In this writing, I assume you are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ, our savior. If you are not, you can read Genesis 1-5, Romans 5:12-21, and 1 Corinthians 15 to get caught up.
Two main characters in the Bible should be considered the two most valuable characters to your salvation. They make up the entire story of your salvation from beginning to end. These two men are mentioned in the Bible as the first man Adam, who was formed from the earth in Genesis 2, and the second man Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin woman named Mary in the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Adam was the firstborn of the earth, and Jesus was the firstborn of the Spirit. He was the last Adam, who came from heaven but was born in Adam’s generations on the earth.
Both had miraculous events concerning their birth. Adam was filled with the breath of life by God, and Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High God. Both were manifested on the earth to teach God’s story of good and evil to all people and nations. There are many more similarities that we will discuss at another time, but the teaching of the fall and rise of Adam is the main story of heaven and earth, so it must not be overlooked.
There were also significant differences between these two men and what they represented. These two taught the two paths in the story of God and revealed the secrets of life and death. Adam brought forth the revelation of sin, but Jesus gave us the revelation of forgiveness from sin, which is the power to be free from sin. Adam sinned against God and brought death upon all men, but Jesus did not sin and gave us all a way into immortality and eternal life. Jesus provides us the doorway to return to God after we fell to the earth.
We are born of one or the other.
If Adam was the first man and he fell to sin, that means his generations fell to sin as well. In that light, it makes sense when Paul says that all who are in Adam die. (1 Corinthians 15:22) This idea is backed up by Genesis 1:11-12, when God set a principle of reproduction in place that will continue working in every part of the earth, including you and I. “The seed is within itself and reproduces after its own kind.”
This principle means that grass seed reproduces grass, trees reproduce trees, humans reproduce humans after their own kind, and so on. But grass doesn’t only reproduce grass; it also produces the same kind of grass, and the same works with a tree. An apple tree doesn’t bear oranges; it reproduces apples because it’s an apple seed. When you think of seed, think of the word of God, both good and evil. This means the seed (word) you receive is very important to your life and will determine your future and what fruit you bear. After all, we are likened to spiritual trees bringing forth fruit.
When Adam fell to sin, it would make sense that everyone in his generation was born of that same sin. Adam and Eve reproduced themselves in both male and female, but also in the nature of sin and death. He sowed the seeds of sin and death, which produced after its kind in the earth of men and women. To this day, the generations of Adam still work in people by the spirit. In other words, sin and death are still active in people today because of the spirit of Adam.
The generations of Adam were destined to fail because they were the seed of a fallen Adam. Jesus, the last Adam, came to change that old way. If in Adam all die, then it’s in Jesus that all live because His seed is eternal life and not sin and death. In His appearance, we must apply the same principle of a seed reproducing after its own kind. Jesus was a quickening, life-giving Spirit; therefore, when you are born of Him, you are a reproduction of His same Spirit. His seed, which is the word of God, will also reproduce after its own kind. If Adam was of the earth, earthy, then Jesus is the Lord from heaven. You will also be of the earth or heaven, depending on your mind.
What made Jesus different from Adam was that He did not fall to sin and death; He was sent into the fall of Adam to overcome the failure of Adam in sin and death. He did that by being without sin. He did come in the flesh, but that was not His primary person. Inwardly He was God, and outwardly He was the last Adam who ended the curse of sin and death. What Jesus did by taking on the flesh of Adam was nothing short of the most miraculous event ever seen by angels or humans. (1 Timothy 3:16)
By becoming a man, He was able to end the seed line of Adam according to the flesh; that’s why He was the last Adam. He ended the corruption of the body that failed Adam in death. His work changed the destiny of those who had been with God and needed to return to Him. Jesus restored the communication to God and set Adam free from sin. Now through Jesus, we who are in the flesh of Adam, and died with him, no longer have to be bound by sin and death but can be free from sin and born of the Spirit.
These two men are the reason we have failure and success. One teaches us the failures of evil, while the other teaches us the success of good. Both need to be learned, but after learning both, there can be only one who remains. These two figures are more than valuable to your salvation; they represent the entirety of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Choose today who you will serve.
I will continue this line of thought in the next teaching.