to the more "exciting" parts, like the Flood. But to do so is to miss the entire point of the Bible. The Bible is not a collection of inspirational stories; it is one story, the story of God's covenant faithfulness to redeem a people for Himself through the seed of the woman. And genealogies are the skeletal structure of that story. They show us that God works in history, with real people, in real time. This is not mythology. This is the family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5 is the story of the line of Seth, the son given to Eve as a replacement for righteous Abel. This is the line of the city of God. And as we read it, we must notice two things that dominate the landscape. The first is the staggering length of the lives recorded. These men lived for centuries, a fact that our scientistic age finds embarrassing. But we must not be embarrassed by the Word of God. These long lives were a testimony to the lingering glory of God's original creation, even under the curse. The second thing we must notice is the solemn, tolling bell that ends almost every entry: "and he died." Life is long, but death is sure. This chapter is a profound meditation on life and death, on the transmission of a promised hope through a fallen race, and on the steady, inexorable march of the curse.
The Text
When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.
So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
(Genesis 5:3-5 LSB)
A Son in His Own Likeness (v. 3)
We begin with the birth of Seth, the crucial link in the chain of redemption.
"When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth." (Genesis 5:3)
Right away, the language should jolt us. It deliberately echoes the language of the creation account. In Genesis 1, we are told that God created man "in His own image, according to His likeness" (Gen. 1:26). But here, something has changed. Adam has a son, not in God's likeness, but in his own. This is a theological statement of the highest importance. This is the doctrine of original sin in seed form.
Adam was created in the image of God, which means he was created righteous, holy, and in true knowledge. He was a perfect reflection, a true son. But Adam fell. He marred that image. He became a sinner, a rebel, a man under the sentence of death. And when he had a son, he passed on what he had become. Seth was born a sinner. He inherited his father's corrupted nature. He was born "in Adam." This is what the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans: "through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men" (Romans 5:12). You are not a sinner because you sin; you sin because you are a sinner. You inherit the spiritual DNA of your father, Adam.
This is not to say the image of God was entirely obliterated. Man is still an image-bearer, which is why murder is so heinous (Gen. 9:6) and why we can still reason, create, and love. But the image is now like a shattered mirror. It is twisted, distorted, and broken. Seth is born in the likeness of a fallen Adam. This establishes the problem that the rest of the Bible will solve. If every man born is born in the likeness of the fallen Adam, then how can a savior arise from humanity? The answer, of course, is that a Second Adam must come, one who is not born "in Adam," but who is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the true image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), and through faith in Him, we are being remade into that glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18).
Fruitfulness Under the Curse (v. 4)
Next, we see the continuation of the creation mandate, even in a fallen world.
"Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he became the father of other sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:4)
God's command to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28) was not revoked after the fall. This is what we call common grace. God continues to bless mankind with children, with family, with the structure of society. Adam and Eve had many other children besides Cain, Abel, and Seth. The world was being populated. This is a direct rebuke to all worldviews that see procreation or the material world as a mistake. God's purpose to fill the earth with His image-bearers presses forward, even when those image-bearers are fallen.
And notice the immense length of Adam's life: 800 more years after Seth was born. Why did they live so long? First, it was necessary to populate the earth quickly. Second, it was crucial for the transmission of revelation. Think about it. Adam lived long enough to have known Lamech, Noah's father. The story of creation, the garden, the fall, and the promise of a savior did not have to pass through dozens of generations. It could be told firsthand from the man who was there. This was a world without a written Bible, so God graciously provided living libraries. The truth was preserved through the testimony of these patriarchs.
But there is another reason. The longevity of their lives was a fading echo of the life God had originally intended for man. Before the fall, man was created to live forever. The curse introduced death, but its effects were not immediate and total. The human race still possessed a genetic and physical robustness that has been worn down over millennia of sin and decay. Their long lives were a sign of God's patience and a reminder of the world that was lost.
The Final Word (v. 5)
Finally, we come to the grim refrain that echoes through this entire chapter.
"So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died." (Genesis 5:5)
Nine hundred and thirty years. It is an almost unimaginable span of time. But no matter how long the life, the sentence pronounced in the garden comes due. "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Adam died spiritually that very day, separated from the life of God. And after 930 years, his body followed suit. This phrase, "and he died," appears eight times in this chapter. It is a funeral dirge. It is the steady drumbeat of the curse. It is the answer to all humanistic dreams of progress and utopian self-salvation.
You can build your cities, like Cain. You can invent music and metallurgy. You can live for nearly a millennium. But you cannot outrun death. The wages of sin is death, and this chapter is the receipt book. It is a stark reminder that the fundamental problem of humanity is not a lack of education, or a lack of technology, or a bad political system. The fundamental problem is sin, and its consequence is death.
This relentless repetition is meant to drive us to despair of any hope in ourselves. It is meant to make us long for the one name in the list who breaks the pattern. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). Enoch escaped the curse. He is a type, a foreshadowing, of the one who would truly conquer death. The drumbeat of death in Genesis 5 is meant to make our hearts yearn for the trumpet blast of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.
From Adam to the Last Adam
So what do we do with this ancient list of names? We see in it the story of our own predicament. We are all born of Adam. We are born in his likeness, as sinners, and we are born under his sentence, which is death. Our lives, whether they are 93 years or 930, all end at the grave. This is the bad news.
But this genealogy is not just a list of the dead. It is the line through which God preserved the promise of life. This is the family tree that would eventually produce a virgin in Nazareth. And through her, God would bring forth a new man, a Last Adam. Jesus Christ was not born in the likeness of fallen Adam. He was born in the likeness of God. He lived the perfect life Adam failed to live, and He died the death that Adam and all his children deserved to die.
The story of Genesis 5 is the story of a fallen image being passed down through a dying race. The story of the gospel is the story of a perfect image being offered to that dying race. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). When you are born the first time, you are born in the image of Adam, and the last words of your story will be, "and he died." But when you are born again by the Spirit of God, you are united to Christ. You begin to be conformed to His image, and the last words of your story will be, "and he lives, forevermore." This ancient text, therefore, forces the question upon us: in whose likeness are you living, and in whose likeness will you die?