Message: Jesus the Last Adam
Time: Four years prior to writing the letter we know as 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul had spent eighteen months in Corinth, so he was intimately familiar with the church and many of its congregants. Paul penned his letter in AD 55, just as he was planning to leave Ephesus for Macedonia. Paul made it clear that he was willing to risk the good opinion of some in order to help cleanse the sin that tainted the church.
What the Lord is Saying:
Every person stands or has a standing before the living God. Whether a person accepts this or believes this, it does not change the fact that there is a God and we are not Him. In this verse today, 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul groups people into 2 categories: (1) people who are in Adam and (2) people who are in Christ.
Adam and Christ are considered two federal heads. This federal head concept was mentioned by Irenaeus (130-202 AD, a Greek Bishop) and by Augustine (354-430 AD). The idea is that all of humanity has a relationship to Adam, while all of redeemed humanity has a relationship to Christ. In other words, each person is an offspring or benefactor or connected with federal head - either in one way or two. In Adam, each person has a path - death. In Christ, each person can have a path - eternity.
This passage today is one of hope. In Adam all men are guilty of sin. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:17). In Adam we receive a corrupted moral and spiritual nature that inclines us to hide from God and His ways and we receive a corrupted physical nature resulting in a decaying body that will eventually die. As it says, In Adam all die - I Corinthians 15:22.
Yet that same verse states that n Christ all will be made alive. Each person can be secure, safe. The last Adam a life-giving Spirit. We do not have to remain in Adam. There is always new life in Christ.
It is only by regeneration, faith, and repentance that someone can move from "In Adam" to "In Christ."
Promise:Those who are in Christ will get back what they lost in Adam.
Prayer: O Lord, my salvation is of the Lord. I am so thankful for it and also desire others to receive it. Bring salvation to many and more. Keep me in Christ. Guide and direct me as to how I now shall live. Thank you for saving me and making me complete and to have a permanent home with You. Work in me to know daily how I am to live for You.
Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of April is about solus Christus - Christ Alone; April was about salvation by grace alone; March about the sovereign providence of God; February was about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve; January was about the doctrine of God.
