Paul and the Last Adam
We often say “We’re in this together!”
A husband and wife might say this when they’re going through a tough patch. And a couple of friends could say this when they vow to help each other meet a challenge. And a family will say this when one of the children gets ill.
Two people is probably the smallest group where this can be said. But it can be affirmed by a larger number of people, too.
I was in a flood once and the whole city said “we’re in this together.” And at times of national threats the whole nation can say it. And even the whole world can say it about things like ecological concerns or financial crises.
Paul is saying “we’re in this together” in the largest sense possible. When he says it, he means the whole human race, ever. Every human being who has ever lived is in this together because we are all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve (as C. S. Lewis phrases it.)
There is a mysterious connection between every human being. The creation account in Genesis affirms this, even if it doesn’t explain this. And Paul is referring to that fact when he writes to the Romans (and we read over their shoulder).
The human race has a problem with death, and we’re all in this problem together. “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all …” (Romans 5:12).
This sounds like bad news. We all share one human nature, and that nature has been affected by sin, and is subject to death. The point is not so much that we’re being punished for something someone else did. Rather the point is that “we’re all in this together,” and sin affects the whole human race. We are not naturally attached to the Source of Life any more.
But what sounds like bad news can now be seen as good news. Since the incarnation, the Son of God is in this together with us! He has joined us in our circumstance. He shares our condition. And therefore, what sounded like bad news is the basis for the good news: the Gospel. “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life …” (I Corinthians 15:22).
This is why Paul refers to Christ as the “second Adam.” It may be even better to say Christ is the “last Adam.” We don’t mean this in the sense of “last in line,” but in the sense of “at last” – at last human nature exists the way it is supposed to exist. At last humanity stands before God the way it it is supposed to.
A theologian once said “Jesus is what God means when he says ‘man’, and what man means when he says ‘God’.”
Jesus undoes what Adam did. Though Christ was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6). Adam was not in the form of God, but seized on the tempter’s empty promise to not need God.
Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, dying on the tree of the cross. Adam elevated himself by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The second Adam undoes what the first Adam snarled up.
Why? Because Christ is in this together with us.
