Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. In Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”.

 

Genesis chapters 1 to 3 are the realities mankind faces, aside from chapter 3, verse 22, which gives us the essence of the New Testament - the coming of Jesus Christ and what He has come to do.

 

Through disobedience, man attained the likeness of God in knowing good and evil by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Consequently, man was punished for his disobedience. The fullness of God, which includes the ability to live forever—eternal life—comes through obedience to the salvation Jesus Christ brings.

 

Until we are able to achieve eternal life, we have not attained the fulness of God's image and likeness.

 

Another insight into Genesis still playing out is the mitigating effect of living our lives in obedience to the knowledge that comes from Jesus Christ, which mitigates the impact of God's punishment of man for his disobedience.

 

II Peter 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.

 

Anywhere the devil is, there are challenges; hence, I would think the man in Genesis 1, who was living in obedience to God, also had challenges. However, the man in Genesis 1 who lived in complete obedience to the knowledge of God had grace and peace multiplied to him in the garden of Eden. The Genesis 3 man, the fallen man, was empowered to make self choices  and depended on his own knowledge for grace and peace. But the more the Genesis 3 man was self-seeking, the less grace and peace he experienced.

 

The peace of God is not the absence of the trial but the presence of God's knowledge which tells you there is a way of escape amid that trial.

I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

 

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

II Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.