The Glory of the Second Adam
Who is Jesus? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 14 viewsThis message is the second in the series: "Who is Jesus?" It covers how Jesus is the second Adam and the fulfillment of the covenant of works.
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Transcript
In honor of Black History Month, I would like us to remember George Washington Carver. Carver was an American agricultural scientist who was one of the most prominent black scientists of the early 20th century. He was born near Diamond, Missouri, just a little over an hour south from my hometown.
Carver was a professor at the Tuskegee Institute and developed techniques to improve types soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He encouraged poor farmers to grow peanuts and sweet potatoes as a source of food and to improve their quality of life.
Before his death in 1943, Mr. Carver became one of the most honored and respected scientists of his generation by focusing on the very simple peanut. Eventually he would discover some three hundred uses for this most basic and seemingly insignificant common food.
Carver attributed all of his scientific discoveries to God. He once said that he had asked God to explain the universe to him, but that he felt God saying that was too large a task. When he asked for something he could handle, Carver said that God directed his attention to the peanut.
His focus and search for value produced amazing results. Carver never doubted that God was rewarding his faith and effort, and he said, “Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.”
Like Carver, most Christians understand that everything in the Christian life involves God’s gracious hand. We do nothing to earn His favor. It cannot be earned. Rather, God is generous to those who look earnestly to Him. Psalm 123:2 tells us:
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he has mercy upon us.
This verse helps us discover that we are completely dependent upon God. Humankind has been on a journey of being made good (in Adam and Eve), but later fallen (Adam and Eve), to being redeemed (the church). And because of this redemption, all praise, glory and honor is owed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because...
The first Adam, along with ourselves, got us into this mess.
The first Adam, along with ourselves, got us into this mess.
Genesis 2:16-17, we read of the covenant of works, that which God instructed Adam to do and the prohibition He placed upon the first couple.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
One of the major points of the 16th century Protestant Reformation is the idea that Christians are saved by grace through faith, rather than by works.
This concept is explained in our passage for today, in Romans 5. We see here how death entered our world, due to sin. If Adam would have obeyed God, we have every reason to believe that God would have granted eternal life to our first parents, after a season of obedience.
But such was not the case.
We are told in our passage that death was the penalty for sin and that death entered our world because of the disobedience of our first parents. Romans 5:12-14 tells us:
12 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— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 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.
And so, all of us take part in that disobedience because of who we are related to. We are fallen in many ways (James 3:2). And yet, we all are born with what Immanuel Kant called a “universal sense of ought.” The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 7:19-20
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Because of our own sinful choices, we are alienated from God. But Christ restores you through His sacrifice on the cross. We all have gone astray as Isaiah 53:6 tells us:
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
So, yes, we can blame our first parents, but we can also blame ourselves. The truth is, we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess.
Whether it is kicking the dog, being rude to your spouse, using God’s name carelessly or even over-working. J.C. Penney said:
“If a man's business requires so much of his time that he cannot attend the services of his church, then that man has more business than God intended him to have.”—J. C. Penney
And it is because of sin that our world is a mess. With sin, came death, disease, catastrophe, disappointment and heartache. But God did not leave us there.
Jesus, the second Adam, came to do what the original Adam failed to do.
Jesus, the second Adam, came to do what the original Adam failed to do.
It was for that very reason that Jesus stepped into our world so long ago and became the second Adam, to fulfill what the first Adam failed to do.
Romans 5:15-16 are beautiful, life-giving words.
15 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. 16 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.
Jesus was our substitute. He stepped when all others stepped out. He paid a debt that we could never pay and gave us a gift that no one else could ever give.
Paul explains such a situation in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
That’s why as Christians, we are so very indebted to Jesus Christ. He was the One that was “faithful and true.” He is our righteousness, for you and I have none on our own.
Many years ago, I was have a conversation with a friend who happened to grow up Catholic. He asked me an honest question. “Why did Jesus have to die for my sin?” I told him that it was because Jesus did what we, as fallen humans, failed to do. He was our active righteousness in fulfilling the law of God. But He was also our passive righteousness in giving His life on the cross for our atonement.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
And it is by His work that our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, because it is not a righteousness of our own, but His that is imputed to us on the basis of faith.
As Dr. Drake explained a couple of weeks ago, there are those who doubt Jesus’ historical existence. And even greater number of people doubt Adam’s historical existence. But the truth is, you cannot have one without the other.
But in 2016, geneticist Dr. Jeffrey Tomkins carefully analyzed the published genomic data and concluded that the genomes of humans and chimps are only about 85% the same. In May 2025, in the prominent journal Nature, evolutionists confirmed that percentage as a result of mapping the whole genome of apes without using the human genome as a template (see How Science Confirms a Literal, Historical Adam and Eve | Answers in Genesis).
Tomkins adds: “We are not related to any other creature, much less apes or chimpanzees.”
What is the point? The point is that you are a special creation. You have a soul and can have fellowship with God. This is why He went looking for the first couple after their rebellion. He asked: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)
But as an solution to that problem, Jesus said in Luke 19:10
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
You cannot have humankind’s sinful condition without a literal Adam, nor can you have a genuine gospel without a literal Jesus, and vice versa.
The first Adam failed; the second Adam fulfilled. And thus, we are given the good news of the gospel in the coming of Christ.
The late Dr. Tim Keller said:
“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”― Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
