“Are you going to preach all of Genesis?” one of our church’s elders asked me when I told him I planned to preach through the book.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” I answered.

“Even the genealogies?” he questioned.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “They’re part of God’s inspired Word, too.”

Not only are they part of God’s Word, but the genealogy of Genesis 5 is a perfect Easter passage. How can you find resurrection hope from this list of death?

God’s Creation Purposes Continue (1-3)

The first three verses remind us that God created humans in his image, and they demonstrate that God’s image is passed down from Adam and Eve to all other humans. Even after sin and the curse, we’re supposed to reflect and represent God on earth as his image-bearers.

However, because of sin and the curse, we’re very poor reflections of God. If you’re honest with yourself, you don’t represent God like you should. Like a beautiful stained-glass picture that’s been shattered, God’s image remains in us, but it’s been severely damaged by sin.

If God is going to redeem humanity, as he promised in Genesis 3:15, he must fully restore his image in us. Does that have anything to do with Easter and Christ’s resurrection? Absolutely! When is God going to fully and finally restore believers to bear his image perfectly? When he raises us from the dead like he raised Jesus from the dead.

That’s why in his famous resurrection chapter, Paul contrasts Adam and Jesus, saying, “And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49). Jesus’ resurrection secured the resurrection of all believers, and our resurrection will fully restore God’s image in us!

However, sin wrecked more than God’s image.

God’s Curse of Death Continues (4-20, 25-27)

“He died… he died… he died.” Eight of the ten generations in this genealogy end with this somber note. Death is the drumbeat to which human history marches forward, and unless the Lord returns, your time will also come to die.

Death is another result of sin, part of God’s curse (Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Romans 5:12; 6:23). Again, if God is going to save humanity, he must fix the problem of death. Does that have anything to do with Christ’s resurrection? Of course!

Contrasting Adam and Jesus again, Paul says, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

Jesus’ resurrection

• Proved that his death fully paid for all our sin
• Defeated death
• Shares victory over death with every person who trusts in him for eternal life

If you’ve turned from sin and trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you can rejoice with Paul, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). We rightly grieve over death, but for the Christian, Christ transforms death into a doorway to unending joy and glory in God’s presence.

As the song “It Is Not Death to Die” beautifully puts it:

It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high,
Who’ve found their home with God.
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne,
Delivered from our fears.

O Jesus, conquering the grave,
Your precious blood has power to save.
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die.

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just.
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise you evermore.

O Jesus, conquering the grave,
Your precious blood has power to save.
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die.

God Rescues from Death and Gives Life (21-24)

Here the drumbeat of death skips a beat. God takes Enoch straight to heaven, bypassing death, because Enoch walked with God.

It’s the picture of going on a walk with a close friend. When you reach the end of your route, you turn around and keep walking because you enjoy spending time with each other. Hebrews 11:5-6 explains that Enoch’s relationship with God was one of faith, which is the only way to please God.

This doesn’t mean that every believer will be teleported to heaven without dying, but it does mean that every believer can walk with God by faith and please God. Ultimately, it means that God has the final say, not death.

Only a relationship with God can give eternal life—not medicine, technology, science, children, or the mythical fountain of youth. As Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).

How does knowing Jesus give us eternal life? Because, as he told a grieving Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Well, do you believe it?

God’s Promised Seed will Bring Relief from the Curse (28-32)

At the end of this genealogy, a man named Lamech expresses hope that his Noah will bring relief, or comfort, from the cursed ground. Why would he have such hope? He knows about the curse of Genesis 3, and embedded in that curse is the Bible’s first promise of salvation.

In Genesis 3:15, God promised that a seed, or descendant, of Eve would crush Satan, providing salvation for mankind. Lamech’s clearly trusting in that promise, and he’s hopeful that his son will be the promised seed.

Even though Noah wasn’t humanity’s Savior, Lamech was right to hope in God’s promise. God did send a descendant of Eve to defeat Satan and provide salvation from sin, death, and the curse. His name is Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, your sins are paid for, death is conquered, and the curse will be irreversibly removed in the new creation (Revelation 22:3).

Even though Genesis 5 is a list of death, it points us to Jesus’ resurrection as the answer to every one of its problems. Because of that, we can live by faith now as we await death’s final day and our own resurrection in eternity.