The Real Thing

Yesterday, while I was out trying to round up residents to join us for worship at Autumn Care, it seems that some folks here got up to a little bit of silliness.

In particular, I want to note that Diana Jones confessed to making up and singing a little song about the bottle of Mt. Dew Zero that I had on the table with my stuff. Diana, would you like to sing that for us this morning?

Well, I’m a creature of habit. When I find something I like, I like to stick with it. Lately, it’s been Mt. Dew Zero — all the caffeine of Mt. Dew without the sugar. Before that, it was Monster Zeros, but they wreaked havoc on my digestive system.

When I was younger and didn’t think I’d ever be fat, it was Coca-Cola. I tell people that I used to drink Coke from my baby bottle. My Dad loved it, and his mother loved it too. She called it Cocola.

So, for many years, we were never without Cokes in the house. Now, some of you are too young to remember this, but can someone tell me what Coke’s tagline was in the old advertisements of the 1970s?

It’s the real thing!

Then, one day in 1985, the Coca-Cola company replaced all its bottles of Coke with something their creative marketing geniuses called “New Coke.”

Suddenly, Coke wasn’t the real thing at all. And it wasn’t good. In fact, people hated it so much that the company pulled it from the shelves just three months later and re-introduced the old formula, labeling it “Classic Coke.”

Now, as a long-time aficionado of Coke, I can tell you that whatever they brought back, pretending to be the “real thing,” was anything but the real thing. It was better than “New Coke,” but it wasn’t the Coke I’d drunk since I was old enough to hold a bottle to my mouth.

Interestingly, to this day, the story of New Coke is a cautionary tale about the dangers of messing around with established brands.

Now, I tell you all that to introduce a short series of sermons this month about Jesus. Well, ALL my sermons are about Jesus, even the ones we just finished about sin.

They were about Jesus in the sense that, by the grace of God and through FAITH in Jesus, we’ve been released from sin’s bondage over us. We’ve been saved so we can be reflect the character of Jesus. Because of HIS victory over sin, we, too, can and will have victory over it.

You probably remember some of the people we studied from both the Old and New Testaments whom I described as experts at sin.

And I’m sure you recall that I said their stories serve as examples of how we all sometimes love our sin more than we love God, more than we love Jesus, or we wouldn’t keep on sinning.

During the next five weeks, you’ll hear a bit more about some of the Old Testament sinners from those messages, because in their sins, each of them failed to be the real thing.

Each of these five men held important and God-ordained offices in the Old Testament. And each of them failed to meet God’s perfect standards for his office.

We’ll see how Adam failed to be what God intended for a man — for a human. We’ll see how Abraham and others failed to be what God intended for a prophet.

We’ll see how Aaron (whom I forgot to talk about during the sin series) failed to be what God intended for a priest. We’ll see how Samson and others failed to be what God intended for a judge. And we’ll see how David and others failed to be what God intended for a king.

But more importantly, we’ll see how JESUS perfectly fulfills God’s intentions for each of those offices. We’ll see that THEIR stories are there, in part, to POINT us to Jesus — the true man, the true prophet, the true priest, the true judge, and the true king.

We’ll see that JESUS is the real thing that all the others foreshadowed. And finally, we’ll see how His fulfillment of God intentions for those offices gives us hope.

Now, before we get into today’s text, I need to make you familiar with a theological doctrine that we’ll be talking about during the next few weeks — typology.

Typology might be an unfamiliar word for some of you, but I’ll bet the idea isn’t. The idea behind typology is that certain people, places, things, and events in the Old Testament are there to point us to Jesus.

The Old Testament thing is the type, and Jesus is the anti-type. The Old Testament type is a sort of prophetic symbol that Jesus fulfills as the anti-type.

It sounds complicated, but there’s one great example that most of you will recognize.

Remember that in Old Testament Israel, animals were sacrificed at the Temple for the forgiveness of sins. God had decreed that He would forgive the sins of those who, acting in faith, came to the temple with an offering of certain animals to be sacrificed on the altar.

Jesus, whom John the Baptist called “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” is the fulfillment or anti-type of this Old Testament type. His sacrificial death at the cross satisfies God’s just wrath over the sins of those who turn to Jesus ini faith.

The similarities between Jesus’ sacrifice and those of the Old Testament are important. But so are the differences. And one of the most important differences is that, whereas the Jews of the Old Testament had to offer a new sacrifice for every sin, Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all.

The blood He shed at Calvary’s cross was sufficient to pay the sin-debt for ALL sins — past, present, and future — for all who would turn to Him in faith.

So, one of the most important things to see about types and anti-types is that the type foreshadows — it’s only a shadow of — what we see in all its fullness in the anti-type.

And the first of these five types of Christ that we’ll study in this series is the first man, Adam.

Now, I’m sure you all remember Adam’s story, but it’s useful for us to review it before moving forward.

Way back in Genesis, chapter 1, on the last day of His creative week, God said,

Genesis 1:26 NASB95

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

There are three things I want to draw your attention to in this verse. First, the word that’s translated as “man” can refer either to an individual or a group, as in “mankind.”

Here, God uses the plural of the verb “rule,” suggesting that He’s talking about creating mankind, not just A man. And Adam, as the first of that creation would have been the representative head of mankind.

Second, that word translated as “man,” is “adam” in the Hebrew and comes from Hebrew roots referring to red dirt and leather. And in the Greek Septuagint, which was the primary translation of the Old Testament that was in use during the time of Jesus, the word is translated as “anthropos.”

So, putting these two thoughts together, this red-dirt person of leather whom God called “Adam-with-a-capital-A” would be the head of all mankind. What he did would affect us all.

And that brings us to the third thing to notice here: God said He was making mankind “in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Now, we know from elsewhere in the Bible that God is Spirit, and that God is a Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s not individual, and He certainly isn’t made from the red dirt or clay of the ground.

So, being made in the image of God must mean something else. What it means is that we’re made to reflect the character of God. We’re made to reflect His righteousness, His holiness, His goodness, His justice, His peace.

But we all know Adam’s story. He disobeyed God’s one commandment, He and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And in this one sin, this one act of rebellion against God, they brought sin and the curse of death into the world. And because we’re all descended from Adam, the head of humanity, we’re born under this curse.

Adam failed to fulfill God’s intentions for mankind because of his sin of rebellion in the Garden of Eden. And each one of us confirms our status as sons and daughters of Adam when we sin, when we rebel against God, when we fail to reflect His character.

The Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans, chapter 5. Look at verse 12.

Romans 5:12–13 NASB95

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Now, we’re not going to get caught up in Paul’s argument about the Law of Moses here, because we’ve already talked about that recently.

Instead, I want you to notice what Paul says about Adam. “Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin.”

That word translated as man is “anthropos,” the same one that appeared back in the Greek Septuagint version of Genesis, chapter 1. Paul wants to be sure that his Greek-speaking readers would’ve made the connection to Adam.

It was HIS sin that unleashed sin upon the world. It was HIS sin that brought the world under the curse of death. And, as Paul says here, “death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

Look, we’d all like to condemn Adam for what he did back there in the Garden of Eden. But the fact is that we all confirm that we’’re children of Adam every time we sin.

Instead of displaying the character of the righteous and holy God who made us in His own image, we display the character of the first man who rebelled against Him.

Now, look at verse 14.

Romans 5:14 NASB95

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Sin’s greatest weapon is death, and Adam’s sin unleashed this terrible weapon upon the earth. Because of sin, everything that has life in it will die physically at some point, unless Jesus returns first.

But there’s another, more terrifying aspect of death in Scripture. And that’s the spiritual version of death, the separation from the fellowship with God for which we were created. Sin destroys that fellowship, even when we sin in different ways from Adam.

But notice what Paul says at the end of this verse. Adam “is a type of Him who was to come.”

In other words, Adam, in addition to being an actual man who actually sinned, was a imperfect prophetic symbol of Jesus, whom Paul calls “the last Adam” in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15.

The first Adam was a type for mankind. He was the imperfect representation of what God intended mankind to be. Christ Jesus, on the other hand, is the anti-type. He is the real thing. This divine Son of God is the one who perfectly fulfills what it means to be human.

And whereas the imperfect type brought sin and death into the world, the perfect anti-type brought righteousness and LIFE. Look at verse 15.

Romans 5:15–17 NASB95

15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Now, Paul introduces this term, “free gift,” here in verse 15, but he doesn’t define it until the end of chapter 6. Remember that verse from a few weeks ago?

Romans 6:23 NASB95

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Back in chapter 5, he’s already laying the groundwork for his argument in chapter 6 that we who’ve turned to Jesus in faith no longer receive the wages we’ve earned as slaves to sin. Instead, as slaves to God, we receive the GIFT of eternal life by His grace.

Adam’s sin brought death into the world, but the grace of God and of Jesus brings life to those who trust in Him for salvation — physical life, spiritual life, abundant life.

As Warren Wiersbe put it: “Christ did conquer death and one day will raise the bodies of all who have died ‘in Christ.’ If He stopped there, He would only reverse the effects of Adam’s sin; but He went on to do ‘much more.’ He gives eternal life abundantly to all who trust Him.” [Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 529.]

And don’t miss what Paul says in verses 16 and 17 about the power of God’s grace.

Sin’s power was to bring condemnation and death to mankind through one man’s sin in the Garden.

But God, in His abundant grace, used all the sins of mankind — culminating with the sin of crucifying His Son — to bring justification to those who place their faith in Jesus. To declare them to be righteous, in a right and true relationship with Himself. To bring them life in the one who IS life.

The contrast between the type and the anti-type, between the first Adam and the Last Adam, could hardly be more stark. Look what Paul says in the next couple of verses.

Romans 5:18–19 NASB95

18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

Transgression contrasts with righteousness. Condemnation contrasts with justification. Disobedience contrasts with obedience. And sinners are made righteous in Christ.

And we shouldn’t miss the fact that both acts — the disobedience of Adam and the obedience of Jesus — took place in gardens.

“Just as Adam disobeyed in a garden, Christ obeyed in one, saying, ‘Not what I will, but what you will.’ Whereas Adam was in a perfect paradise with every need met, Christ was in a small garden in a fallen and sinful world under the duress of a coming crucifixion. Adam had all the resources external to himself provided to him for obedience, yet he failed; Christ had no such resources and obeyed perfectly.” [Ian Clary, “Jesus As Second Adam,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).]

Adam, the red-dirt person of leather, failed to be what God had made him to be, and because we’re all descended from Him, we all fall under the curse he unleashed.

But the sinless Christ, fully human AND fully God, could represent mankind at the cross in His humanity, taking upon Himself the sins of mankind and their just punishment. And in His deity, the resurrected Jesus could offer eternal life to all who follow Him in faith.

But not only that, He could promise that we who turn to Him in faith will not just have the image of ADAM restored to us, but the very image of HIMSELF.

Look at how Paul puts this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning in verse 45.

1 Corinthians 15:45–49 NASB95

45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

As descendants of Adam, we’re all red-dirt people of leather. We bear his earthy image. But as followers of Christ, we’re being made into the image of the heavenly Jesus.

And when we meet Him in heaven, the transformation will be complete. We will finally and completely display the character of Jesus.

Sin will no longer be a factor in our lives. Death will be no more. There will be no more disobedience, no more rebellion, so there will be no more death.

And the abundance of life in the Garden of Eden will pale in comparison to everlasting life in fellowship with Him who IS life.

We will finally be who we were made to be. We, like Jesus, will finally be the real thing.

What a glorious day that will be!