For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 NIV)
The story of humanity begins with the story of Adam. Adam, created by God in the beginning, was the first human fashioned by God. The one created to image God and walk with God. The one formed to tend the Garden of Eden and expand the garden throughout the rest of the world. Adam was to be the firstborn among a holy creation. But that’s not how the story ended. What was meant to be a holy union between God and man became a total separation. The image of God fractured within all of humanity. Rather than being the firstborn among a holy people, Adam became the firstborn among a dying humanity. And the repercussions of his choices are still felt today.
The First Adam
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (Romans 5:12 NIV)
The first Adam can be characterized by two words: death and disobedience.
Because of Adam’s disobedience, sin entered into creation.
Because sin entered into creation, death became the destiny of every human being.
The man was more than the first image bearer; he was the head of the human race. Given this headship, his responsibility carried with it the potential for profoundly devastating consequences. If Adam was sent out of Eden, we were sent out in him too. When Adam acted, he acted in our place. The impact of his decision, therefore, was far-reaching and ongoing. When Adam took and ate, we were in him taking and eating. His problem became our problem; his fall, our fall.1
In the first Adam, we were separated from God. Adam’s sin became our sin, creating the great chasm that exists between every human and the God who loves them. And this issue continued throughout history, from Adam and Eve and their children, to Noah and Abraham and David. Sin, disobedience, and death continued to plague humanity at every turn. While a sacrificial system was instituted to cover sins for a time, it still couldn’t do away with sin or fully repair the gap that existed between the Creator and the created. But just as sin entered the world through the first Adam, salvation and healing entered through the Second Adam.
The Second Adam
Jesus reverses the rebellion brought on by Adam in the Garden of Eden. While Adam’s disobedience brought death, Jesus’ obedience brought life. What was lost through Adam was redeemed through Jesus. Now, in Christ, humanity has an open door to redemption, relationship, and eternal life. As Paul writes in his letter to the Church at Corinth:
So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being;’ the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. (1 Corinthians 15:45-49 NIV)
Jesus is the Second Adam. The first Adam relegated separation from God. The last Adam restored relationship with God. Jesus as the second and last Adam gives us access to walk in right relationship with the God who loves us, sees us, and knows us. Now, anyone who is in Christ, is forgiven, healed, and restored back to God.
In Christ
Professor Mitchell L. Chase writes:
Union with Christ means we are no longer in Adam. We are now in Christ through faith. With the open hands of faith, we have received God’s gracious provision of rescue in his Son. The disciple’s whole life is the outgrowth of this new and inseverable union. We have been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ. Adam was “a type of the one who was to come” (Rom. 5:14), but their corresponding acts are contrasts. Adam broke God’s law, while Christ kept God’s law. And the new covenant that Christ established is a covenant that cannot be undermined, corrupted, or nullified. Life in the new covenant is life in Christ, and life in Christ means the tree of life is ours forever.
In Jesus, our relationship with God is restored.
All that was lost is now found in Him.
As Alyssa Roat writes:
Adam was the figurehead of broken humanity; Jesus is now the Head of the redeemed Church.
Adam was the figurehead of broken humanity;
Jesus is now the Head of the redeemed Church.
In Jesus, our sins are forgiven, and our shame is transformed into joy.
This truth is why the foundation of our lives as followers of Jesus is abiding. It’s what Jesus taught us to do in John 15, making our home in Him.
To be in union with Christ is to be in union with the Last Adam.
It’s to come out from under the weight of sin and death.
It’s to enter into “the life that is truly life” that the writers of the New Testament speak about.
In and through Jesus, we get to live free.
Free from sin and shame. Free from death and condemnation. Free from despair and misery.
What was shattered through the first Adam is put back together in the Last Adam.
As the Apostle Paul sums it up:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (1 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
Learn More About Jesus as the Second Adam
Jesus as the Second Adam has major implications for us as followers of Jesus.
To dive deeper into this topic, we’ve created a new online course coming soon to AWKNG School of Theology called Theological Anthropology.
In this course, Dr. Joshua R. Harris walks you through:
- A Big Picture of the Scriptural Narrative of Human Identity
- The biblical, philosophical, and theological foundations for a theology of human nature
- The role constitution has for other categories in theological anthropology
- The organizing role ‘creaturely, ‘divine’, ‘hearing’, and ‘seeing’ has in the Scriptural portrait of the human
And to learn more about AWKNG and how we’re making high-quality Biblical education accessible to all, click here.