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CHAPTER
22
CHAPTER
TWENTY TWO
THE
LAST ADAM
In
the eyes the world the Old Testament stories are just
myths, and none more so than the events surrounding
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The God-inspired
writers of Scripture assure us that these things are
true; they are as true as anything else mentioned in
the Holy Bible. If Adam was mythical, then so are we.
The real does not come forth from the unreal.
The
Bible gives us the line of descent from Adam right through
to Jesus Christ. In Genesis all of chapter 5 is taken
up with a genealogical list from Adam to Noah; chapters
9 and 10 tell us of the sons of Noah and of the ancient
nations which came from them; chapter 11 continues the
genealogy from Noah’s son, Shem, to Abraham; in the
New Testament, Matthew takes us from Abraham to
Jesus. What is more is that from Adam to Abraham, we
are not only given the names of the descendants, but
also their age at the time of death. This list does
not begin in myth and then somehow take on reality somewhere
along the line---it is real from the start. And Jesus
knew it to be so.
Adam
and Eve represented all mankind. God, in His knowledge
of all things, created the perfect representative for
us all; He knew that whatever Adam did, we would have
done likewise. So when Adam sinned, we all sinned. God
knows we would have done exactly the same.
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. But each in
his own turn; Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he
comes, those who belong to him.
(1
Corinthians chapter 15, verses 21-23).
We
all failed in Adam, and God gave man over to his sin.
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, mankind has not
had the ability not to sin. Never has there been a human
being who has lived a sinless life---with the obvious
exception of Christ. It has been, and still is, a complete
impossibility for anyone not to sin. We may live an
outward seemingly ‘good’ life but even here we fail;
our thought life is real to God and is full of sin,
and our motives are often selfish without our even realising
it. God sees all. Nothing is hidden, and unless we are
holy as God is holy we are sinners in His sight. God’s
idea of sin is anything, and everything, which is less
than perfect righteousness. Sin holds everyone captive
and none of us can please God---we are all under His
just condemnation. Only one thing can change this miserable
situation---trusting in Jesus.
If
there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
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 from heaven. As was the earthly
man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the
man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly
man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
(1
Corinthians chapter 15, verses 44-49).
The
promise that we will bear the likeness of the man from
heaven (Jesus) is not for everyone regardless of unbelief
or false belief, but only, as we see in the former verse,
for those who ‘belong to Him’. No-one can sit on the
fence in this matter. We either believe or we don’t
believe; we are saved or condemned:
Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects
the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on
him.”
(John
chapter 3, verse 36).
Only
faith in the Son of God, the Last Adam, turns aside
God’s fearful wrath. Should we not tremble at the thought
of the wrath of God? Remember the flood of Noah’s day;
all mankind, apart from one family, wiped out. You don’t
believe in the flood? Jesus did. What about Sodom and
Gomorrah? Whole cities destroyed by fire from the skies.
You don’t believe the account of Sodom and Gomorrah
either! Jesus did.
He
said:
“Just
as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in
the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking,
marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah
entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them
all.
“It
was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating
and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained
down from heaven and destroyed them all.
“It
will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is
revealed------”
(Luke
chapter 17, verses 26-30).
Of
course, we see the stark nature of God’s wrath when
we look at the cross. God’s hatred of sin is seen in
all its raw power as we look upon the tortured, innocent,
dying Son. Do you imagine that was a light thing, an
easy thing for God? That He should load all mankind’s
accumulated evils onto His sinless Son, whom He loved,
and then watch as that Son suffered and died. Nothing
is more serious than the wrath of God. Just as we are
unable to live a sinless life, God can do no other than
to hate sin. And God’s wrath is still to come on an
unrepentant world. Much of the book of Revelation speaks
of these things; in chapter 16 we read of the horrific
consequences as seven bowls of God’s wrath are poured
out upon a wicked, unbelieving world.
Some
might say, ‘But, I thought you said God’s wrath was
satisfied through the cross of Christ? How come there’s
still more?’ God’s wrath was fully satisfied in the
sacrifice of His beloved Son---satisfied regarding those
who would trust in that sacrifice by faith in Jesus.
Instead
of ‘wrath’ we could substitute ‘justice’, for God does
not hate or exact vengeance in the way we humans do.
Because of our fallen nature, everything about us is
marred, our hatred, our vengeance is evil; even our
attempts at justice are sick and lame. God’s wrath is
just; His vengeance is pure. In a moral universe, justice
demands that righteousness triumphs and evil does not.
For those who put their faith in Christ, righteousness
triumphs over evil in their own hearts, and they begin
to ‘bear the likeness of the man from heaven’, the ‘last
Adam’. Concerning those who continue in wickedness,
righteousness will still triumph, but through wrath.
The
first Adam was our earthly representative, and if we
leave it so, we die. The Last Adam, by our faith in
Him, can be our heavenly representative making us, likewise,
of heaven; and if it be so, we live---forever.
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