And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The verse contrasts the first man who was created a living being with Christ the last Adam who is a life-giving spirit with power to renew the soul and raise the body in the resurrection hope. The first Adam was created pure and sinless as a free moral agent, yet by his own choice disobeyed in appetite, lost his innocence and dominion, and brought sin, degeneracy and death upon himself and his posterity. The last Adam is the Son of God who took fallen human nature with its weaknesses and degeneracy, was tempted in all points as Adam was, yet had no evil propensity and kept perfect obedience where Adam fell. Passing over the very ground where Adam failed, He met Satan in the wilderness and in life with fasting, suffering and the word of God, overcame appetite, power and death, and by His obedient sacrifice paid sin's penalty and purchased humanity. Having broken death by His own resurrection, He will come as Life-giver to call the dead to immortal glorious bodies like His own and restore all that was lost by the first Adam, including Eden and man's first dominion, to the redeemed forever.
Resurrection Context and Meaning
1 Corinthians 15:45 belongs to Paul's teaching on the resurrection. That teaching presents a central Christian hope that the dead await the resurrection rather than entering their full glory at death. In that resurrection the identity between the mortal person and the immortal being is preserved in organization, not in the same particles of matter. The matter of the mortal body does not enter into the immortal being.
The change at the resurrection is not a moral change. Moral fitness is gained in this life, while at the resurrection the body is changed from corruptible to incorruptible and made like Christ's glorious body. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit who has power to give life to the body and renew the soul dead in sin. He forgives sins as shown when He healed the paralytic and forgave his sins, and He still gives life and forgiveness.
Two Adams Contrasted
1 Corinthians 15:45 presents two Adams, the first Adam and the second or last Adam who is Christ, and both stood as free moral agents held responsible for their conduct. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being without taint of sin in the image of God, one who could fall. He abused his freedom and let appetite overcome him, disobeying under the smallest test devised to prove obedience, and by that disobedience he lost his innocence and by his own free choice became a sinner separated from God's favor. By that one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and because of his sin his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience and became depraved.
The second Adam is the only begotten Son of God who took human nature in the likeness of sinful flesh and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted, assailed in the wilderness as Adam was assailed in Eden. In taking man's behalf He became subject to sorrow, weariness, hunger, thirst and temptation, and as man's Advocate and Redeemer He must pass over the ground where Adam fell to meet the foe and overcome every temptation in man's behalf. He could have sinned and could have fallen, yet not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity, taint of or inclination to corruption, and He never in any way yielded to corruption but held fast to God and His Word with unwavering faith in His Father's goodness, mercy and love, keeping His Father's commandments in His earthly life with perfect obedience.
The first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than Christ, made a little lower than the angels in the perfection of manhood without taint of sin or decay, with all organs and faculties equally developed and harmoniously balanced and with full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded in Eden with everything his heart could wish and in daily communion with heavenly beings, where by a God who loved them wonderful provision was made and everything in nature was pure and undefiled, with fruits, flowers, beautiful lofty trees and everything Adam and Eve required abundantly supplied. Yet when Satan insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accused the heavenly Father and Sovereign of selfishness for prohibiting the fruit of the tree of knowledge to test loyalty, Eve fell under temptation and Adam, charmed by Satan's sophistry and believing his lie without reaching above his humanity for divine power, accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand. By listening to the suggestions of the enemy he turned his back on the light of his home, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world.
The second Adam lived in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life, surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners. He met Satan in the wilderness apparently without a friend to aid Him, after four thousand years in which sin had marked the race with physical, mental and moral degeneracy and each generation had departed farther from Adam's original purity, with decreasing physical strength, mental power, moral worth, wisdom and knowledge. He humbled Himself and took man's nature as it then existed, with the weaknesses, infirmities and degeneracy of fallen humanity upon Him, in a weakened condition after a long fast of forty days, facing with His humanity on all points on which man could be assailed every device the enemy could suggest with the most enticing words. Unlike the first Adam who faced temptation in perfect unfallen humanity with perfect human strength in Eden, Christ assumed fallen humanity's infirmities and endured a far more severe test, and He would not swerve a hair's breadth from allegiance to God nor become the enemy's bondslave. Though He knew no sin He became sin for humanity and humbled Himself to the lowest depths of human woe, bearing the sins and infirmities of the race, so that He could rescue people from degradation, reach fallen man where he was and elevate him from the degradation in which sin had plunged him, and keep the world from passing under Satan's control.
Victory Where Adam Fell
Christ as the second and last Adam willingly passed over the ground where Adam fell and stood in the first Adam's place to bear the very test Adam failed to endure. He took human nature and entered the same ground as humanity's Redeemer, meeting the temptations and trials faced by humanity and the wily foe who caused Adam and Eve's fall, being tempted in all points as man will be tempted. He bore the world's sins and lived without sin, working out a perfect character, and by enduring the test He undertook the work of rescuing fallen people where the first Adam failed. He humbled Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, becoming man's Advocate to overcome every temptation in behalf of man.
All was lost when Adam yielded to appetite, so Christ met the temptation to gratify flesh and appetite that overwhelmed man in the garden of delight, resisting in His sorest need in a wilderness of desolation the attempt to make Him use His power to satisfy hunger. He united the human and the divine, His humanity reaching to the depths of human wretchedness and identifying with the weaknesses and necessities of fallen man while His divine nature grasped the Eternal, and endured a fast of nearly six weeks whose length proves the great sinfulness of debased appetite and its power over the human family. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being without taint of sin in the image of God who could fall, and he did fall through transgressing, charmed by Satan's sophistry and believing his lie without reaching above his humanity for divine power, so that his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience. The second Adam, the only begotten Son of God who took human nature, was assailed in the wilderness as Adam was assailed in Eden and tempted in all points as human nature is tempted, and He could have sinned and could have fallen, yet not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity, taint of or inclination to corruption, nor did He in any way yield to corruption. He held fast to God and His Word under the most trying circumstances with "It is written" as His weapon of resistance, His faith in His Father's goodness, mercy and love never wavering for one moment, never stepping on Satan's ground to give him advantage and not swerving a hair's breadth from allegiance to God, so Satan found nothing in Him to respond to temptation or encourage his advances.
The contrast of advantage was complete, for the first Adam stood in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body, with none of the effects of sin upon him, surrounded with the glories of Eden and in daily communion with heavenly beings. The second Adam met Satan in the wilderness apparently without a friend to aid Him, after four thousand years of decreasing physical strength, mental power and moral worth, taking upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity in a weakened condition after a long fast of forty days. There with His humanity He faced every device the enemy could suggest with the most enticing words, in order to rescue man from the lowest depths of degradation and keep the world from passing under Satan's control.
Christ met the same temptations from Satan that the first Adam met and that men meet today, including lust for power, and overcame where Adam was overcome. He met the enemy upon his own territory, felt the pangs of death, and conquered the devil who held the power of death, removing its stinging despair and terror for the Christian, and He overcame the enemy in every point. By rising He decided the conflict, defeating Satan, breaking the enemy's hold over the grave, shaking Satan's prison-house to its foundations and robbing him of his spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a fresh trophy of victory, then sitting at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. That resurrection with Him is a sample and an assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead at His second coming, redeeming humanity from suffering the results of Adam's disgraceful fall so that through His strength believers can win the overcomer's reward of eternal life.
By standing the test of trial and temptation with perfect obedience He had infinite power only because of that obedience and became the Owner of all humanity. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh for man's behalf, becoming subject to sorrow, weariness, hunger, thirst and temptation, yet unlike the first Adam He yielded not to sin and no taint of sin was upon Him, keeping His Father's commandments in His earthly life. He laid down His life as a sacrifice so that man by becoming a partaker of the divine nature might have eternal life, being both the sacrifice and the priest who offered it, innocent of all guilt, giving His flesh for the life of the world and giving Himself in exchange for people who had sold themselves to Satan by transgression, His life for the life of the human family who thereby became His purchased possession.
Through His sacrifice He pays sin's penalty and redeems Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, and His obedience reconciles Adam and God. His bearing the guilt of man's transgression gives no license to keep violating the law of God, for transgression made man a debtor to the law which He Himself paid by His suffering, and His trials and sufferings impress man with his great sin in breaking God's law to bring him to repentance and obedience and through obedience to acceptance with God. He imputes His righteousness to man to raise him in moral value with God so his efforts to keep the divine law are acceptable, reconciling man to God through His human nature and God to man through His divine nature. What God's law demanded of Adam and Eve in Eden it demanded of Christ and it demands of every human being, and Christ met that demand by living the law in purity, beneficence, devotion to truth and zeal for God's glory, giving all humanity a pattern to follow, and by suffering betrayal, rejection, condemnation and death to elevate and ennoble man so that by partaking of the divine nature he may be exalted to the right hand of God. The two Adams will meet in Paradise and embrace each other, while the dragon, the beast and the false prophet and all who refused the opportunities and privileges given at infinite cost and did not return to loyalty will be shut out.
Resurrection and Final Restoration
Christ's victory over death was confirmed by His resurrection, which broke death's terror for Christians and removed its stinging despair. He met the enemy upon his own territory, felt the pangs of death, and conquered the devil who held the power of death. When He arose He decided the conflict, shaking Satan's prison-house to its foundations and robbing him of his spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a trophy of victory. Then He sat at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. That resurrection with Him is a sample and an assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead at His second coming.
As the loving Life-giver and divine Restorer He will come and call the dead forth from their prison houses and graves. Believers who mourn therefore do not sorrow as those who have no hope, because their dead will live again. The faithful will come forth not in the poor body that went into the grave but in an immortal, glorious body like His, clothed with immortal splendor. They come forth crowned with glory, honor, and immortality to an endless life of unalloyed happiness, rejoicing in the unfading glories of the earth made new. In the great day of God all who are faithful and true will receive His healing touch and every deformity will be removed. The resurrection transforms believers into Christ's glorious image without destroying their image, so faces remain recognizable, every saint connected by family relationship will know each other, and they will meet loved ones in glorious companionship with heavenly angels.
All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second. At creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth, but by yielding to temptation he was overcome by Satan and brought into bondage, so the dominion he held passed to his conqueror. Thus Satan usurped the dominion originally given to Adam and became the god of this world, and not only man but the earth came under the power of the wicked one. Christ by His sacrifice paying the penalty of sin redeems man and recovers the forfeited first dominion. The earth will be renewed by the power of God and freed from sin and sorrow and, as created to be inhabited, will become the eternal abode of holy, happy, redeemed beings.
The two are real persons who will meet when Eden blooms on earth again and the ransomed are welcomed to the city of God and Paradise. The first Adam sinned against his Maker, was exiled from Eden, bore sorrow, remorse and the penalty of transgression for nearly a thousand years, repented and trusted the merits of the promised Saviour, and died in hope of a resurrection. He is raised from the dead and brought back into Eden amid the beauty of heaven to meet Christ. The last Adam is the Son of God who created him and bears in His form the prints of the cruel nails for Adam's sin. He stands with outstretched arms to receive him, tenderly lifts him from humiliation at His feet, reinstates him in his first dominion, leads him to Eden restored more lovely than when he was banished and to the tree of life to eat, and receives his worship and embrace with his redeemed family as the Lamb that was slain and lives again. The two Adams embrace each other in Paradise, while the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet and all who refused the opportunities and privileges given at infinite cost and did not return to loyalty are shut out.
Example for Believers
1 Corinthians 15:45 presents Christ as the second Adam who took human nature and met the temptations and trials faced by humanity, passing over the ground where Adam fell. He bore the world's sins, lived without sin, and redeemed Adam's failure by working out a perfect character. His life shows that human beings can live sinless lives through God's power. He met the same temptations from Satan that the first Adam met and that men meet today, and overcame where Adam was overcome, making it possible for man to overcome. Through Christ the moral image of God is restored in those who serve Him.
The temptation to gratify flesh and appetite that overwhelmed man in the garden of delight was resisted by Christ in His sorest need in a wilderness of desolation, and with His victory over lust for power help is laid upon One mighty to save. Man's efforts joined to Christ's power bring man off a conqueror. Man in his own strength with enfeebled moral powers could only be conquered. He overcame the enemy in every point and redeemed humanity from suffering the results of Adam's disgraceful fall, and through His strength believers can win the overcomer's reward of eternal life.
What God's law demanded of Adam and Eve in Eden it demanded of Christ, and it demands of every human being. Christ met that demand by living the law in purity, beneficence, devotion to truth and zeal for God's glory, giving all humanity a pattern to follow. By suffering betrayal, rejection, condemnation and death He elevates and ennobles man so that by partaking of the divine nature he may be exalted. As the second Adam He is the Son of God, the express image of the Father's person, who became man's Advocate and Redeemer, humbling Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, to pass over the ground where Adam fell, meet the wily foe who caused Adam and Eve's fall, be tempted in all points as man will be tempted, and overcome every temptation in behalf of man. Therefore man is to look to Him for counsel and wisdom, and while every human being is to be loved for Christ's sake, no human is to be looked to as supreme in counsel and unerring in wisdom.
The verse contrasts the first man who was created a living being with Christ the last Adam who is a life-giving spirit with power to renew the soul and raise the body in the resurrection hope.
The first Adam was created pure and sinless as a free moral agent, yet by his own choice disobeyed in appetite, lost his innocence and dominion, and brought sin, degeneracy and death upon himself and his posterity.
The last Adam is the Son of God who took fallen human nature with its weaknesses and degeneracy, was tempted in all points as Adam was, yet had no evil propensity and kept perfect obedience where Adam fell.
Passing over the very ground where Adam failed, He met Satan in the wilderness and in life with fasting, suffering and the word of God, overcame appetite, power and death, and by His obedient sacrifice paid sin's penalty and purchased humanity.
Having broken death by His own resurrection, He will come as Life-giver to call the dead to immortal glorious bodies like His own and restore all that was lost by the first Adam, including Eden and man's first dominion, to the redeemed forever.
Resurrection Context and Meaning
1 Corinthians 15:45 belongs to Paul's teaching on the resurrection. That teaching presents a central Christian hope that the dead await the resurrection rather than entering their full glory at death. In that resurrection the identity between the mortal person and the immortal being is preserved in organization, not in the same particles of matter. The matter of the mortal body does not enter into the immortal being.
The change at the resurrection is not a moral change. Moral fitness is gained in this life, while at the resurrection the body is changed from corruptible to incorruptible and made like Christ's glorious body. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit who has power to give life to the body and renew the soul dead in sin. He forgives sins as shown when He healed the paralytic and forgave his sins, and He still gives life and forgiveness.
Two Adams Contrasted
1 Corinthians 15:45 presents two Adams, the first Adam and the second or last Adam who is Christ, and both stood as free moral agents held responsible for their conduct. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being without taint of sin in the image of God, one who could fall. He abused his freedom and let appetite overcome him, disobeying under the smallest test devised to prove obedience, and by that disobedience he lost his innocence and by his own free choice became a sinner separated from God's favor. By that one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and because of his sin his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience and became depraved.
The second Adam is the only begotten Son of God who took human nature in the likeness of sinful flesh and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted, assailed in the wilderness as Adam was assailed in Eden. In taking man's behalf He became subject to sorrow, weariness, hunger, thirst and temptation, and as man's Advocate and Redeemer He must pass over the ground where Adam fell to meet the foe and overcome every temptation in man's behalf. He could have sinned and could have fallen, yet not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity, taint of or inclination to corruption, and He never in any way yielded to corruption but held fast to God and His Word with unwavering faith in His Father's goodness, mercy and love, keeping His Father's commandments in His earthly life with perfect obedience.
The first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than Christ, made a little lower than the angels in the perfection of manhood without taint of sin or decay, with all organs and faculties equally developed and harmoniously balanced and with full vigor of mind and body. He was surrounded in Eden with everything his heart could wish and in daily communion with heavenly beings, where by a God who loved them wonderful provision was made and everything in nature was pure and undefiled, with fruits, flowers, beautiful lofty trees and everything Adam and Eve required abundantly supplied. Yet when Satan insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accused the heavenly Father and Sovereign of selfishness for prohibiting the fruit of the tree of knowledge to test loyalty, Eve fell under temptation and Adam, charmed by Satan's sophistry and believing his lie without reaching above his humanity for divine power, accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand. By listening to the suggestions of the enemy he turned his back on the light of his home, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world.
The second Adam lived in a much less favorable situation for leading a sinless life, surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners. He met Satan in the wilderness apparently without a friend to aid Him, after four thousand years in which sin had marked the race with physical, mental and moral degeneracy and each generation had departed farther from Adam's original purity, with decreasing physical strength, mental power, moral worth, wisdom and knowledge. He humbled Himself and took man's nature as it then existed, with the weaknesses, infirmities and degeneracy of fallen humanity upon Him, in a weakened condition after a long fast of forty days, facing with His humanity on all points on which man could be assailed every device the enemy could suggest with the most enticing words. Unlike the first Adam who faced temptation in perfect unfallen humanity with perfect human strength in Eden, Christ assumed fallen humanity's infirmities and endured a far more severe test, and He would not swerve a hair's breadth from allegiance to God nor become the enemy's bondslave. Though He knew no sin He became sin for humanity and humbled Himself to the lowest depths of human woe, bearing the sins and infirmities of the race, so that He could rescue people from degradation, reach fallen man where he was and elevate him from the degradation in which sin had plunged him, and keep the world from passing under Satan's control.
Victory Where Adam Fell
Christ as the second and last Adam willingly passed over the ground where Adam fell and stood in the first Adam's place to bear the very test Adam failed to endure. He took human nature and entered the same ground as humanity's Redeemer, meeting the temptations and trials faced by humanity and the wily foe who caused Adam and Eve's fall, being tempted in all points as man will be tempted. He bore the world's sins and lived without sin, working out a perfect character, and by enduring the test He undertook the work of rescuing fallen people where the first Adam failed. He humbled Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, becoming man's Advocate to overcome every temptation in behalf of man.
All was lost when Adam yielded to appetite, so Christ met the temptation to gratify flesh and appetite that overwhelmed man in the garden of delight, resisting in His sorest need in a wilderness of desolation the attempt to make Him use His power to satisfy hunger. He united the human and the divine, His humanity reaching to the depths of human wretchedness and identifying with the weaknesses and necessities of fallen man while His divine nature grasped the Eternal, and endured a fast of nearly six weeks whose length proves the great sinfulness of debased appetite and its power over the human family. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being without taint of sin in the image of God who could fall, and he did fall through transgressing, charmed by Satan's sophistry and believing his lie without reaching above his humanity for divine power, so that his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience. The second Adam, the only begotten Son of God who took human nature, was assailed in the wilderness as Adam was assailed in Eden and tempted in all points as human nature is tempted, and He could have sinned and could have fallen, yet not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity, taint of or inclination to corruption, nor did He in any way yield to corruption. He held fast to God and His Word under the most trying circumstances with "It is written" as His weapon of resistance, His faith in His Father's goodness, mercy and love never wavering for one moment, never stepping on Satan's ground to give him advantage and not swerving a hair's breadth from allegiance to God, so Satan found nothing in Him to respond to temptation or encourage his advances.
The contrast of advantage was complete, for the first Adam stood in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body, with none of the effects of sin upon him, surrounded with the glories of Eden and in daily communion with heavenly beings. The second Adam met Satan in the wilderness apparently without a friend to aid Him, after four thousand years of decreasing physical strength, mental power and moral worth, taking upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity in a weakened condition after a long fast of forty days. There with His humanity He faced every device the enemy could suggest with the most enticing words, in order to rescue man from the lowest depths of degradation and keep the world from passing under Satan's control.
Christ met the same temptations from Satan that the first Adam met and that men meet today, including lust for power, and overcame where Adam was overcome. He met the enemy upon his own territory, felt the pangs of death, and conquered the devil who held the power of death, removing its stinging despair and terror for the Christian, and He overcame the enemy in every point. By rising He decided the conflict, defeating Satan, breaking the enemy's hold over the grave, shaking Satan's prison-house to its foundations and robbing him of his spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a fresh trophy of victory, then sitting at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. That resurrection with Him is a sample and an assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead at His second coming, redeeming humanity from suffering the results of Adam's disgraceful fall so that through His strength believers can win the overcomer's reward of eternal life.
By standing the test of trial and temptation with perfect obedience He had infinite power only because of that obedience and became the Owner of all humanity. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh for man's behalf, becoming subject to sorrow, weariness, hunger, thirst and temptation, yet unlike the first Adam He yielded not to sin and no taint of sin was upon Him, keeping His Father's commandments in His earthly life. He laid down His life as a sacrifice so that man by becoming a partaker of the divine nature might have eternal life, being both the sacrifice and the priest who offered it, innocent of all guilt, giving His flesh for the life of the world and giving Himself in exchange for people who had sold themselves to Satan by transgression, His life for the life of the human family who thereby became His purchased possession.
Through His sacrifice He pays sin's penalty and redeems Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, and His obedience reconciles Adam and God. His bearing the guilt of man's transgression gives no license to keep violating the law of God, for transgression made man a debtor to the law which He Himself paid by His suffering, and His trials and sufferings impress man with his great sin in breaking God's law to bring him to repentance and obedience and through obedience to acceptance with God. He imputes His righteousness to man to raise him in moral value with God so his efforts to keep the divine law are acceptable, reconciling man to God through His human nature and God to man through His divine nature. What God's law demanded of Adam and Eve in Eden it demanded of Christ and it demands of every human being, and Christ met that demand by living the law in purity, beneficence, devotion to truth and zeal for God's glory, giving all humanity a pattern to follow, and by suffering betrayal, rejection, condemnation and death to elevate and ennoble man so that by partaking of the divine nature he may be exalted to the right hand of God. The two Adams will meet in Paradise and embrace each other, while the dragon, the beast and the false prophet and all who refused the opportunities and privileges given at infinite cost and did not return to loyalty will be shut out.
Resurrection and Final Restoration
Christ's victory over death was confirmed by His resurrection, which broke death's terror for Christians and removed its stinging despair. He met the enemy upon his own territory, felt the pangs of death, and conquered the devil who held the power of death. When He arose He decided the conflict, shaking Satan's prison-house to its foundations and robbing him of his spoils by bringing up a company of the sleeping dead as a trophy of victory. Then He sat at the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven and on earth. That resurrection with Him is a sample and an assurance of the final resurrection of the righteous dead at His second coming.
As the loving Life-giver and divine Restorer He will come and call the dead forth from their prison houses and graves. Believers who mourn therefore do not sorrow as those who have no hope, because their dead will live again. The faithful will come forth not in the poor body that went into the grave but in an immortal, glorious body like His, clothed with immortal splendor. They come forth crowned with glory, honor, and immortality to an endless life of unalloyed happiness, rejoicing in the unfading glories of the earth made new. In the great day of God all who are faithful and true will receive His healing touch and every deformity will be removed. The resurrection transforms believers into Christ's glorious image without destroying their image, so faces remain recognizable, every saint connected by family relationship will know each other, and they will meet loved ones in glorious companionship with heavenly angels.
All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second. At creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth, but by yielding to temptation he was overcome by Satan and brought into bondage, so the dominion he held passed to his conqueror. Thus Satan usurped the dominion originally given to Adam and became the god of this world, and not only man but the earth came under the power of the wicked one. Christ by His sacrifice paying the penalty of sin redeems man and recovers the forfeited first dominion. The earth will be renewed by the power of God and freed from sin and sorrow and, as created to be inhabited, will become the eternal abode of holy, happy, redeemed beings.
The two are real persons who will meet when Eden blooms on earth again and the ransomed are welcomed to the city of God and Paradise. The first Adam sinned against his Maker, was exiled from Eden, bore sorrow, remorse and the penalty of transgression for nearly a thousand years, repented and trusted the merits of the promised Saviour, and died in hope of a resurrection. He is raised from the dead and brought back into Eden amid the beauty of heaven to meet Christ. The last Adam is the Son of God who created him and bears in His form the prints of the cruel nails for Adam's sin. He stands with outstretched arms to receive him, tenderly lifts him from humiliation at His feet, reinstates him in his first dominion, leads him to Eden restored more lovely than when he was banished and to the tree of life to eat, and receives his worship and embrace with his redeemed family as the Lamb that was slain and lives again. The two Adams embrace each other in Paradise, while the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet and all who refused the opportunities and privileges given at infinite cost and did not return to loyalty are shut out.
Example for Believers
1 Corinthians 15:45 presents Christ as the second Adam who took human nature and met the temptations and trials faced by humanity, passing over the ground where Adam fell. He bore the world's sins, lived without sin, and redeemed Adam's failure by working out a perfect character. His life shows that human beings can live sinless lives through God's power. He met the same temptations from Satan that the first Adam met and that men meet today, and overcame where Adam was overcome, making it possible for man to overcome. Through Christ the moral image of God is restored in those who serve Him.
The temptation to gratify flesh and appetite that overwhelmed man in the garden of delight was resisted by Christ in His sorest need in a wilderness of desolation, and with His victory over lust for power help is laid upon One mighty to save. Man's efforts joined to Christ's power bring man off a conqueror. Man in his own strength with enfeebled moral powers could only be conquered. He overcame the enemy in every point and redeemed humanity from suffering the results of Adam's disgraceful fall, and through His strength believers can win the overcomer's reward of eternal life.
What God's law demanded of Adam and Eve in Eden it demanded of Christ, and it demands of every human being. Christ met that demand by living the law in purity, beneficence, devotion to truth and zeal for God's glory, giving all humanity a pattern to follow. By suffering betrayal, rejection, condemnation and death He elevates and ennobles man so that by partaking of the divine nature he may be exalted. As the second Adam He is the Son of God, the express image of the Father's person, who became man's Advocate and Redeemer, humbling Himself in taking the nature of man in his fallen condition without taking the taint of sin, to pass over the ground where Adam fell, meet the wily foe who caused Adam and Eve's fall, be tempted in all points as man will be tempted, and overcome every temptation in behalf of man. Therefore man is to look to Him for counsel and wisdom, and while every human being is to be loved for Christ's sake, no human is to be looked to as supreme in counsel and unerring in wisdom.