Adam and Jesus
by Joey Carroll Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NAS95).
Faith is necessary for salvation. And faith is necessary for understanding that the Word of God is just that––the Word of God.
John Calvin argued that point. He believed that human thinking, historical proofs, and the decree of the Church are all useless to convince a person that the Bible is in fact the Word of God.
Instead, only a divine, supernatural conviction worked in the heart of a man by the Holy Spirit can convince a man that the Bible is divine.
I bring that up because it is so easy to find a post on social media in regard to the Word of God only to be followed by endless comments that compare the Bible to fairy tales.
Men really are ignorant to the truth apart from God’s grace and the working of His Spirit.
Of the things that men cannot grasp apart from faith is the reality of the first man named Adam.
There have been so many led astray from the historicity of Adam in the Church.
If Adam was a fairy tale, then it was quite foolish for the Apostle Paul to use him as proof of bodily resurrection, which we find in 1 Corinthians 15.
If you are not of faith in Christ, let me explain the reason for all suffering and death… Adam. It is really that simple.
The first man represented all of mankind.
He was the forerunner for us all.
And when Adam rejected God’s Word and lived by his own wisdom and desires, he plunged all of mankind into sin and death.
He did not make us to have a strong propensity for sinning; He made us sinners, and he secured our death (see Romans 5).
Paul repeats this doctrinal truth twice. “For since by a man came death” (1 Corinthians 15:21a, NAS95) and “For as in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22a, NAS95).
Now we all certainly prove ourselves to be the offspring of Ada because we all sin.
And we can no sooner save ourselves from our sin than we can save ourselves from certain death.
Men often argue the effects of Adam on the human race, but it is futile.
Sin and death are inseparably bound, and if we say that Adam’s sin did not condemn us all, then we must also assume that Adam’s death will not bear the same fruit in our lives.
Now I have no problem with someone else representing me.
In fact, I have no desire to represent myself when I stand before God on that great day.
I know what I am, and I know who God is.
And if it were not for Christ, I would have absolutely no hope.
But because of God’s grace and my faith in who Jesus is and what he did when He died on the cross for my sins, He will represent me on that day.
And since that is true, my hope lies in the second part of both of those verses I have already quoted.
“For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (15:21-22, NASB).
Now I know as well as you who have faith, Christ has been raised from the dead.
And because He has been raised first, I too will be raised. What Adam destroyed, God has redeemed through the work of Hi glorious Son.
