The Second Adam

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 143

Psalm 143 ESV

A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.

Scripture Reading: Advent 1

The first candle, which is purple, symbolizes hope. It is sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle” in remembrance of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who foretold the birth of Christ. It represents the expectation felt in anticipation of the coming Messiah.

Thus this morning our thought is hope. For it was into a hopeless world that our savior was born. Those who would put hope in their own goodness will learn that no one is righteous, no not one (Psalm 14:1-3). Then there are those who would place their hope in other gods. They will find that they are in the end worthless idols (Psalm 97:7). Even those who would trust in the Law of God will find that they are still left without hope because as Paul writes in Romans 7:10 that “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” So then what hope was there. The hope that God would send a Messiah! The hope that God would be the one to save, in fact, in proclaiming the blessed truth of the Birth of our Savior Matthew quotes Isaiah and tells us that his name is Immanuel which means “God With us” (Matthew 1:23). When the angels proclaim the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds their message is one of hope in a hopeless world as they say In Luke 2:11: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” But as we remember advent let us remember that he is our hope. As The Heidelberg catechism asks: What is our only hope in life and death? A: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

May the hope of Christ be with you as we live in the light of this, the first advent candle!

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well this Sunday, as you might have noticed by the lighting of our candle earlier today, marks the first Sunday in advent. advent is the time set aside traditionally, and I would say rightfully so, as a time to remember and think and ponder and even prepare our hearts for Christmas, or the arrival of our savior. A lot of movies ad things you will read and see around this time focus heavily on “what is the meaning of Christmas” or “what is the true Christmas spirit”? I was at Hobby Lobby just yesterday buying the advent candles (and you might be thinking, that's cutting it close, and you would be right…) but I was there and there was a pillow that had the Grinch's face on it, and it said “maybe Christmas, he thought doesn't come from a store” which is just super ironic that a store was selling that… but i digress. Because while those thoughts are good, and have some good thoughts behind them, we should note, to say it in a cute phrase, even thought I usually hate cute sayings “Jesus is the reason for the season”

But for the last over 1000 years, and almost 1800 years according to some sources, we have set aside this portion of the year to think about and remember the incarnation of our savior. And so as I was contemplating in my heart i was struggle to know what to do for our advent series this year. What is an appropriate and timely thought for this year? How can we use this time to prepare our hearts to remember and reflect on the coming of our savior I was encouraged by a passage that we just read two weeks ago. We preached on the confession of Peter. And in that passage we noted that Jesus asked the disciples in Matthew 16:15

Matthew 16:15 ESV

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

And so for the next four weeks I would like to give us four detailed ways that we could answer that. Four thoughts that I believe will help our spirit. The way peter answers is : You are the christ the son of the Living God. And that is a loaded and theologically big statement. There is a lot going on there, and how we fully understand that is important. It is also i would argue, not the only way that we could answer that question. And so we will be spending the next four weeks finding different answers in Scripture to that question. Different ways that we can resp pond to “who do you say that I am”?. Because if you were to come up to me and say OK David, who is Jesus? Maybe I would respond with he is the Christ the son of the living God. Or I would say is the the Messiah, he is the son of Man, that was his favorite phrase to call himself. Son of David. He is savior, Lord, King of Kings, we could go on and on. He is so many things, but as we go through advent I have selected four different ways that Scripture answers this question, that I pray will be helpful and useful to your and your souls.

The fist one is, and you know, sometimes you make plans and then think: what in the world have I gotten myself into, and that would be this Sunday, we are tackling a huge and broadly theological topic that is difficult to get a full grasp on, but i selected it because i think it is important, but one of the ways that we could answer this question is by saying that he is the Second, or last, Adam.

THE SECOND ADAM

Christ is the second Adam. This was in fact one of Paul's Go to illustrations and explanations of Who Jesus was. He mentions is a couple of times, the one that we will be looking at is 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 45-49. That will be our passage for today. But because we are, and for this whole series, we will be taking chunks of Scripture and wont have the benefit of a lot of time in the context, before we read this I would like to give us some context. What is Paul writing about and what is he thinking about?

Well chapter 15 is the next to the last chapter of 1st Corinthians. so he is getting to the end of his writing and his thoughts to this church. and up to this point there has been a lot going on with what this church is getting wrong. They have some wrong thoughts and actions, they have some wrong theology. hey have been taught many wrong things, not by Paul, but others. And one of the thoughts that seems to be taking hold of them are thoughts pertaining to the Resurrection, and in particular the thought that there would be no bodily Resurrection. We don’t know EXACTLY what the controversy was but it was probably something like: the resurrection makes no sense. What is this thought that you will get a new body? The church had fallen prey to some Gnostic type thoughts that the Body was inherently bad and sinful and evil, and therefore death was a freedom from this physical plane and we can become pure spirit and in dong so become like God. SO Paul is talking about how we will be raised. And in fact we will get a new and glorified Physical body. So he is dealing with Resurrection thoughts and the differences between the body now and the body then, trig to maintain that yes it will be different, but not like that. SO n thinking through the resurrection ad what is going to happen and correct some wrongs the church has he wrote the following:

1 Corinthians 15:45–49 ESV

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Before we tackle this extraordinarily difficult passage lets begin with a word of prayer

Dear Lord we thank you for today, another day that you have made that we may rejoice and be glad in it. We thank you for your goodness and grace, your kindness and mercy towards us. We thank you that you have called us, that you have saved us and you have made us your own. Thank you that we who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord find in him a perfect savior. That we can now be identified with his righteousness and goodness, in our lives. That as you see us you no longer see our own striving and might but instead the precious and perfect work of our savior. Thank you for sending him, may we be found in him. In Jesu name we pray. Amen

So as we read there are two Adams. There s a first and then a second or last Adam noted in this passage. and would like to get out of the way the sort of hardest stuff first, then we can wrestle through the meat o this passage. The best way, in my opinion, to understand all this is through what is called “federal headship”. I don't want to get into what all that means, you can write it down, look it up, that is a highly technical theological term that seeks to answer the “how” of something we all agree on. WE all agree that Adam sinned and now all people are sinners. and we all agree Christ worked and we are hid in him, but the hard part is “how exactly does that work”. So yes we are identified with these, but how does that happen

so by way of example suppose tomorrow the United states of America declares war on someone. Lets suppose war is declared. WE can and probably would say “we are at war”. But wait a second. I never declared war, no individual person declared war. Instead Congress and the president THEY declared war. But because they are over us on a civil level, what they declared what they do is representative of us. So when we talk about headship we are saying that here are people who are above us. and there are people in history that what they have doe and who they are becomes Representative for us.

And so it s important for us to understand how we have two Adams. So before we dive into Jesus as the second Adam, we have to deal with the fist one. And so, you might NOT be asking, who is the first Adam? well the answer is fairly obvious, it is ADAM

The First Adam: ADAM

You might have heard of this guy, the first Adam is Adam from the book of Genesis. The first man created out of the dust with the breath of life breathed into him, made in the image of god. That Adam. He becomes for us what we would call a type of Christ. he is a picture and am important one. because all of s are identified in him. Ad because we are descended form this first man Adam, because all of us are Adams decedents, there are some things that are true of us because of our identity in him. and as we look at this passage and think through this I would like to draw out three things that we, for lack of a better way to say it, inherit, by the nature of being “from” Adam.

The first is LIFE

LIFE

Paul notes this in 1 Corinthians 15:45. Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being.

And because Adam himself was a living being those who are descended form him are also, in fact, living beings. We inherit, through this lineage that God has ordained, we actually inherit physical life. In some ways this is fairly common sensical, but it is important we grasp this. The reason that you are alive is because Adam was alive. And Adam had children who were alive. and those children who were alive had children who were alive. and that continues in an unbroken succession of life until we get to us. Life begets life is the principle here. and so because God saw fit to breathe life into Adam, so too we have life. and the life we have is a different kind of life.

Paul dealt with this before.

1 Corinthians 15:38–39 ESV

But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

And so we inherit a HUMAN life. There are two things to note here.

ONE: part of this is this. Why is the thought ath man is made in the image of God so important? It is because the life that we have being in Adam is a unique and special kind of life. made in the image of God. Therefore all human being who have ever walked the face of the earth are worth of honor and worthy of love and respect. because they all bear this life that we all inherited form Adam. SO when you look to your neighbor, it does not matter their socio-economic status, their race, their gender their anything, all people inherit this same valuable life from Adam. so that is point one, but point two is this, because of the value of this life, we must be staunchly PRO-LIFE

Even that phrase, PRO-LIFE carries with it great weight and great theological truth. The reason that we look to what is growing in the mothers womb and say that is a life worth protecting and valuing is this: we all inherit the same life, God it gave it to us. By being descended from Adam, you have this and therefore you have worth and value.

And I wanted to start focusing on what we inherit from Adam by noting that it means for us worth and value, for two reasons. The first is that we should understand that this life is a good gift from God. But two it is because where we are going to go next is maybe not so positive. So we should note that you can and should say both things. On one hand this life is valuable, and this life given by god though the nature of being descended form Adam. We therefore deserve respect, we all have value and deserve dignity. that is true, but on the other hand we inherited some other things that are a little less praise worthy.

The first is what I would call “DUSTINESS”

“DUSTINESS”

note here the quotation marks. I do not mean that you are all dusty, though living in New Mexico we have more than pour fair share of Dust. io am not talking about the state of your hose but something bigger. Paul notes in verse 47

1 Corinthians 15:47 (ESV)

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust;

Similarity verse 48

1 Corinthians 15:48 (ESV)

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust

Interestingly I think Paul is highlighting, in calling out and noting that we are made form dust two things.

One: because we are made of this “stuff” of this earth, there is an earthly tie to us. this body is here on this earth. and often it languishes. It surely exists on this earth, and so we inherit this sort of earthy ness, this dustiness just being here in these bodies. but Two, and more to the point, also i believe this thing of dustiness has to do with the temporary nature of our lives here.

Scripture is very clear that life is fleeting. the book of Ecclesiastes says we are here for just an instant. A vapor a thin mist that quickly passes away. All of this and more is in this thought of our “dustiness” and so in bearing verse 49 the image of the man of dust, in bearing this dustiness we inherent form Adam we know that life is fleeting temporary and sometimes tragically short. When we talk about dustiness we inherit form Adam, we are talking about living life here on this earth, and all that goes along with it.

As we celebrate advent, or what we could call the Christmas season, for some it is, as the song says, “The most wonderful time of the year”. But for others, this time is a painful one. It is a reminder of those who have left, of sorrows and troubles and hurts and trials from their past. The “dustiness” of our lives becomes apparent for many people in this time.

To help you: I would say DO OT LOOSE HOPE. As we talked about earlier, this is the Sunday of Hope. there is hope eve in our dustiness. But the point here is that we all face this dustiness. We all understand and know that this life will be difficult, fleeting and temporary. This is part of our inheritance form the first Adam. But all of this is tied to what ultimately becomes the biggest thing we inherit. and that is SIN

SIN

Books can and have been written on how EXACTLY we inherit sin form Adam. There is a book called “THE IMPUTATION OF ADAM’S SIN” by John Murray, probably my favorite on the subject. But that is a difficult read I will not subject you to all of that, but lets dive into what is clear and what is important for us: WE all have the stain of sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. In Romans we have another place where Paul talks about this idea that there is a first and a second Adam. Romans 5 in particular. Lets look at verse 12

Romans 5:12 (ESV)

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Skipping

Romans 5:14 ESV

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Here’s Paul's point: ADAM SINNED, somehow in some way, when Adam sinned we all inherited form Adam sinfulness. Thus we say: no one is righteous, no not one. No one seeks God. For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. So too death spread to ALL of us because of this sin. This is the most poignant theologically speaking the most important and most dire thing we inherit from the fist Adam. It is sin.

Sin is what then magnifies the dustiness. It is what takes from us the good life we should inherit. It becomes the thing that corrupts all the gifts we should inherit. Thus, we inherit a life that is temporary and fleeting. When HE created Man in the garden there were two trees. The knowledge of Good and evil, but also the tree of life. But because Adam sinned and ate from the one tree he didn not get to experience the fruit of the other. Because of sin our “dustiness” for lack of a better way to put it is highlighted. Because death enters the word through, we read it in Romans 5 through sin. And the our fleeting nature is emphasized. Sin does this. why Paul came here, the life itself is not the problem, it is sin.

So what is important her is to know is the idea of a principle is that to be born of the earth is to be early minded. and therefore to be consumed with earthly sinful physical thoughts. - and this we inherit form Adam. Though we inherit it this does not mean that we are not guilty. True we inherit sin, just as sin enters the world so too death, but this does not leave us off the hook, for we have all sinned. Thus all people, in all places, over all the world, who inherited life dustiness and sin through Adam are in hopeless spot. Yet we stand here with hope? Why? The second Adam, Jesus Chrsit our Lord

The second Adam: Jesus

The second Adam is Jesus, is the Chrsit, our Messiah. And just like all people inherit things through the first Adam, so too ALL THOSE WHO CALL UPON THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST WILL FIND SALVATION AND PRECIOUS GIFTS IN THE SECOND ADAM.

But there is a breakdown if we think of the picture betwen first and second Adam that we need to note. We all, by the nature of being born a human being inherit these things form the first Adam. all the things we inherit through the second Adam are obtained by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We must be careful when we talk about first and second Adam that we do not take the universal principles of the first Adam and make a sort of universal salvation sort of argument for the second Adam, that is not the case. But ALL WHO TRUST IN JESUS WILL BE SAVED/ and Paul shares with us some beautiful gifts that we have in being in Christ. The first is SPIRIT

SPIRIT

1 Corinthians 15:45 ESV

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

we receive life giving Spirit. again there are a few disagreements on how exactly to read this passage, I will share with you how I lean. ad this is how I would like to encourage your souls. In the book of John the disciples were lamenting the fact that their savior had come but he said he was going to leave them. “Well the what do we do” “You cant leave u s Jesus, you just got here. We need you” But jesus says: It is better if I go, for if I go I will send the comforter the Spirit. The spirit the for us becomes, for lack of a better way to put it, the Christians birthright. I believe with my whole heart that Scripture plainly and beautifully teaches that all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ have been given to FULL MEASURE the Holy Spirit. The Holy spirit convicts us, he seals us, he equips us. there is no middle ground where some people are saved and have not the spirit, and some are saved and DO have the Spirit and to teach otherwise is dangerous. all of us who are in Christ have been given the spirit. he lives within us moving us teaching us sanctifying us,giving us gifts. teaching us how to please God how to Know God. He equips us to: Ephesians 1: live lives worthy of the calling we have recieved, that is a gift we have being in the second Adam.

Another way to read this, which is then empowered by the spirit, so I think really the same way to read it is this: if being in the first Adam means a earthly minded life, then having life giving spirit meas we no longer live by the flesh. It is no longer the flesh that dictates my life but now i live and move in the spirit. that is our hope. The Spirit empowers us, we walk and live in the Spirit. Ad no, instead of having citizenship in this dusty realm we call earth, we have been granted in Christ HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

1 Corinthians 15:47 ESV

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:48 (ESV)

and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:49 (ESV)

we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

we, Peter would write, are no longer citizens of this earth. we are now sojourners and aliens. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our souls are hid there with Chrsit. we are no longer of this earth. The dustiness that has ruled life since Adam sinned is no longer ours. This is why Paul writes this as he is talking about the Resurrection body, he wants the people of Corinth to know is that the reason we need the resurrection is that we are resurrected in Glorified bodies that are meant for a real life lived in heaven. this is our access to eternal life. Because our citizenship is not here. As we identify in Christ, the man who currently sits on his throne in heaven, who currently and forever intercedes for all those who would cry out to him. That is where our heart is, that is where our home is, that is where our soul is, that is where we live.

We are blessed with a heavenly citizenship, give to us in our spiritual body, given to us by being hid in Christ, the second Adam.

and all of this works, because Chrsit works for us and instead of Sin we are granted RIGHTEOUSNESS.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

again just as we saw that sin and death entered the world in Romans 5, so too righteousness we see this most clearly there too.

In the beginning of chapter 5, before he even notes sin and death coming through One man, Adam, he talks about the work of Chrsit. In Romans 5:7

Romans 5:7 (ESV)

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person

Here is a righteous person walking down the street. will you take a bullet for him. Well I don’t know. I don’t know him, you say he is righteous, how Do i know, and more to the point, what does that get me? I mean, if he is really righteous, wouldn’t he want to take the bullet for me? I’m not dying for very many righteous people, just on the basis of their Righteousness.

Romans 5:7 ESV

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

Maybe if I knew they were a good person i would die for them, but verse 8

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Then Romans 5:9

Romans 5:9 ESV

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

we are saved BY CHRIST. And this is because Chrsit is the second Adam. Picking up in Romans 5:15.

Romans 5:15–17 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

In Christ, as we are identified in Christ, we receive, Paul writes verse 17 of Roman 5, the ABUNDANCE OF GRACE AND THE FREE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. we are thus therefore viewed not in our own standing, because in our own standing we have sin and death. that is what we inherited. as we stand in lie with all of Adams descendants. we have access to one sort of thing; death, trespasses, and WRATH. BUT unlike this gift — “gift” that was given us in Adam, we have been given a precious gift in the second Adam, grace ad here this precious ABUNDANCE OF GRACE AND THE FREE GIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. we stand in right standing before God. All our sin and dustiness is washed away, and we stand before him empowered IN CHRIST. And so when people ask: who do you say that Jesus is? We can say, he is the second Adam. Because in the first Adam we recieved life, but also sin and death, but in the second Adam we receive grace upon grace, wholeness, heavenly citizenship, we have been given life in the spirit, life empowered by the spirit and we have been granted not our own righteousness, not a sort of infusion of our ow good ess, but instead the imputed righteousness of Chrsit. It is counted to our account. We have been given every perfect gift in him. Lets PRAY

PRAY