April 2009 - Vol. 29

Christ and Adam 
The phrase “new Adam” comes from Paul, at least in the sense that he is the earliest one we know of who used it and that his writings are the source of later writings that use the phrase. The idea almost certainly does not stem from Paul.  But the clearest and most explicit presentation of the idea in scripture is found in Paul.

Paul makes several references to Christ’s relationship to Adam. The most extended presentation is found in Romans 5, where Adam is described as “a type of the one who was to come” (v. 14), a type of Christ. Paul says of the two of them in Romans 5:17–19: 
If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace…reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ…Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.
   
The same connection is made in First Corinthians 15:21–22: 
As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  
In the same chapter, Christ is called “the last Adam” (v. 45), in contrast to the first Adam.

To see Adam as a type or foreshadowing of Christ indicates an important correspondence between the two in God’s plan for human history. In certain respects, the position that Adam held and Christ now holds are the same. Adam prefigured or foreshadowed Christ as the head of the human race, the source of its life.

By calling Christ “the last” Adam, Paul probably means that Christ is the Adam for the ending period of human history, when he brings into existence a new human race as the fulfillment of God’s plan. A more common title among Christians is “new Adam,” indicating that Christ brings that newness of spiritual life that is the mark of the new covenant (Rom 7:6). Either way, Christ is a new beginning, the personal source of a new humanity that fulfills the purpose for which God originally created the human race.

Adam is a type of Christ, but in a somewhat different way than someone like David is. Christ fulfills David’s role of king of Israel by ruling in a “fuller”, that is, a spiritually more effective, way. Although Christ fulfills the same role as Adam, in certain respects he reversed what Adam did. Both Adam and Christ were appointed to establish the human race. Adam was appointed to begin it, Christ to renew it. Adam, however, brought condemnation; Christ brought acquittal or justification. Adam brought death through his fall. Christ brought true and unending life through his rising.

 Nonetheless Christ did not totally reverse what Adam did. He became a son of Adam and took on the humanity Adam began. He reversed the fall of Adam not by annihilating human nature or transforming it into something completely different, but by restoring human nature and bringing it to a new level of life.

[This article is excerpted from the book Redeemer: Understanding the Meaning of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, copyright © 1992 by Stephen B. Clark, published by Servant Books.]