Adam and Christ

    "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life

    During the days of the great depression there were soup lines in large cities all over this country. People were hungry, poor, jobless, and homeless. The only way they could eat was to be fed at one of those soup lines.

    One day, as a man was working a soup line in Chicago, IL, he spotted a man in the line who stood out from the rest. At one time this man had obviously been quite wealthy. His suit was ragged and dirty, but it was a well made suit. It fit him so well that it had to have been tailor made. His hat was soiled; but it was a handsome, well-formed hat. Though they were ragged, the man wore a matching tie and handkerchief set. The man serving the soup could not help looking at the man questioningly, as if to say, “I wonder what your background is?” When this man held out his cup for soup, he said, “Sir, I’ve seen better days.”

    That is a pretty good description of humanity. Like the poor beggar in that soup line, even in his fallen state man has a stateliness, though now ragged and soiled by sin, that declares, “I have seen better days.” We are not now what obviously we once were (Eccles. 7:29). There is no way to explain the universal condition of the human race except by the account of the fall given in Genesis 3.

    Man is capable of doing noble, self-sacrificing things for his fellow man; and he is capable of beastliness and monstrous cruelty. The same person is capable of moral virtue and of utter immorality. Man is a dying creature. Yet, he alone, of all God’s creatures fears, to die. The reason is obvious. Man alone is an immortal soul. In his inmost being, every man knows that “the wages of sin is death”.

    Why is it that the sons and daughters of princes, with the best of training and education, possess the same tendencies to evil as the children of paupers? Why do the sons and daughters of God’s saints, who have been raised in loving discipline, nurtured in godliness, surrounded by peace, and trained in the fear of God, experience, feel, and run after the same lusts as the children of pimps, pushers, and prostitutes? Why are all men and women everywhere sinful? Why is it that family, environment, education, and all the social programs in the world are totally incapable of changing the nature of man? Why is it that no one is capable of changing the corruption of his own heart?

    Only the Word of God can answer these questions; and the answer God gives in his Word is this -- “All have sinned!” We all have a common origin -- Our father Adam. We all have a common heritage -- The Fall. We have all received from our parents and given to our children a common legacy -- Sin. And we are all possessed with a common nature -- Depravity.

    The fall of Adam is a historic fact; and the fall of the human race in Adam is the only satisfactory explanation of human history. These are facts which cannot be denied: Man is a fallen creature. All men since the fall of Adam are sinners: by birth, by nature, and by practice. Fallen man needs a Savior.

    Man by nature is alienated from God, under the condemnation of God’s holy law, lost in darkness and sin. What is the remedy for man’s condition? The answer is a new creation. “If any many be in Christ he is a new creature” (1 Cor. 5:17). A. W. Pink wrote, “It is not the cultivation of the old nature that is needed, for that is ruined by the fall, but the reception of an entirely new nature which is begotten by the Holy Spirit. ‘Ye must be born again!’ Anything short of this is worthless and useless.” Yet, even in the fall there was a prophecy of a recovery. In Adam there was a type, picture, and prophecy of Christ our Redeemer.

    In the Garden there was one commandment given by God to man - “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). This one commandment was the only thing God almighty required of man. Had he obeyed that one commandment, he would have lived. Disobedience to it brought death. In the Gospel God has given one commandment to sinners - “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). This is the one thing God requires of men. All who obey it live forever. All who refuse to obey it must forever die.

    In the Garden there was one tree. The eating of the fruit of that one tree brought death upon men. In the Gospel there is one tree, the cross of Christ. All who eat of the fruit of that tree shall live forever. In the Garden there was one man, Adam, who represented all the human race before God, by whom and in whom we all died. In the Gospel there is one Man, Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam, who represents an elect race before God. By him and in him all God’s elect live forever (Rom. 5:12, 18-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22). As Adam brought destruction and death upon his race, so the Lord Jesus Christ has brought redemption and life to his race, God’s elect.

    As you read through the Scriptures, you find that Adam and Christ are uniquely linked together. We would be wise to carefully and prayerfully study the comparisons and contrasts that are made of them (Rom. 5:12, 18-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22). Adam was made in the image of Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). Adam was a representative man, a covenant head, and so is Christ, the last Adam. All that Adam did was imputed to all his seed, all that he became was imparted to all his seed by natural generation. We are all the sons of Adam, “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3), by nature. So too, all that Christ did has been imputed to all his seed in justification, and all that he is as a man is imparted to all his seed by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. All believers are the sons of God by grace. In Romans 5, the Holy Spirit tells us of three great acts of imputation. (1.) Adam’s sin has been imputed to all men and women. (2.) The sins of God’s elect were imputed to Christ. (3.) Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to all God’s elect.

    Consider what Adam did as our federal head and representative. He repudiated the goodness and love of God (Gen. 3:5). He questioned the truth and veracity of God (Gen. 3:4). Adam knew nothing of death. He apparently, at least to some degree, agreed with Satan and said, “We shall not surely die. That is contrary to reason and experience.” Above all else, Adam rejected, denounced, and rebelled against the authority of God!

    Christ, the last Adam, the second and last man, the second and last federal head and representative, completely vindicated the love, truth, and majesty of God, which the first man Adam had so grievously and deliberately dishonored. Christ, as a man, as the God-man, our Mediator, honored God in thought, word, and deed all the days of his life upon the earth. He vindicated the love of God (Rom. 5:8;1 John 3:16; 4:9-10). If ever you are tempted of the devil to question the goodness and love of God, if the events of providence appear to cast a cloud over God’s goodness and love, look to Calvary and know that “God is love!”

    Our Lord Jesus Christ vindicated the truth of God, too. When he was tempted by Satan to doubt God’s goodness, truth, and supremacy, each time he answered, “It is written”. Every sabbath day he went into the synagogue to read the Word of God. As he chose his twelve apostles, he deliberately selected Judas that the scriptures might be fulfilled. In his last moments of agony, he cried, “I thirst,” that the scriptures might be fulfilled. After he was risen from the dead, as he spoke to his disciples, he opened to them the scriptures (Lk. 24). At every age, in every event, in all the details of his life, our all-glorious Savior, federal head, representative, and substitute believed, honored, and magnified God’s truth, even when it cost him dearly to do so.

    The Lord of glory also completely vindicated the majesty, supremacy, and sovereignty of God as our representative. He vindicated God’s right to be God by his willing, voluntary submission to him at all times and by his obedience to him even unto death (Phil. 2:5-11; Gal. 4:4-5). He trusted God, as a man, living in perfect faith. He obeyed the will of God perfectly (Heb. 10:5). He fulfilled the law of God completely (Rom. 10:4). He subjected his will to the Father’s will. He magnified the justice of God in his death. In doing so, our blessed Savior fulfilled all righteousness and brought in an everlasting righteousness for his people, to the praise, honor, and glory of God. He was made like unto his brethren. He is not ashamed to call us his brethren, because we are made the righteousness of God in him.

    What was the punishment of Adam’s sin? I will confine my thoughts here to that which is revealed in Genesis 3:17-24. Here the Lord shows us seven things that were the consequences of Adam’s transgression. (1.) The ground was cursed. (2.) In sorrow man was cursed to eat his bread all the days of his life. (3.) The earth brought forth thorns and thistles for man. (4.) Man was required to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. (5.) Man must return to the dust of the earth. (6.) A flaming sword barred the way to the tree of life. (7.) Adam was separated from God in death. These were the curses that fell upon Adam and all the sons of Adam because of sin; but Christ, the last Adam, endured all the consequences of Adam’s transgression.

    The Son of God was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). The Lord of glory was so thoroughly acquainted with grief that he became the “man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3). The Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the judgment hall wearing “a crown of thorns” (John 19:5), thorns which grew from the cursed earth for the cursed man. The first Adam got his bread by the sweat of his face; but Christ, the last Adam, got his bread, his soul’s satisfaction, by the sweat of his heart. He sweat as it were “great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Lk. 22:44). As Adam returned to the dust, so the dying Christ cried, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Psa. 22:15). That sword of justice which barred the way to the tree of life, buried itself and was swallowed up in the Son of God, our Substitute, the last Adam (Zech. 13:7). As Adam who sinned was driven from the presence of God in death, so Christ, the last Adam, who was made to be sin for us, was separated from God in death, crying as he died, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). Blessed, blessed, blessed Christ! Who can describe the agonies of his holy soul for us? Let us bow before him in wonder, love, praise, and thankful faith (1 Pet. 3:18; 2 Pet. 2:24). He was made to be sin for us, made to be a curse for us, died for us, and thus redeemed us. Now, because of all he has done for sinners, in his life and in his death, all who believe have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (Rom. 3:24-26; 2 Cor. 5:21).

    Christ, our great Adam, has completely reversed all the effects of the fall.

    He says, “I restored that which I took not away” (Psa. 69:4). God alone is able to bring good out of evil and make even the wrath of man to praise him. This is what he has done for his elect and for the glory of his name by the obedience of his Son as our substitute. The sin and fall of our father Adam gave God opportunity to exhibit his wisdom and display the exceeding riches of his grace in a way that could not have come to pass had sin never entered into the world. In redemption Christ not only reversed the effects of the fall, he brought in a better thing. Hebrews. 10:9 applies.

    Here is the transcendent miracle of God’s wisdom and grace in Christ. In him, God’s elect have become gainers by the fall and God himself is glorified through Adam’s transgression. Before the fall Adam lived in an earthly paradise. In Christ we shall enter into a heavenly paradise. Before the fall Adam lived as the creature of God. In Christ we live as the sons of God, partakers not only of the divine breath, but of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Before the fall Adam was innocent. In Christ we are righteous. Before the fall Adam was lord of God’s creation. In Christ we are heirs of a heavenly inheritance. Indeed, as it is written, “All things are yours.” Before the fall Adam enjoyed the happiness of innocence. In Christ we have entered into the joy of pardon, grace, and redemption. Before the fall Adam was a creature of God in fellowship with his Master. In Christ we are one with God, inseparable from our Savior (Eph. 4:30). His obedience is our obedience. His death is our death. His life is our life. His glory is our glory (John 17:5, 22). “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!’ (Rom. 5:21).

    The first man Adam made all things mortal and evil. Christ, the last Adam, makes all things holy, immortal, and new (Rev. 21:5; 2 Cor. 5:17). The Son of God gives to chosen sinners a new nature (1 John 3:6-10, a new record of perfect righteousness (Jer. 23:6; 33:16; 50:20), and a new relationship (1 John 3:1). The kingdom of God is an entirely new creation. When we think of the fall, let us ever adore God’s wisdom and sovereignty (Psa. 76:10), providence (Rom. 8:28), and God’s grace (Eph. 2:7). Let us ever adore God’s Son, our dear Savior, the last Adam (Col. 1:18).