Did you know there are two human races? And that each race has its own Adam as its head?
And further, that the members of one race are rooted in the earth, doomed and destined for death; while the members of the other race are rooted in Heaven and are destined for eternal life with God? It’s all in the Bible.
I didn’t understand these fundamental truths earlier in my Christian walk and, consequently, I was never clear on why spiritual salvation was so critical to every human being.
The story of God’s two Adams forms the heart of the biblical narrative and unlocks the mystery of why God went to all the trouble to make it possible for you and me to be spiritually “born out of Adam and into Christ,” with a brand-new family tree.
Scripture puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49:
“The First Adam received life; the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual — a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.”
The First Adam, mankind’s original progenitor, was created in the image and likeness of God and without sin. But then he rebelled against God, effectively sinning “a new version of himself” into existence, as C.S. Lewis put it.
As a result, this fallen version of Adam No. 1, could do nothing but sin because of his now-fallen human nature. Unfortunately, all mankind is descended from this fatally flawed father’s gene pool and bear a strong family resemblance.
In my book, My Origin, My Destiny, I wrote: “But Adam’s failed legacy goes deeper than physical death. Just one generation after Adam, we find Cain, Adam’s son, murdering his own brother, Abel, resulting in his banishment to a lifetime of homeless restless wandering. And sadly, our “brother’s blood has been crying out to God from the ground” in every generation since, as the weapons have gotten more efficient, while the intent of men’s hearts remains the same (think Ukraine).”
But amid all the darkness left behind by the First Adam, another “Adam” appears in the biblical narrative like a bright shaft of pure light: “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
While the First Adam imparted physical and spiritual death to his progeny, the Last Adam (Jesus Christ) became the means of imparting spiritual life through His vicarious death, burial and resurrection.
In John 1:9-13, scripture describes the arrival of the Last Adam as bringing light to a benighted world:
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.”
The First Adam got us into this mess, but God dispatched His Last Adam to get us out. But it calls for a choice on our part …
The good news is that God has made an astonishingly generous offer. He will “spiritually transplant” us out of Adam No. 1 and into the family tree of the “Last Adam.” This is only possible through spiritual rebirth when we choose to transfer the full weight of our faith to the Last Adam, Jesus.
And best of all, this transaction through faith is eternally guaranteed by nothing less than the blood of Christ, as noted in 1 Corinthians 15:45:
“It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life (in Adam No. 1) you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately — at the end of the ages — become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God (in the Last Adam).”
How About You?
Your eternal destiny hinges upon which of God’s two Adams you are “in” when your brief sojourn on earth comes to an end. Nowhere has the subject of your “roots” had more profound implications.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.