1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a QUICKENING
spirit.
The name ADAM (actually pronounced Ah-DAM) is not only the name of the first man, whom G-d had created by His own hand, but it is one of the Hebrew words for MAN. In a previous issue we discussed how ADAM was the name for perfect man, as he was created by G-d and different from ENOS or mortal man, as we have become.
1 Corinthians builds on that subject by telling us that there are two men called ADAM. Paul was most certainly speaking from his own knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures, for he understood that ADAM is the both the name and the word ascribed to a man created without sin.
Can their be a better word to describe both our Father, Adam, and our Savior, Y'shua. Like Y'shua, Adam was created sinless. Since we also know from Paul that the Law brings the knowledge of sin, the first Adam knew only one law� that he might not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. How easy was the burden of law upon the first Adam? He could spend his days tending G-d�s garden, and his evening walking with his creator in the garden, or resting in the arms of his loving wife. The only knowledge of sin was that he would die if ate the fruit of one special tree. He was tested� and he failed.
The last ADAM was Y'shua haMoshiach, and unlike the first, he was under the full bondage of the law. Yet the scriptures tell us:
1Peter 2:21-22 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
It is not just that Y'shua was born without sin, but that he kept himself from all sin. Since the knowledge of sin itself comes from the law this must mean that Y'shua kept the whole of the law.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
But how could Y'shua be born sinless? And how could anyone keep the whole of the law?
On the day that Adam sinned something within him died. How do we know that? Because G-d promised him that on the day he ate of the fruit he would die. Yet, Adam lived to be over 900 years old. How can this be? Obviously, the body did not die� nor did his soul, therefore it can only be the spirit that haShem created within him, in the image of G-d, that died when Adam sinned. Adam passed his flesh on to his progeny, and they like him inherited a living soul� but a dead spirit!
1Corinthians 15:21-22 For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
How then wasY'shua born without sin? Because he was not of Adam�s seed� he was born of the seed of the woman, born to a virgin. Y'shua was truly like Adam, for he had not inherited the sin nature of Adam�. He was a second ADAM� a second chance for man to demonstrate his obedience to the commandment of his creator.
But wasn�t he G-d? Why does it matter if he was born without sin? If Y'shua was G-d, incarnate, then he would by necessity be without sin� for G-d is Holy and can not sin.
If only it were that simple. This is where this whole discourse is heading. For so long I have struggled with the mocking of skeptics who argue that Y'shua could not have been G-d because:
- You can not kill G-d.
- You can not tempt G-d, because G-d can not sin.
Yet we know that Y'shua was tempted in all ways just as we are� and that he most certainly was killed and then raised from the dead.
These seeming inconsistencies have been used by Rabinnic Jews, the Watchtower, the Way International, and even knowledgeable atheists to block the truth of the gospel and to lead people away from the truth.
We know that he was G-dï and we know that he was manï¿ How then can we rectify these seemingly impossible contradictions?
First let us quickly review the appearances of Y'shua in the Old Testament:
Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.
The Old Testament is filled with appearances of G-d as a man. Adam walked with him in the garden, Abraham ate supper with him and two angels on the plains of Mamre. Joshua met him as the Captain of haShem�s Host outside of Jericho, just to name a few. Y'shua, himself referred to this when talking to the Pharisees, which are the ancestors of the modern Rabinnic Jews:
John 8:56-58 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw [it], and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Y'shua said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Y'shua not only said that the man which Abraham met was Y'shua but he then issued the incredible statement of John 8:58. Does it not seem odd that he would say "I AM"� this sounds strange in the King James and is even stranger in the Greek where it is EGO EIMIï¿ 1st person singular masculine, perfect tense = I AM! The proper context would have been "I WAS" or even "I EXISTED" but instead Y'shua used this phase to draw attention to the name of G-d, YHVH = I AM THAT I AM! No wonder the Jews sought to kill him!
If Abraham met YHVH, and that is the name by which the person that he ate with on the plains of Mamre is called (Genesis 18), and Y'shua wasthat man (John 8) and was also called "I AM" (verse 58), then how can Y'shua be called the LAST ADAM and how can the skeptics who say that G-d can not die or be tempted be satisfied?
Philipians 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Y'shua haMoshiach:
Who, being in the form of G-d, thought it not robbery to be equal with G-d:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Y'shua was made in the likeness of men, he put off his divinity to be born of a
VIRGIN While he walked amongst us in the flesh he was a true man. The Spirit within him was the same Spirit that had appeared throughout the Old Covenant scriptures, but the
body and soul was pure man, THE LAST ADAM.
This is the only explanation that fits the facts. This is the only reason that Y'shua told u.s that he could do nothing of himself, but only that which he saw the Father doing. This was the only way man could be saved!
Through the FIRST ADAM came disobedience and sin, and through him to his descendants. But the LAST ADAM was born just as sinless as the FIRST. Only man could undo the trespass that man had wrought, but all the sons of Adam were contaminated with the sin of Adam. Therefore, G-d, the Son, became flesh and dwelt amongst us. But he had to be man in order to pass the test that he himself had set for the FIRST ADAM, obedience to the commandment of haShem. So he put off his divinity and became a man just like usï¿ then he could be tempted, then he could be sacrificed, then he could be obedient to his own commandments.
Count it all joy, that he understands your trials, that he comprehends your temptations. He has passed that test that our father Adam could not. He was obedient even unto death, and the death of the cross. Oh, what a friend we have in Y'shua!