Adam Embraces Jesus in the Heavenly CityBible World
15:221 Corinthians 15:22
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
In Adam the whole human race fell under condemnation and death, losing the gift of life and immortality and the right to the tree of life, so that all die and go to the grave. In Christ all shall be made alive by being brought forth in the resurrection through the plan of salvation, yet not all to everlasting life, for the just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and the second death. The promise is not automatic but belongs to those who are in Christ, united with Him by faith and receiving Him as personal Saviour. As the second Adam, Christ took man's place, met and conquered the foe who triumphed over the first Adam, and by His suffering, death and resurrection paid sin's penalty and regained the forfeited dominion and life more full and complete than what Adam lost. This is a literal resurrection of the dead in which those who sleep in Jesus rise with identity preserved in glorified bodies free from disease and deformity to an earth renewed and freed from sin and sorrow.
Death Through Adam
In Adam all die because his disobedience and transgression and fall brought death and wretchedness upon the whole human family, so that all people come under the penalty of death and go to the grave. Through the plan of salvation all will be brought forth from the dead in the resurrection in Christ, yet being made alive does not mean all receive everlasting life, for the just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and ultimately suffer the second death, and those who continue in sin face eternal death rather than eternal life. Christ took the penalty of Adam's transgression upon Himself as an atoning sacrifice and ransom, bearing sin and taking the sentence of death so that through His blood people may be pardoned, be brought back into God's favor, obey God's law, and regain access to the tree of life and immortality, with a time of probation in which to recognize the evil of sin and choose whom they will follow. The law of Jehovah is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth, so not one precept could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition and even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression, but only the Son of God who created man could make atonement for him.
The fall was from perfect happiness to misery and sin, bringing corruption and condemnation with a heavy curse resting as the portion of the whole race. All who are born of Adam share his dying nature because by disobedience the gift of life and immortality was forfeited, and the first parents by disobedience lost their right to the tree of life. In contrast stands Jesus Christ the second Adam, who came to reconcile fallen people to God, meeting the strong foe who triumphed over Adam, resisting temptation and remaining faithful despite Satan's boast that he could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, so that obedience to God's words is the condition of life and restored access to the tree of life. In Christ humanity is given opportunity to regain the lost gift, for He bore sin's penalty and offers His life to those who receive Him as personal Saviour, and those who accept His righteousness and cooperate with God are received as sons and become partakers of His eternal life and the divine nature, a life more full and complete than the life Adam forfeited.
Through Jesus the promised Redeemer will come life and immortality, and this hope was given to Adam, repeated by Seth, and fully exemplified by Enoch. It was given to clear away darkness and gloom and to keep man under the curse of sin and death from becoming discouraged and doubting what profit there is in fearing God and keeping His ordinances and walking mournfully before Him. The promise gives hope to humanity under that curse, showing that God is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him and showing what He will do for those who keep His commandments.
Enoch's case proves that even while living among a corrupt and sinful people in open rebellion against God, those who obey God and have faith in the promised Redeemer can work righteousness like Enoch, be accepted by God, and finally be exalted to His heavenly throne. By grace to resist temptation and become pure and holy, obedience to God's law is possible even amid sin and corruption, and Enoch was translated without death. His translation stands as evidence that the obedient will receive joy and glory and immortal life, while the transgressor will receive condemnation, woe, and death.
Life Through Christ
To be made alive in Christ is to be brought forth in the resurrection through the plan of salvation. As Adam's sin and disobedience brought death upon the whole human race so that all go to the grave, so all will be raised from the dead, yet being made alive does not mean all receive everlasting life. The just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and ultimately suffer the second death. Those who continue in sin face eternal death rather than eternal life, for Christ took the penalty of Adam's transgression as an atoning sacrifice to give a probation in which to recognize sin's evil and choose whom to follow.
The promise is not automatic, for it belongs to those who are in Christ and united with Him by faith. It is received by receiving Him as personal Saviour and believing in Him. Christ bore sin's penalty and offers His life to those who so receive Him, and His death gives the probation in which to recognize sin's evil and choose whom to follow. Like a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying to bring forth much fruit, by giving up His life He rose as the firstfruits of a great harvest, and as Life-giver He will call from their graves the dead united to Him by faith as ripe grain for the heavenly garner. The Greeks seeking Jesus were representatives and firstfruits of the Gentiles, showing the partition wall between Jew and Gentile thrown down so that the harvest field is the world and through the gospel of His death and resurrection life and immortality are brought to light and heaven's kingdom is opened to all believers.
Those who accept Jesus are no longer regarded as they are in Adam but as they are in Jesus Christ. They stand as sons and daughters of God, accepted in the Beloved as members of the royal family and children of the heavenly King. They are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. This standing gives complete security, so that God will no more cast off the humblest, lowliest believer than demolish His own throne.
The life Christ offers is more full and complete than the life Adam forfeited by disobedience that forfeited the gift of life and immortality. Those who accept His righteousness and cooperate with God are received as sons and become partakers of His eternal life and the divine nature. The sinless Son, equal with the Father, took human nature and lived a perfect life in man's behalf, so that through His ministration and ministry people may receive strength and virtue to overcome in the struggle with evil. By that life they escape the corruption in the world through lust and the world's corruption.
What was lost in the first Adam is restored and regained in Christ as the second Adam through His suffering, death and sacrifice. His sacrifice pays sin's penalty and recovers the forfeited dominion. The restoration includes the body, which will be raised free from sin's effects, disease, blemish and deformity and made perfect. It extends to the earth, which will be renewed and freed from sin and sorrow as the eternal home of the redeemed in the new earth.
Resurrection Promise Clarified
1 Corinthians 15:22 belongs to Paul's teaching on the literal resurrection of the dead, which is essential to Christian hope. The dead await resurrection rather than receiving immortal blessedness at death, for if they were already in full glory, preaching the resurrection of the body would be pointless. The immortal body need not be made from the same particles of matter as the mortal body, for its identity with the mortal person rests in organization, not in identical matter. Christ risen is the living Saviour, no longer to be mourned as dead, the antitype of the sheaf of the firstfruits, and His resurrection is the greatest message ever given, glad tidings upon which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend. His raising establishes Him as the true divine witness to the resurrection of everyone who believes in Jesus, who is to be accepted, studied and revered as verity and truth sent from God and come down from heaven from the Father to reveal the Father, with safety found only in believing what is truth because it is true.
As a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying to bring forth much fruit, Christ by giving His life rose as the firstfruits of a great harvest, for if He had drawn back from the sacrifice of His life He would have abode alone. As the Life-giver He will call the dead united to Him by faith from their graves as a glorious harvest of ripe grain for the heavenly garner, so that death comes to all through Adam while life comes through Christ. The Greeks seeking Jesus are representatives and firstfruits of the Gentiles at large, showing that after His approaching death the partition wall between Jew and Gentile is thrown down and the broad harvest field becomes the world. Then all nations, tongues and people hear salvation through Christ, so that through the gospel of His death and resurrection and the resurrection of the dead life and immortality are brought to light and the kingdom of heaven is thrown open to all believers.
As the second Adam, Christ broke the devil's hold on the power of death by meeting the enemy on death's own territory and conquering him through dying and rising again. Because He felt the pangs of death and rose to sit at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth, the stinging despair and terror of death is removed for the Christian. His rising decided the conflict with Satan, shaking the enemy's prison-house and taking spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a fresh trophy of victory. That raising with Jesus demonstrates His victory over death and serves as a sample, pledge and assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead to immortal life at His second coming, when at His return Christ will call them from their graves.
Those who sleep in Jesus and belong to Christ will be made alive in the resurrection with individual identity perfectly preserved. As the risen Saviour had a body familiar to His followers in appearance, deportment and speech, so those who sleep in Him will rise in like manner and will be known by their friends as the disciples knew Jesus, recognizing one another and loved ones. Even if their mortal bodies were deformed, diseased or disfigured, they will rise in glorified bodies free from deformity, disease and disfigurement, with faces radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus. This promise assures that death is not final, for Jesus passed through the tomb and made it a place of rest rather than an end, breaking the fetters of the tomb and paving the way for everyone to do the same. Believers' hope of being made alive rests on Christ's personal resurrection and their own resurrection at His coming, when death the last enemy is finally conquered, so they can face death with confidence, long for Christ's return, be laid to rest with assurance of being seen again, triumph over death and the grave, and rise free as those who belong to Him, while He as humanity's representative rose and ascended to open heaven to those made clean and bring those who reflect God's image to behold and share His glory.
Christ the Second Adam
In Adam came the fallen condition through failure and fall that brought disgrace and death upon humanity, while in Christ the second Adam came reconciliation to God through His death, for in love He humbled Himself to take Adam's place, stepping into Adam's steps in man's fallen nature to meet the strong foe who had triumphed over Adam, and by overcoming opened the way of redemption from that failure and fall for all who believe on Him. The contrast stands in the boast that the tempter could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, yet Christ resisted temptation and remained faithful. By disobedience the first parents lost the right to the tree of life, and obedience to God's words is the condition for life and restored access to it.
All was lost when Adam yielded to the power of appetite, and Christ stood in Adam's place to bear the very test Adam failed to endure. In whom the human and the divine were united, He entered a life of conflict to overcome the mighty foe, and through successful conflict to break Satan's power and redeem the race from the disgrace of the fall. His terrible fast of nearly six weeks measures the great sinfulness of debased appetite and the power it holds over the human family. On that same point in the wilderness Christ triumphed over Satan where Adam disgracefully failed, and if He had been as weak in moral power as man and yielded a single point there would now be no salvation for the race, but because He stood firm where man fails and repulsed the fallen foe at every point He gained power from His Father to give divine grace and strength to man so that through His name it is possible to overcome. By His victory in the wilderness of temptation He passed over the ground where Adam fell and redeemed Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, placing the human family on vantage ground with God and making it possible to overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, a truth that lays the foundation for temperance.
Adam's transgression brought loss, wretchedness and death to the human race, while Christ is humanity's only hope of restoration to God's favor, and His sacrifice brings life and immortality. Christ alone in sinless character as the sinless representative of the human race could make an acceptable atonement, and He suffered in proportion to the world's sin and to His own divine purity and excellence, with His suffering in the wilderness for the race. He offered His life as a ransom and took the sentence of death upon Himself, bearing sin to open the way for pardon, so that through His blood people may be forgiven, receive pardon, be brought back into God's favor, obey God's law, and regain access to the tree of life and immortality. This was necessary because the law of Jehovah is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth, so not one of its precepts could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition, and even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression, but only the Son of God who created man could make atonement for him.
The two Adams meet in this, that in Adam the first came fall and death, but Adam repented, and in Christ the second he will be made alive, resurrected from the dead to enter Eden again and meet Christ.
Faith and Obedient Living
In Adam all are dead, fallen, corrupt and condemned, sharing his death, while in Christ is everlasting deliverance and redemption from that condition. Christ's passion is an eternal sacrifice that forever satisfies divine justice and brings lasting redemption to those who rely on it with firm faith and trust. That grace does not permit continued sin, for faith in God brings His presence, awakens zeal and stirs to good works.
Adam's disgraceful failure on the point of appetite brought ruin to the race, and Christ stood where Adam fell to redeem that failure by triumphing over Satan on that same point in the wilderness. If Christ had been as weak in moral power as man and had yielded a single point where man fails, there would now be no salvation for the race. Because He stood firm where man fails and repulsed the fallen foe at every point, He gained power from His Father to give divine grace and strength so that through His name man may overcome. This is seen in Satan's boast that he could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, a boast that failed because Christ resisted temptation and remained faithful. The first parents' disobedience cost them their right to the tree of life, while obedience to God's words is the condition for life and restored access to it.
Adam's transgression inflicted a deadly wound of death on the whole human family, and Christ came as Redeemer to reverse it. The sinless Son of God, equal with the Father, took human nature and lived a perfect life in man's behalf. Through His ministration and ministry people may receive strength and virtue to overcome in the struggle with evil, become partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption in the world through lust. Being made alive in Christ is not automatic, for the promise is for those who believe, and this life is received by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour and believing in Him.
In Adam the whole human race fell under condemnation and death, losing the gift of life and immortality and the right to the tree of life, so that all die and go to the grave. In Christ all shall be made alive by being brought forth in the resurrection through the plan of salvation, yet not all to everlasting life, for the just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and the second death. The promise is not automatic but belongs to those who are in Christ, united with Him by faith and receiving Him as personal Saviour. As the second Adam, Christ took man's place, met and conquered the foe who triumphed over the first Adam, and by His suffering, death and resurrection paid sin's penalty and regained the forfeited dominion and life more full and complete than what Adam lost. This is a literal resurrection of the dead in which those who sleep in Jesus rise with identity preserved in glorified bodies free from disease and deformity to an earth renewed and freed from sin and sorrow.
Death Through Adam
In Adam all die because his disobedience and transgression and fall brought death and wretchedness upon the whole human family, so that all people come under the penalty of death and go to the grave. Through the plan of salvation all will be brought forth from the dead in the resurrection in Christ, yet being made alive does not mean all receive everlasting life, for the just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and ultimately suffer the second death, and those who continue in sin face eternal death rather than eternal life. Christ took the penalty of Adam's transgression upon Himself as an atoning sacrifice and ransom, bearing sin and taking the sentence of death so that through His blood people may be pardoned, be brought back into God's favor, obey God's law, and regain access to the tree of life and immortality, with a time of probation in which to recognize the evil of sin and choose whom they will follow. The law of Jehovah is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth, so not one precept could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition and even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression, but only the Son of God who created man could make atonement for him.
The fall was from perfect happiness to misery and sin, bringing corruption and condemnation with a heavy curse resting as the portion of the whole race. All who are born of Adam share his dying nature because by disobedience the gift of life and immortality was forfeited, and the first parents by disobedience lost their right to the tree of life. In contrast stands Jesus Christ the second Adam, who came to reconcile fallen people to God, meeting the strong foe who triumphed over Adam, resisting temptation and remaining faithful despite Satan's boast that he could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, so that obedience to God's words is the condition of life and restored access to the tree of life. In Christ humanity is given opportunity to regain the lost gift, for He bore sin's penalty and offers His life to those who receive Him as personal Saviour, and those who accept His righteousness and cooperate with God are received as sons and become partakers of His eternal life and the divine nature, a life more full and complete than the life Adam forfeited.
Through Jesus the promised Redeemer will come life and immortality, and this hope was given to Adam, repeated by Seth, and fully exemplified by Enoch. It was given to clear away darkness and gloom and to keep man under the curse of sin and death from becoming discouraged and doubting what profit there is in fearing God and keeping His ordinances and walking mournfully before Him. The promise gives hope to humanity under that curse, showing that God is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him and showing what He will do for those who keep His commandments.
Enoch's case proves that even while living among a corrupt and sinful people in open rebellion against God, those who obey God and have faith in the promised Redeemer can work righteousness like Enoch, be accepted by God, and finally be exalted to His heavenly throne. By grace to resist temptation and become pure and holy, obedience to God's law is possible even amid sin and corruption, and Enoch was translated without death. His translation stands as evidence that the obedient will receive joy and glory and immortal life, while the transgressor will receive condemnation, woe, and death.
Life Through Christ
To be made alive in Christ is to be brought forth in the resurrection through the plan of salvation. As Adam's sin and disobedience brought death upon the whole human race so that all go to the grave, so all will be raised from the dead, yet being made alive does not mean all receive everlasting life. The just are raised to life while the unjust are raised to judgment and ultimately suffer the second death. Those who continue in sin face eternal death rather than eternal life, for Christ took the penalty of Adam's transgression as an atoning sacrifice to give a probation in which to recognize sin's evil and choose whom to follow.
The promise is not automatic, for it belongs to those who are in Christ and united with Him by faith. It is received by receiving Him as personal Saviour and believing in Him. Christ bore sin's penalty and offers His life to those who so receive Him, and His death gives the probation in which to recognize sin's evil and choose whom to follow. Like a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying to bring forth much fruit, by giving up His life He rose as the firstfruits of a great harvest, and as Life-giver He will call from their graves the dead united to Him by faith as ripe grain for the heavenly garner. The Greeks seeking Jesus were representatives and firstfruits of the Gentiles, showing the partition wall between Jew and Gentile thrown down so that the harvest field is the world and through the gospel of His death and resurrection life and immortality are brought to light and heaven's kingdom is opened to all believers.
Those who accept Jesus are no longer regarded as they are in Adam but as they are in Jesus Christ. They stand as sons and daughters of God, accepted in the Beloved as members of the royal family and children of the heavenly King. They are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. This standing gives complete security, so that God will no more cast off the humblest, lowliest believer than demolish His own throne.
The life Christ offers is more full and complete than the life Adam forfeited by disobedience that forfeited the gift of life and immortality. Those who accept His righteousness and cooperate with God are received as sons and become partakers of His eternal life and the divine nature. The sinless Son, equal with the Father, took human nature and lived a perfect life in man's behalf, so that through His ministration and ministry people may receive strength and virtue to overcome in the struggle with evil. By that life they escape the corruption in the world through lust and the world's corruption.
What was lost in the first Adam is restored and regained in Christ as the second Adam through His suffering, death and sacrifice. His sacrifice pays sin's penalty and recovers the forfeited dominion. The restoration includes the body, which will be raised free from sin's effects, disease, blemish and deformity and made perfect. It extends to the earth, which will be renewed and freed from sin and sorrow as the eternal home of the redeemed in the new earth.
Resurrection Promise Clarified
1 Corinthians 15:22 belongs to Paul's teaching on the literal resurrection of the dead, which is essential to Christian hope. The dead await resurrection rather than receiving immortal blessedness at death, for if they were already in full glory, preaching the resurrection of the body would be pointless. The immortal body need not be made from the same particles of matter as the mortal body, for its identity with the mortal person rests in organization, not in identical matter. Christ risen is the living Saviour, no longer to be mourned as dead, the antitype of the sheaf of the firstfruits, and His resurrection is the greatest message ever given, glad tidings upon which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend. His raising establishes Him as the true divine witness to the resurrection of everyone who believes in Jesus, who is to be accepted, studied and revered as verity and truth sent from God and come down from heaven from the Father to reveal the Father, with safety found only in believing what is truth because it is true.
As a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying to bring forth much fruit, Christ by giving His life rose as the firstfruits of a great harvest, for if He had drawn back from the sacrifice of His life He would have abode alone. As the Life-giver He will call the dead united to Him by faith from their graves as a glorious harvest of ripe grain for the heavenly garner, so that death comes to all through Adam while life comes through Christ. The Greeks seeking Jesus are representatives and firstfruits of the Gentiles at large, showing that after His approaching death the partition wall between Jew and Gentile is thrown down and the broad harvest field becomes the world. Then all nations, tongues and people hear salvation through Christ, so that through the gospel of His death and resurrection and the resurrection of the dead life and immortality are brought to light and the kingdom of heaven is thrown open to all believers.
As the second Adam, Christ broke the devil's hold on the power of death by meeting the enemy on death's own territory and conquering him through dying and rising again. Because He felt the pangs of death and rose to sit at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth, the stinging despair and terror of death is removed for the Christian. His rising decided the conflict with Satan, shaking the enemy's prison-house and taking spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a fresh trophy of victory. That raising with Jesus demonstrates His victory over death and serves as a sample, pledge and assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead to immortal life at His second coming, when at His return Christ will call them from their graves.
Those who sleep in Jesus and belong to Christ will be made alive in the resurrection with individual identity perfectly preserved. As the risen Saviour had a body familiar to His followers in appearance, deportment and speech, so those who sleep in Him will rise in like manner and will be known by their friends as the disciples knew Jesus, recognizing one another and loved ones. Even if their mortal bodies were deformed, diseased or disfigured, they will rise in glorified bodies free from deformity, disease and disfigurement, with faces radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus. This promise assures that death is not final, for Jesus passed through the tomb and made it a place of rest rather than an end, breaking the fetters of the tomb and paving the way for everyone to do the same. Believers' hope of being made alive rests on Christ's personal resurrection and their own resurrection at His coming, when death the last enemy is finally conquered, so they can face death with confidence, long for Christ's return, be laid to rest with assurance of being seen again, triumph over death and the grave, and rise free as those who belong to Him, while He as humanity's representative rose and ascended to open heaven to those made clean and bring those who reflect God's image to behold and share His glory.
Christ the Second Adam
In Adam came the fallen condition through failure and fall that brought disgrace and death upon humanity, while in Christ the second Adam came reconciliation to God through His death, for in love He humbled Himself to take Adam's place, stepping into Adam's steps in man's fallen nature to meet the strong foe who had triumphed over Adam, and by overcoming opened the way of redemption from that failure and fall for all who believe on Him. The contrast stands in the boast that the tempter could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, yet Christ resisted temptation and remained faithful. By disobedience the first parents lost the right to the tree of life, and obedience to God's words is the condition for life and restored access to it.
All was lost when Adam yielded to the power of appetite, and Christ stood in Adam's place to bear the very test Adam failed to endure. In whom the human and the divine were united, He entered a life of conflict to overcome the mighty foe, and through successful conflict to break Satan's power and redeem the race from the disgrace of the fall. His terrible fast of nearly six weeks measures the great sinfulness of debased appetite and the power it holds over the human family. On that same point in the wilderness Christ triumphed over Satan where Adam disgracefully failed, and if He had been as weak in moral power as man and yielded a single point there would now be no salvation for the race, but because He stood firm where man fails and repulsed the fallen foe at every point He gained power from His Father to give divine grace and strength to man so that through His name it is possible to overcome. By His victory in the wilderness of temptation He passed over the ground where Adam fell and redeemed Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, placing the human family on vantage ground with God and making it possible to overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, a truth that lays the foundation for temperance.
Adam's transgression brought loss, wretchedness and death to the human race, while Christ is humanity's only hope of restoration to God's favor, and His sacrifice brings life and immortality. Christ alone in sinless character as the sinless representative of the human race could make an acceptable atonement, and He suffered in proportion to the world's sin and to His own divine purity and excellence, with His suffering in the wilderness for the race. He offered His life as a ransom and took the sentence of death upon Himself, bearing sin to open the way for pardon, so that through His blood people may be forgiven, receive pardon, be brought back into God's favor, obey God's law, and regain access to the tree of life and immortality. This was necessary because the law of Jehovah is the foundation of His government in heaven as well as on earth, so not one of its precepts could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition, and even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression, but only the Son of God who created man could make atonement for him.
The two Adams meet in this, that in Adam the first came fall and death, but Adam repented, and in Christ the second he will be made alive, resurrected from the dead to enter Eden again and meet Christ.
Faith and Obedient Living
In Adam all are dead, fallen, corrupt and condemned, sharing his death, while in Christ is everlasting deliverance and redemption from that condition. Christ's passion is an eternal sacrifice that forever satisfies divine justice and brings lasting redemption to those who rely on it with firm faith and trust. That grace does not permit continued sin, for faith in God brings His presence, awakens zeal and stirs to good works.
Adam's disgraceful failure on the point of appetite brought ruin to the race, and Christ stood where Adam fell to redeem that failure by triumphing over Satan on that same point in the wilderness. If Christ had been as weak in moral power as man and had yielded a single point where man fails, there would now be no salvation for the race. Because He stood firm where man fails and repulsed the fallen foe at every point, He gained power from His Father to give divine grace and strength so that through His name man may overcome. This is seen in Satan's boast that he could lead Christ astray as he had the first Adam, a boast that failed because Christ resisted temptation and remained faithful. The first parents' disobedience cost them their right to the tree of life, while obedience to God's words is the condition for life and restored access to it.
Adam's transgression inflicted a deadly wound of death on the whole human family, and Christ came as Redeemer to reverse it. The sinless Son of God, equal with the Father, took human nature and lived a perfect life in man's behalf. Through His ministration and ministry people may receive strength and virtue to overcome in the struggle with evil, become partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption in the world through lust. Being made alive in Christ is not automatic, for the promise is for those who believe, and this life is received by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour and believing in Him.