The Second Adam

        When you hear the name Adam, you automatically think about the first created human being. God created him from the dust of the ground to be in His image and of His likeness. Adam was designed for perfection from the beginning because God said that his creation was good, and that included man. Adam was the first self-governing human being in history, and God gave him law and freedom. The law was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and freedom was to be able to eat from every other tree in the Garden of Eden. Eating the forbidden fruit made one know good and evil, and the consequence of that led to death. Breaking the law of God is sin, and the wages of sin is death.

        Had Adam not sinned, he could have been the perfect being to give mankind eternal life through the tree of life that was planted in the Garden. But, Adam sinned, ate the forbidden fruit and broke the law, and death reigned from Adam. Because of his sin, God had to separate Adam and Eve from the tree of life. Man wanted to do it their own way without God by knowing good and evil—even though the only way to truly know good and evil is to learn it from the Being that can discern good from evil: God. But, God wanted something better for us: he wanted us to have life and life eternal. Because death reigned from Adam, we were in desperate need of a Savior to reverse what Adam did.

        Then the second Adam came through the womb of the Virgin Mary, and he was called Jesus the Christ. It was said from Gabriel the archangel that Jesus was to save us from our sins, and He was to be the Son of God. It’s true that Jesus is the Son of God, and the signs and wonders that were performed through Him were proofs of his divinity. Jesus had a union with God the Father that only a family relationship can have between a Father and His Son. Adam could have had this family relationship with God, but he chose to separate himself from God. Jesus chose to stay close to God with every move that he made on earth—even in prayer. There are other attributes that the second Adam had that the first Adam didn’t have.

        According to Robert Lewis’s Raising a Modern-Day Knight, the first thing that Jesus had that Adam didn’t was the following: he rejected passivity. While Adam looked on when Eve was seduced by the serpent to eat of the forbidden fruit, Adam didn’t try to stop Eve from eating the fruit or defend God’s command to not eat of it. He passively let the serpent seduce Eve. On contrary, Jesus rejected being passive. He was active all throughout his ministry. He even provoked the Scribes and Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath. It was forbidden to heal on the Sabbath according to the Pharisee’s oral law, but that was a tradition of men. Jesus knew it, and actively broke the oral law to heal on the Sabbath.

        The second thing that Jesus had that Adam didn’t was the following: He accepted his responsibility while Adam ran from his responsibility. When Adam sinned and his eyes were open knowing good and evil, what did he do when God confronted him with what happened? He ran away, hid himself because of his shame, and even blamed Eve for eating the forbidden fruit. He didn’t take responsibility for his own actions. Jesus did the opposite. He accepted his responsibility of the crucifixion for us even though he prayed that the cup pass from him. He prayed sweating blood to avoid the suffering, but once he realized the will of God, He faced it like a man. “For the Lord God will help me; / Therefore I will not be disgraced; / Therefore I have set My face like a flint, / And I know that I will not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7).

        The third thing that Jesus had that Adam didn’t was the following: He led courageously. Adam let Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, and did not rebuke her. He also let Eve convince him to eat of the fruit; he didn’t lead courageously to stop the serpent or Eve from sinning. He let Eve be in charge, and that’s why God said that the woman had to submit to her husband. On the contrary, Jesus actively provoked the Scribes and Pharisees because of their traditions. Jesus even proclaimed a series of woes against them knowing that they were plotting to kill Him. Jesus publicly proclaimed that the temple would be desolate because of the sins of the Scribes and Pharisees. It took a lot of courage to publicly proclaim destruction for a place, but Jesus did it.

        The fourth thing that Jesus had that Adam didn’t was the following: He expected a Godly reward. Adam was handed everything that He had by God. He had abundance of food, had animals to play with, and a wife to love. Adam didn’t have to expect a reward for his actions because he was already handed the best things by God. Adam even had the tree of life in the Garden with him, but didn’t eat of it. Adam lost the best things when he sinned. Jesus, on the other hand, often spoke to the disciples about his death and the reward of His resurrection. Jesus looked to the Godly reward of the resurrection in order to face the terrible torment of His crucifixion. Jesus knew that His Father would resurrect Him from the dead after the 3^rd day.

        The last thing that I will mention that Jesus had that Adam didn’t was the following: He’s a life giving Spirit while Adam was made from the dust of the ground. Adam was an example of how man can fail without God. Adam was a life-taking person that drew his life from Eve, and not from God. But Jesus is the giver of life to all men, and He’s in union with God the Father. Jesus didn’t speak anything unless the Father gave Him the words to speak. Before He became flesh, Jesus was the Word of God. Through Him, God created the Heavens and the earth as well as all of mankind. He gave man his very breath of life. Adam never knew what it was like to live eternally, but Jesus did. Jesus can also give life eternal to the children of God by the authority of God the Father.