Man's Identification With Adam

Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one man, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5:12,15,19

The fact that all men may become righteous by faith in what one man did for all men lies at the heart of the gospel. According to Acts 15:7-11, Peter and the other apostles knew this. But only the Apostle Paul explains in detail how this was possible.

This righteousness simply by faith in the work of Christ for all men was, and still is, a great stumbling block to the Jews and many Gentiles. Their paths in seeking righteousness are made up of elaborate systems of works, just believing from the heart on the person and work of Jesus Christ for righteousness seems altogether too simplistic. They reason, it must be more difficult than that. They think this way because they do not have a proper appreciation for the work Christ accomplished to produce righteousness and also because they fail to see that all men were unrighteous by the work of one man, Adam.

Paul tells us how it is possible for all men to be made righteous through faith in what one man has done. It is because all men were made unrighteous because of what one other man had done. If one could make all unrighteous, one could make all righteous.

The tragedy of Adam's transgression recorded in Genesis 3 is at the root of the reason for the Bible, the natural Nation of Israel, the Incarnation, the work of Christ and the salvation He wrought. Yet there is almost total silence on the significance of that fall, it's extent and consequences, until we get over to Paul's writings. He reveals by the Spirit that all mankind was identified with Adam, reckoned as being in Adam, in his fall. The whole human race yet unborn sinned in him.

Paul mentions Adam 17 times in his epistles! Adam holds a large place in his "system." The only other references to him in the New Testament are by Jesus concerning marriage and Jude when he mentions Enoch being the seventh from Adam. Our texts from Romans 5, tells us that the consequences of Adam's sin extended to the whole race. More than that, Paul actually tells us that we were identified with Adam when he sinned.

 “By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, “ Romans 5;12. Now, that last phrase, "for that all have sinned," in the Greek actually reads, "in whom all sinned." Several accurate translations, in fact, the margin of my King James Bible, brings this out. The human race, in a sense, sinned and was judged in Adam. That this is what Paul had in mind in verse 12 is further borne out in the entire passage that follows to the end of Chapter 5, especially the next two verses, 13 and 14. There Paul says that sin was not fully reckoned against men before the law came, yet men died before the law came both spiritually and physically, that is, they suffered the consequences of sin (Romans 6:23), even though they had not sinned against a direct commandment like Adam had. The fact that they died was a proof that they had sinned in Adam, "in whom all sinned."

Now, all this might be a little difficult to grasp. But in Hebrews 7:9,10, we have a little help in understanding how we sinned in Adam. The author says that Levi, the great grandson of Abraham, paid tithes to Melchizedek when Abraham did. In other words, Levi was yet in Abraham's loins when Abraham paid those tithes, so Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek in Abraham. We, the human race, sinned in Adam, being yet in his loins when he sinned. You did come from Adam, didn't you? Then you were there by identification when your great, great, great, etc., great grandfather Adam sinned. No, you and I weren't there vitally because we weren't born yet. But we were there legally, we were identified there with Adam, viewed as being in Adam, treated as if we were there in Adam. The death he died spiritually and physically, the judgment and rejection he suffered was accredited to us. Now when you were born into the world, what was accredited to you in the Garden became yours vitally. You became the possessor of your inheritance in Adam.

Maybe this will help, if you and your wife moved from Missouri to New York and then had children, would your children be born Missourians? Of course not. They would be born in the state you had moved to. They would be New Yorkers. Because our parents, Adam and Eve, moved to the state or condition of Sin, Death, and Satan's Dominion, all their children were born there. "But that's not fair" some people exclaim. Well, it might not be if God had left us there, but He didn't, He sent Jesus. When you understand that because one man got us all in, then you can understand how one man could get us all out.

Paul's whole system or revelation and the plan of redemption itself revolves around these two men, Adam and Christ, and our participation with, relationship to, and condition because of each of them and what they did. Just as Paul gives us a wealth of information concerning who the believer is and what he has in Christ, he also gives us much rich information concerning who the unbeliever is and what he has due to his relationship with Adam. In fact, he even uses the expression "in Adam" as a parallel to "in Christ" in I Corinthians 15:22, Adam and Christ are forefathers, ancestors of two kinds of humanity, each exhibiting their head's characteristics.

Are you "in Adam" or are you "in Christ?" When you were born, all that was true of Adam through the fall also became true of you because of your vital inheritance- sin, sickness, poverty, death, Satanic dominion. You didn't have to struggle to try to make it so. You were born into your inheritance because of your identification with Adam.

In just the same way, and even more so because grace is greater than sin, (Romans 5:15-21) you, because of your identification with Christ in His undoing the works of the devil came into your vital inheritance in Christ when you were born again. You were born into righteousness, life, health and deliverance from Satan's dominion when you were born into Christ. You don't have to struggle to make it so, it is so.

You are out of Adam and have disinherited all he sold you out to! You are in Christ and have inherited all he purchased for you! Just enjoy it.

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. “ (Eph. 2;1-3)

Romans 5:12 tells us that Adam's sin brought death into the world and that death passed unto all men because all men were identified with Adam in his sin. We know that physical death came into the world through Adam so that all die physically, but Paul isn't talking about physical death here primarily, he's talking about spiritual death. Adam's sin brought spiritual death first; physical death was but an aftermath of the primary strata of death-spiritual death.

In Genesis 2:17 God said to Adam concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,”The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The Hebrew literally says, "in dying, thou shalt die." In other words, there would come a two-fold death. Now, we know Adam didn't die physically the day he ate of that tree for Genesis 5:5 says he lived 930 years and then died physically. But God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surly die.”Adam didn't die physically that day: he didn't die mentally that day, how did he die that day then? He died spiritually. Spiritual death came into the world through Adam and passed upon all men. Romans 5:17 says death reigned as a king over all men, and verse 21 says sin reigned unto death over all.

Now, death does not mean a cessation of existence spiritually. A spiritually dead man still has a spirit, or rather, still is a spirit; his spirit just has the nature of death in it. Spiritual death is a nature.

We know that eternal life, spiritual life, the God kind of life, is a nature. It is the life, the nature of God. Ephesians 4:18 calls it the life of God, which the unbeliever is alienated from; II Peter 1:4 calls it the divine nature. John 1:4 says in God was life; Jesus said in John 5:24 He had the same kind of life in him that the Father had in Himself. You see, God is a spirit, and the nature of His being is life. This life is contrasted with death, spiritual death, over and over again in the scriptures. Well, if life is a nature, then death must be a nature also. After Paul said in Ephesians 2:1, “ye were dead, “ he went on to say in verse 3,”you were by nature the children of wrath.” The wrong nature in man's spirit that exposes him to the wrath of God is spiritual death. John 3:36 says if you don't believe on the Son you will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on you.

In I John 3:8-15, we see spiritual death and eternal life contrasted. John says there are children of God and children of the devil, those who are born of God and those who are born of the devil. Then he says in verse 14, “we know that we have passed from death to life.” In other words, those who are born of the devil, children of the devil, have death in their spirit; Those who are born of God, children of God, have life in their spirit. Spiritual death, then, is the nature of the devil just as eternal life is the nature of God. Partaking of spiritual death meant man partook of Satan's nature. It meant he had become a child of the devil with his nature in him. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are of your father the devil." This condition was universal because of the human race's identification with Adam.

Spiritual death not only made man a child of the devil, it made him a subject of the devil. Again, in our text, after Paul said, "You were dead (spiritually)," he went on to say “you walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.” That prince, that spirit, is Satan. "According to" means "in subjection to," "under the domination of," "under the sway of," "under allegiance to" "under the authority of," as other translations have it. Spiritual death puts man under the dominion of Satan. I John 5:19 says literally, “We know we are born of God while the whole godless world is under the authority of the wicked one.”

Man's condition due to the fall is truly a pitiful one. But thank God, Jesus came to reverse all these conditions that came in through the one man Adam. In Him we have life, son ship with the Father, deliverance from Satan's dominion, our spirit comes back into dominance and our minds and souls are renewed as we digest his Word, our bodies healed with an assurance of immortality. The Last Adam, the Life-giver, is the Head of a New Creation!

And so God has given life to you (Gentiles) also,who were once dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you passed your lives after the way of this world, under the sway of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working among the children of disobedience. And among them we all once passed our lives, indulging the passions of the flesh, carrying out the dictates of our senses and temperament, and were by nature the children of wrath like all the rest (Eph. 2:1-3 Cent.)

...living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas... (Eph. 2:3 Jer.)

...we lived at the level of the flesh, following every whim and fancy... (Eph. 2:3 New American)

This I say therefore, and testify of the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God.... (Eph. 4:17-18)

Paul is almost as thorough and rich in his understanding of man's condition due to the fall as he is of who the believer is and what he has in Christ. Sin brought spiritual death to the human race. Since spiritual death is the nature of the devil, man became a child of the devil and a subject of the devil. The only way man could be redeemed, that is be released from the dominion of Satan, would be for God to remove sin and spiritual death from man which were the instruments of Satan's sway.

The entrance of death to the spirit of man had a devastating effect on the rest of his being, soul and body, as well. Spiritual death manifested itself in the body of man by not only making it mortal and subject to disease, but also setting up a law of sin and selfishness in the senses.

The Fall moved man from the realm of the spirit and faith to the realm of the intellect and reasoning which was dependent totally on his five senses. Before Adam sinned his spirit dominated his soul and body. His soul, his emotions, reasoning, and senses-were in perfect harmony with nature in his spirit. He walked and talked with God, fellowshipping with Him out of his spirit. We know that from what Jesus said in John 4:23,24,”True worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him in spirit and in truth.” It was Jesus' mission to restore man to the kind of relationship God intended for man from the beginning, so we know that God created Adam to fellowship with Him in spirit. This was the Father's desire and design in creating man and in redeeming fallen man.

When Adam sinned, death entered his spirit and he could no longer contact God. He no longer had available those unseen resources to deal with the seen or physical realm. All he had left was his reasoning to dig out things from the world around him, a reasoning that was totally dependent upon his physical senses for information. This was a radical departure from God's original design for this human system of spirit, soul and body. Man "moved" from the spirit to the soul or intellect. The center of activity and control shifted from the heart filled with the LIFE of God to a spirit that was filled with death and darkness.

Paul says in I Corinthians 2:14, that the natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned. The word translated "natural" here and in other places in the King James version is "soulical." The natural man is a "man of the soul" that is he lives out of his emotions, intellect, and senses. Some translations say "the intellectual man;" one says "the man who thinks through his senses."

The term "flesh" with Paul has always caused commentators and translators fits. He means the body, but he also means more than the body. In Romans 8:12,13 he used the term, "flesh" and "deeds of the body" interchangeably. Even in the born again man, the flesh (Galatians 5:16-22) or the body (I Corinthians 9:17) wants to do wrong. This whole problem of how Paul could mean the body and also seemingly more than the body by the term "flesh" can be easily resolved by realizing that your body is not only made up of bones, muscle, and blood but also includes the physical brain and the central nervous system including the five senses. When man's body became mortal, it affected his brain, senses, and nervous system-his thoughts and feelings. So you see, the soul and body overlap to a great extent and are very closely related in man's present body. This is what Paul means when he calls our present bodies "soulical" bodies ("natural" in the King James Version) in I Corinthians 15:44. He means that our bodies house the activities of the soul.

Now, all this will help not only to see man's condition due to the fall, but also helps us see what needs to be done in us even after our spirit's are born again. We need to "move" back to our spirits from our heads and start living off the resources that are ours there in our union with Christ. We need to "move" back to the faith realm from the reason and sense realm. We can only do this as we feed on and act on the Word of God. Our spirits need to be redeveloped now that they have been recreated; our minds will then be renewed and our souls restored-restored in their essential structure and restored to their intended order which is in subjection to our spirits. Our bodies will then fall in line.

The primary object of the plan of redemption was to restore life to spiritually dead man's spirit. Spiritual death caused everything else to go wrong that is wrong with man. In correcting all that had gone wrong with man, God would have to start where it all was rooted. He would have to legally provide eternal life for man's spirit. In our next lesson, we will see how this was accomplished through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s System Part 3

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Spiritual Maturity Through a Revelation of the Person and Work of Christ