1 Corinthians 15:44-45 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.
God created Adam from earthly dust. The dust-Adam would die under the burden of sin. Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away. . . (Mark 13:31) Our understanding of existence indicates that everything will get old and crumble to dust. Every living thing has a time table set for its demise. Nothing in this world will go on indefinitely. Even the wonders of heaven have a time table prescribed for existence, but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, reveals an existence that is eternal, permanent--beyond our ability to comprehend. He is timeless. In Revelations it says, "Time will be no more." Jesus as God is without end. He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 22:13) We who are alive IN CHRIST have that hope of eternity, of lasting permanence, in us. For we who are alive IN CHRIST are alive in the great "I AM." He WAS, IS, and EVER SHALL BE. He is the Abba Father of all who are created anew into his family. We who are IN CHRIST through faith in his name and his works have entered into an eternal realm. We have "time will be no more" stamped on our existence. We are the Father's adopted sons and daughters through the infusing of Christ's righteousness in us. We are new creatures, acceptable to God, who will never walk alone in life or in death. For the Father will not leave us or abandon us. We will always have his abiding Spirit to comfort and to guide us through this life. Once we were made up entirely of the earthly man, revealing only his likeness and attitude, now, because of Christ's transforming work in us, we bear the likeness of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ. We are no longer an intimate relative of The first man of the dust of the earth; instead, we are blood-bought relatives of the second man from heaven.
The first Adam was a living person--created by God in his own image, with unique capacities possessed by no other living creature. God gave the created Adam the ability to know, to serve, to worship, and to relate with him. God wanted Adam to interact intimately with him, to hear his voice, to unite with him as a close friend. God said that his creation of Adam was "very good." He gave Adam the authority and power to rule over everything on Earth. As the apex of God's creation, Adam could control the environment around him through his god-given knowledge and wisdom. He was second in command of God's creation. Nothing else was as special to God as Adam and then Eve. But Adam failed to obey God's commandment. He broke his covenant with God, and through his disobedience came the prominence of self. This anti-god spirit attempted to make him independent of God's authority: I will go my own way rather than God's way. The consequences of that independence are sin and death. Adam and Eve's decision to follow their own way affected all of creation in diverse ways, causing chaos in God's creation. Even today, we see the effects of mankind's decisions on Earth, the contamination of the environment, the demise of species. Sin lays waste to God's plans for life. The Bible says all creation awaits the day when those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ's and his work will be manifested as the sons and daughters of the Most High. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-20) At the present time, we who are IN CHRIST continue to live with a dead man, our old selves. Although he was crucified at the cross with Christ, he is with us, reminding us of the characteristics of Adam that are embedded in us as we continue to live in these fleshly bodies. But someday, we will be completely free from that Adam who is nothing more than a living being, finite, destined for oblivion. Instead, we will possess the eternal Spirit of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, a life-giving spirit who will take us to glory.
We who have the life-giving Holy Spirit involved in our daily lives know we are in God's hands. We know that even in this body of Adam we are new creatures. Adam's shell may remain with us, but inside us is the dynamism of the Holy Spirit. Our confidence is in God's work, not our own works. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory. (Romans 8:28-29) Adam was a friend of God, but we have a familial relationship with God; we are part of his intimate family. We will never be separated from his love, and no one can bring accusation against us for we are the Father's special creation, created IN HIS SON who gave up his life on the cross so that we might live. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Roman's 8:35) Many of us are experiencing the trials of life. We know what it means to struggle and face hardships, but we must remember that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Paul goes on to say, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39) Before Jesus was taken up to heaven, the disciples asked when God would free Israel from the Romans. Jesus deflected their question to their present lives, saying God would take care of them. But He told them, you need to know you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The apostles wanted to see something happen on this Earth that would satisfy the basic needs of the Jewish people. But Jesus' concerns were not about the natural body, but about the spiritual body. These eternal beings that He was talking to that day really did not need a restoration of Israel to its former days; they needed power to live the eternal life that was in them. They needed the power of the last Adam to exist in this transitory life, power to testify of the Good News, power to live a victorious life IN CHRIST. May that same power richly dwell in us!
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