Open your Bibles, please, to
Genesis chapter 3. I want to look at verses 17 to
24 this morning. Keep your place, though we might
turn, or we will turn to other verses, but keep your place there
in Genesis. That's a good description of
all humanity. We've all seen better days in
Adam. Pretty good description. Since they're fallen at Him,
since humanity's fallen at Him, we've all seen better days. And
all of us are just like that poor man in the soup line. Even in his fallen state, there
was something about him which gives us a hint of what man once
was when God created man in His own image. You see, when God
created the heavens and earth and everything that is in it,
He looked and He said, that's good. He said, that's good. With your finger in Genesis 3,
would you turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 29? Even like that man in the soup
line, even though we're soiled with sin today, we're a little
ragged around the edges today, We can honestly say, based on
the Word of God, that we've seen better days. As men who are descended from
Adam, we are not now what we once were when God created man
in His own image. In Ecclesiastes 7.29 it says,
Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man upright. But
they have sought out many inventions. We've each gone our way. We have
each lived our lives in opposition to God, and we continue to do
that. There is no way to explain universal condition of the human
race except by the account of the fall of man. That account
that is given to us in Genesis chapter 3. Man is capable of
doing the many good and noble things. He can serve and he can do wonderful
things. But at exactly the same time,
that same man is also capable of beastliness and monstrous
cruelty to his fellow man. The same person is capable of
both moral virtue and also of complete and utter immorality. Man is a dying creature. Man
alone, out of all of God's creatures, has a fear of dying. Some people
will say, well, I'm not so much afraid to die as I am of the
unknown. Other peoples will say, well,
it's not the fear of dying, I just don't want to have the pain.
But in those that I've been next to as they were dying, there's
always a fear even among those who profess to believe in Jesus
Christ. None of us wants to die. Man
alone, out of all God's creatures, has a fear of dying. Deep in
his heart, you see, every man knows that the wages of sin is
death. Why is it? that the sons and
daughters of wealthy people who have had all kinds of privilege,
the best of educations, the best of training, possess the same
propensity to do evil as the children of the poor and the
starving masses? Why is it that sons and daughters
of God's saints who have been raised in love and nurtured in
godliness and surrounded by peace and who have been taught the
fear of God They experience and they feel
and they run after the same lusts and worldly desires as the children
of, as Don would say, pimps and pushers and prostitutes. Why
is it that all men and women everywhere are sinful? Why is it that family environment
and education and social programs in the world are totally incapable
of changing a man's heart? Why is it that no one is capable
of changing the corruption of his own heart? Only the Word
of God can answer that question. And the Word of God gives it
to us very clearly. All, absolutely all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God. We all have a common
origin. in our father, Adam. We all have
a common heritage in the fall in Adam. You see, Adam is a representative
man. We all have received from our
parents and their parents and their parents before them all
the way back to Adam. We have all received a common
legacy. A common inheritance. It's a
legacy of sin. And we're all possessed with
a common nature. It's a sin nature. It's a nature
of depravity. The fall of Adam, I believe,
because I read it in God's Word, some might argue with it, but
I believe that the fall of Adam is a historic fact. It did happen. All men have fallen. Everyone
in the human race has fallen in our Father Adam. And the only
satisfactory explanation of human history is this fact. Man is a fallen creature who
has once seen better days. All men since the fallen Adam
are sinners. They are sinners by birth, they are sinners by
nature, they are sinners by practice. Fallen man needs desperately
a Savior, because man by nature is alienated from God. He lives
his life in opposition to God by nature. He's under the condemnation
of God's holy law, and he's lost in darkness and sin. Well, what's
the remedy for that condition? Praise God, there is a remedy. He must be born again. That's
the remedy. He must be born again in Christ. By God's grace, he's in desperate
need of regeneration. He's in desperate need of being
born again. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, it says
that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. He is born
again. He's a new creature. Arthur Pink
wrote, it's not the cultivation of the old nature that is needed
because that was ruined by the fall in Adam. But what is needed
by everyone is to receive an entirely new nature which is
begotten by the Holy Spirit. You must be born again. Anything
short of this, anything at all short of this, any counseling,
anything at all short of being born again is wasted and it's
useless. And yet even in the fall, and
oh I praise God for this, even in the fall there is a prophecy,
there's a picture. There's a prophecy of recovery.
In Adam, God gives us a type or a picture and a prophecy of
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Turn back to Genesis 3 and then
go one more chapter earlier to Genesis 2 and look at verse 17. In the Garden of Eden, God gave
only one commandment to man. Oh, later he would give other
commandments, but in the Garden of Eden, God gave only one command.
In Genesis 2.17, God said, Of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely, thou will, without a
doubt, you will die. This one commandment was the
only thing which God Almighty required of man. Had the first
man obeyed that one commandment, he would have lived. But he died. Man's disobedience to this one
command brought death to every man. Now turn please to Acts
16 and verse 31. In the Gospel, God similarly has given one command
to sinners. In Acts 16.31, God has commanded
sinners to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is the one thing
that God requires of men. All who obey this one command
of God will live forever. But all, every man, every woman,
and every child who refuses to obey this command of God, who
refuses to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they must forever
die. In the Garden of Eden, there
was one tree. If you ate the fruit of that tree, it brought
death to men. In the Gospel, there's also one tree, and that
tree is the cross of Jesus Christ. And all who eat of that tree,
the fruit of that tree, All who eat of the fruit of the cross
of Jesus Christ will live forever. Turn please to 1 Corinthians
15 verses 21 and 22. In the garden there was one man,
Adam, who represented the entire human race before God. And by
Adam, and in Adam, all men died. In the Gospel, there is one man,
Jesus Christ, who is the second Adam or the last Adam. And Jesus
Christ represents many as their substitute. Christ represents
an elect race of people before God. And by Him, by Christ. And in Him, in Christ. All of
God's elect will live forever. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 21
and 22, God says exactly that. He says, For since by man, by
Adam, came death, by man, by Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection
of the dead. In other words, Jesus Christ,
by Jesus Christ came regeneration, by Jesus Christ came the new
birth. And verse 22 says, and for as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Just as Adam brought destruction
and death on the human race, so our Lord Jesus Christ has
brought redemption and brought life to his race, to God's elect. Just as Adam brought death to
all of his descendants, so Jesus Christ brought life to all of
those who are born again to a new life in Christ, by the God-given
faith of Christ. Now turn please to Romans 5 and
verse 12. As you read through the scriptures,
I'm constantly impressed about how often God draws a contrast
between Adam, the first Adam, and Jesus Christ, the second
Adam. They're uniquely linked together. In 1 Corinthians 15,
verses 21 and 22, we saw one comparison which God makes between
Adam and Christ. But it would be a wise thing,
I think, for you to do. And I often assign homework,
and I'm going to give you a homework assignment. Spend a little time
looking through your Bible and seeing the comparisons that God
makes between Adam and Christ. Study those comparisons. Study
those contrasts that are made between Adam and Christ in the
Scriptures. As another example, look at the
comparison of Adam and Christ which God gives us in Romans
5.12. He says, Wherefore, as by one man, as by Adam, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. And then in Romans 5, verses
18 to 21, God says, As by the offense of one, by
the offense of Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the free gift
came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace much
more did abound. that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, Christ's
righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now
turn please to 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4. The first
man, Adam, was made in the image of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ
is the image of the invisible God. That's what Paul says in
2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4. Paul says, but if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. In whom the God, with
a small g, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them
which believe not. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. And in Colossians 1.15, Paul
said, and he's talking about Christ, Paul said, Christ who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. And Hebrews 1.3 says about Christ,
who being in the brightness of his glory, God's glory, and the
expressed image of his person, God's person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he, when Christ had by himself
purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. Adam was a representative man.
He represented all of his descendants. He represented you and he represented
me. Adam was the covenant head of all of his descendants and
so is Jesus Christ, the last Adam. All that the first Adam
did was imputed to all of his seed and to all of his descendants.
And all that Adam became as their representative was imparted to
all of Adam's seed, or to his descendants, by natural generation. Turn please to Ephesians 2 and
verse 3. We are all born naturally. We're
born naturally as the sons of Adam. We are all the children
of wrath by nature. We're all children of wrath by
our natural birth as descendants of Adam. In Ephesians 2.3, God
says about natural men, among whom also you all had your conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh and fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. So it is, too, that all that
Christ did has been imputed to Christ's seed in justification.
And all that Jesus Christ is as a man is imparted or is given
to His seed by the Holy Spirit in regeneration in the new birth. All believers are made by the
power of the Holy Spirit to be the sons of God by God's grace
when they are born again by spiritual regeneration. I would encourage
you to read Romans 5. And I'm not going to take time
to read that whole chapter to you today, but the Holy Spirit
tells us about three great acts of imputation in Romans 5. First, it says, Adam's sin has
been imputed to all men and women. In other words, all of Adam's
descendants have inherited a sin nature from their father Adam,
which is what I've been just trying to explain to you. Second,
the sins of God's elect were imputed to Christ. Or in other
words, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, God put all the
sins of His people on His own dear Son. And Jesus Christ became
sin. And then third, Christ's righteousness
has been imputed to all of God's elect, so that when Jesus Christ
took the sin of His people on Himself, God then gave or he
imputed Christ's righteousness to his elect or to his chosen
people, making them righteous with the righteousness of Christ.
That's regeneration. That's the new birth. Turn please
to Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. I'd like for you to consider
for a minute or two what Adam did as our federal head and representative.
In Genesis 2, verse 16, God had said to Adam, of every tree of
the garden thou mayest eat freely. But, in verse 17, God said, of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. Now look at Genesis 3, verse
5. A lady came into the church the
other night. She and her sister, they'd been
drinking. She completely disrupted the whole service, calling out
questions. And one of the questions that
she asked, what is sin? That's a good question. What
is sin? Sin, in its simplest definition,
is breaking God's commandments. That's all sin really is, is
breaking God's commandments. God has given us commandments
in love. It's a loving thing that God
has told us what we ought to do because it is good for us.
He's done a loving thing when He gives us commandments and
tells us how to live our lives. They're only good for us. And
so by disobeying God, when we inanimate that forbidden fruit, Adam repudiated or he dishonored
and he rejected the goodness and the love of God. In Genesis
3 verse 5, the serpent suggested that God wasn't being truthful
when he told Adam that he wouldn't surely die. He said to Adam, if he disobeyed God and he ate
that forbidden fruit, you're not really going to die. God
is just trying to to use you. He's telling you
a lie. God is telling you a lie. You're
not really going to die. In Genesis 3, verse 5, Satan
says, For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. Satan is saying that God only
told Adam that he would die because God didn't love Adam. And God didn't want good things
for Adam. Satan is saying that God lied
to Adam and he lied for an evil purpose. He wasn't dealing with
him out of love. And so when Adam took the forbidden
fruit and he ate it, Adam was rejecting the truth that God
is good and that all that God did and all that God said was
done in love. But it's Satan. who is the father
of lies, who is telling the lie here. In Genesis 3, verse 4,
Satan is lying. He says, And the serpent said
unto the woman, You shall not surely die. And when the woman
gave the forbidden fruit to Adam, he took it and he ate it. But
Adam did die. God doesn't lie. You can believe
God's Word. You can believe whatever He says.
Adam died a spiritual death. And all of his descendants died
in Adam. Not only did Adam die, but a whole human race died in
him. You know, I think that Adam probably
didn't know very much about death. Not until he ate that forbidden
fruit. But when Adam ate that fruit, he learned something about
death. He became a sinner. Adam's nature
changed. And so, because Adam became a
sinner, all of Adam's descendants would be born with a sin nature,
too. I'm talking about you and me, who were born with a sin
nature. God had told Adam in Genesis
2.17 that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, because in that day thou shalt, that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam did die. And all of
his descendants died in him. I think that Adam apparently,
to at least some degree, agreed with Satan when he rejected God's
word. Because when Satan or when the serpent said in Genesis 3,
4, you shall not surely die, Adam took the fruit and he ate
it, and I don't think he would have done that if he thought
that he was going to die. He wouldn't have eaten that fruit
expecting to die. Adam accepted Satan's word. He
accepted Satan's word as being truth. And he didn't trust God's
Word. He rejected God's Word. What
God had said, thou shalt surely die, was contrary to Adam's own
reason and his own experience. And so he didn't believe it.
You see, we have to accept God's Word on faith. And yet God does
not lie. But more important than anything
else, I think, Adam rejected and Adam rebelled against the
authority of God. God has a right to rule over
us, as we sang in our hymn this morning. There's no doubt at
all in my mind that I'm related to Adam. Because by nature, I
rebel against the authority of God. Just like Adam did. I don't want to. But by nature,
I rebel against God's authority. Is there anybody else out here
like that? But here's good news. It's not good news for somebody
that doesn't understand that they're a sinner and living their
lives in rebellion against God, but it's good news for sinners.
Jesus Christ, the last Adam, the second and last man, the
second and last federal head and representative, completely,
completely vindicated the love and the truth and the majesty
of God, which the first Adam has so grievously and deliberately
dishonored. Jesus Christ is a man. Jesus
Christ is the God-man, our mediator and our Savior, honored God in
every thought and word and deed, and He did it perfectly all the
days of His life. Jesus Christ showed and vindicated
the love of God. Romans 5.8 tells us, But God
commendeth His love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Now, if Christ's death, His death
on the cross, does not show you God's love, then you don't have
any understanding of what Jesus Christ did on that cross. You
don't understand that Jesus was dying for sinners, and that all
who believe and trust in Him are saved in Jesus Christ. And
that is the most marvelous love I could ever tell you about.
In 1 John 3, verse 16, it says, "...nearby perceived we the love
of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren." And in 1 John 4, verses
9 and 10, it says, "...and this was manifest, the love of God
towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through Him." Here in His love,
not that we love God, but that God loved us, and he sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. If Satan tempts you,
if Satan influences you to question
the goodness and the love of God, if the events of your life
appear to cast a cloud of doubt over God's goodness and love,
Then what I implore you to do is to look to Calvary, to look
to the cross of Jesus Christ. If you can see Jesus Christ dying
for you, then you know something about the love of God. You'll only see that by the love
and mercy of God. But if you can see Him dying
for you, then you know something about God's love. You'll also
know that all that God does in your life can only be good for
you. Because God loved you enough
to send His only Son to save you from your sin, you'll know
that everything God is going to do is going to be good for
you. If God loved you that much, how
could He ever allow evil to harm you? If God is for you, who can
be against you? Our Lord Jesus Christ also vindicated
the truth of God when He was tempted by Satan to doubt God's
goodness and truth and supremacy. Each time Satan tempted Jesus,
Jesus answered with the same response each time. It is written. It is written. Every Sabbath
day, Jesus went into the synagogue to read the Word of God. That
tells me that Jesus loved the Word of God. It tells me that
he was taught of God, and the Bible tells me that he grew in
wisdom and stature. And we see Christ vindicate the
love of God in another way, too. Our Lord Jesus chose his twelve
apostles, and he deliberately selected Judas as one of those
apostles. The Bible tells us he did that so that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. In His last moments of agony
in the cross, Jesus cried out, I thirst. And He did that, the
Bible tells us, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And after
He was risen from the dead as the risen Savior, He spoke to
His disciples and He opened to them the Scriptures. Jesus loved God's Word. He vindicated God's Word. He
vindicated it by living it. In every age, in every event,
in all the details of Christ's life, our all-glorious Savior,
our federal head, our representative, and our substitute believed and
He honored and He magnified God's Word. He magnified God's truth. And even when it cost Him dearly
to do it, He held up God's word and he magnified God's truth.
The life of Jesus vindicated his father's love. God doesn't
lie and you can trust his word. Turn please to Philippians 2
verses 5 to 11. The Lord of Glory also completely
vindicated the majesty and supremacy and the sovereignty of God as
our representative. Jesus Christ completely vindicated God's right
to be God by His willing and voluntary submission to the will
of His Father. At all times, at every moment,
Jesus submitted Himself to the will of His Father. He was completely
and totally obedient to the will of his Father, even unto death.
In Philippians 2, verses 5 to 11, Paul prays for the Philippian
church. He prays, Let this mind be in
you which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
thought it not a robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men. He's talking here about the purpose
of new birth, to serve God and to glorify God and to do God's
will. Verse 8, And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth. And that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. You know, that's exactly opposite
to what Satan did. Satan became Adam's Lord. And in Galatians 4, verses 4
and 5, Paul says, But when the fullness of the time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. As a man, Jesus trusted God. As our substitute, As our representative,
as our substitute, Jesus lived in perfect faith and he obeyed
the will of God perfectly. Hebrews 10.5 says about Jesus,
Wherefore, when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared
for me. Jesus fulfilled the law of God
completely and perfectly. In Romans 10.4 it says, For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Jesus
subjected His will to His Father's will. He magnified the justice
of God in His death. And in so doing, our blessed
Savior fulfilled all righteousness and He brought in everlasting
righteousness for His people to the praise and the honor and
the glory of God. Jesus was made like unto His
brethren. And He's not ashamed to call
us His brethren because we are made the righteousness of God
in Him. Here's some wonderfully good
news for everyone that believes and trusts Jesus Christ. The
Son of God endured all of the curse that was pronounced on
fallen man. Jesus Christ endured the curse
of God for His people. What was the punishment for Adam's
sin? Well, let me just say what we're
told in Genesis 3, verses 17 to 24. In these verses, the Lord shows
us seven things that were the consequences of Adam's sin against
God. The ground was cursed. In sorrow,
man was cursed to eat his bread all the days of his life. The
earth brought forth thorns and thistles for man. Man was required
to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Man must return
to the dust of the earth. A flaming sword barred the way
of the tree of life, and Adam was separated from God in death.
These are the curses that fell on Adam, all of the sons of Adam,
by Adam being our representative. They fell on us because of sin. But Christ, the last Adam, endured
all the consequences of Adam's transgression. He endured all
the consequences of Adam's transgression to set his people free from the
curse of the law. In Galatians 3.13 it tells us
that the Son of God was made to be a curse for us. Galatians
3.13 tells us that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord of Glory was so thoroughly
acquainted with grief that He became the man of sorrows. Isaiah
53 says about Christ, He is despised and He is rejected of men, a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
forth from the judgment hall wearing a crown of thorns. John
19.5 tells us Jesus wore thorns which grew out of the cursed
earth. He did it for cursed man. In John 19.5, God's Word says,
Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. And Pilate said unto Him, Behold
the man. Behold the second Adam. The first
Adam got his bread by the sweat of his face, by his brow. But
Jesus 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. And Luke 22.44 tells us, And
being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was,
as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. The first
Adam returned to the dust, so too the dying Christ cried, Thou
hast brought me unto the dust of death. In Psalm 22, 15, Jesus
said, My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue
cleaveth to my jaws, and Thou hast brought me into the dust
of death. the 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, that last Adam. In Zechariah
13, 7, it says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
my hand upon the little ones. Just as the first Adam who sinned
was driven from the presence of God in death, so also Jesus
Christ, the last Adam who was made to be sinned for us, was
separated from God in death. He cried as he died, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Turn please to Romans 3 verses
24 to 26. Oh, blessed, blessed Jesus our
Savior. Who can describe the agonies
of His holy soul for us? For us who are nothing but sinners. Let us bow before Him in wonder
and love and praise and in thankful faith. He was made to be sin
for us. He was made to be a curse for
us. And He died for us. So in His
death, Christ Jesus redeemed us. He set us free from the law
of sin and death. And now because of all of that,
all that he's done for sinners in his life and in his death,
all who believe have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Can you hear that? All who believe
have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Not because
you believe. but all who believe have been
made the righteousness of God in Christ. In Romans 3 verses
24 to 26 it says about Christ, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, as
if to emphasize it, to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness,
not ours, but His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." Oh, what powerful
words. I hope they're in your heart.
and I hope you can believe them. Oh, how I pray that God might
cause all sinners to hear these words and to believe them. If we could, if we would, we
would find it such a marvelous comfort to sin-sick souls. By Christ's obedience to God
as our substitute, His obedience in life and His obedience in
death, This greater Adam has completely reversed, completely
reversed all of the effects of the fall of the first Adam. In
Psalm 69, verse 4, Christ Jesus says, I restored that which I
took not away. God alone is able to bring good
out of evil and make even the wrath of man to praise Him. This is what He's done for His
elect and for the glory of His name by the obedience of His
Son, our substitute. The sin and fall of our father
Adam gave God the opportunity to exhibit his love and his wisdom
and to display the exceeding riches of his grace in a way
that could not have come to pass if sin had never entered into
the world. In redemption, Christ not only reversed the effects
of the fall, what He really did was to bring a better thing.
In Hebrews 10.9, Christ Jesus says, Then said He, Lo, I come
to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
He may establish the second. Jesus Christ, by His death on
the cross, established a better thing. Here's where we see the
transcendent miracle of God's wisdom in His love and His grace
in Christ. In Jesus Christ, God's elect
have become gainers by the fall. And God himself is glorified
through Adam's sin. 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 divine breath, but of the divine
nature. 2 Peter 1 verse 4 says, Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. Before the
fall, Adam was innocent, and Jesus Christ were made righteous. Before the fall, Adam was Lord
of God's creation, and Jesus Christ we are heirs of the heavenly
inheritance. Indeed, as it is written, all
things are yours. A better thing is yours in Christ
Jesus. Before the Fall, Adam enjoyed
the happiness of innocence. In Christ, we are entered into
the joy of pardon and grace and redemption. Before the Fall,
Adam was a creature of God. in fellowship with his Master.
In Christ we are one with God. Can you imagine being one with
God? Having His nature and being one with God? We are inseparable
from our Savior. We are one with Him. In Ephesians
4.30 it says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. The obedience of
Christ. is our obedience. His death is
our death. His life is our life. His glory is our glory. In John 17 5, Jesus prayed, And
now, O Father, Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. And in John 17,
22, he prayed, And the glory which thou gavest me, I have
given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. And
Romans 5, 21 says, Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. In Christ we have a better thing.
The first Adam made all things mortal and evil. And Christ,
the last Adam, makes all things holy, immortal, and new. Revelation 21 verse 5 says, And
he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And in 2 Corinthians 5 verse
17 it says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. The Son of God gives to chosen
sinners a new nature. It's a better thing. It's a new
record of perfect righteousness. A new relationship with Him in
Christ. Together in Christ. One Christ.
The kingdom of God is an entirely new creation. So when we think
of Adam, we think of Adam's fall as our representative. Let us
ever adore God's wisdom and sovereignty. Let us always praise Him for
His providence and His grace. Let us ever adore God's Son,
our dear Savior, who is the last Adam. Amen.