Adam is Dead, Jesus Christ Is Alive

(Gen. 1:16-17, Rom. 8:1-14, 2 Cor 5:14-17)

We often hear that Adam and Eve fell.  We might say that is true, but it is more than that.  They died, in their ability to fellowship with God.  By fellowship, we mean they were removed from His presence, from closeness, or intimacy with Him.  Their failure to listen and follow God’s instruction brought about great loss.  It was the start of the fact that humanity, apart from Christ, is dead in disobedience and sin.  I reread a message I had read a long time ago.  The writer clarifies this that Adam died.  The Lord had said if they ate of that fruit of knowing the difference between good and evil, they would certainly die.  They died spiritually.

Paul describes Christ Jesus as the last Adam.  When He died, Christ died for all, and all died.  That addressed physical death.  He destroyed the devil who had the power of physical death, because of the failure in the garden.  Christ restored spiritual life that we might have fellowship by the Spirit.  In Christ, God did a great work and cut it short in righteousness.  Jesus life on earth was the most intense battle of human history.  It culminated at the cross and exploded in the resurrection.  In about 33 years, the Lord God violently and beautifully turned all of human history from death to Life.  And that life is in His Son, Jesus.

That is why Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Many still have trouble with this “exclusive” sounding statement.  The truth is that Jesus is God’s Son, His gift to the world so that all may come to God.  We must receive Him.  This is not a formula but we can be helped with different suggested prayers.  After the initial reception, the new birth, we may, and most do, experience joy, peace, or some other emotion in a way we have never known it before.  That is a birth, a beginning of a spiritual life.  Some do not ”feel” anything immediately but become more and more aware that Jesus is alive and active in their lives.  We can find no set pattern in the new birth but we know when we have been born of His Spirit.

While Christ died for all, we must receive His life, we must receive the Spirit.  The man Jesus has left this earth as we know.  He said it was better for Him to leave so that He could pour out the Spirit on all flesh.  When we receive Jesus, we receive the Spirit.  We get the whole package, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is Holy Spirit.  Not some religious spirit that makes us spiritual.  We all have a spirit but that spirit must be made alive by the Spirit of Christ.  This is that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  Like Him, the Son of Man, we were raised together with Him, so that we might learn to walk as he walked.

As we seek to understand the time in which we live and learn to walk by the Spirit, the word “replacement” shows up in controversy.  Has the church replaced Israel?  We miss the point of the resurrection.  Adam was finished and “replaced” with Christ.  Perhaps that is not the best way to express it.  Rather, when Jesus was raised from the dead, a new creation began.  He is the first born from the dead.  He is the first born of a new creation.  He is the first of a new race of man.  Therefore, we can see that in Him, no sense of earthy culture or identity exist.  Spiritually, He is completely heavenly, no longer bound by any earthly restraints.  It is not so yet with us.

We, who live in this world are not yet in resurrected bodies, but in our spirits, we are each, and together as His body, a new creation.  We are His body and interdependent on one another to fulfill all His purpose in the earth.  If we think we can operate independently, we are deceived and can find ourselves in trouble if move out of relationship.  To be sure, we must see that we are members of the body that is Christ.  We are branches of the vine that He is.  Our mental analysis cannot comprehend such truth.  Jesus said, I am the true vine, and you (we) are the branches.  Abide in me, He says.  By the Spirit, we experience that.