Did you know? The name Adam simply means “man”. The first man in the Garden of Eden (Paradise) disobeyed God and took his descendants, you and me, with him, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…”
The Scriptures tell us of another Man, the Man Christ Jesus and, by way of contrast in these two teach, us more about that most interesting Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who obeyed His heavenly Father in all things, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Here are some few of the the many more contrasts by comparison of Adam, the first human and Jesus, the Christ (anointed One).
Both are called the son of God. As to “Adam which was the son of God”, (Luke 3:38); and as to Jesus, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, (Matt. 16:16). But the difference is infinite. Adam had no beginning until the Lord made him out of dust and breathed into him, whereas Jesus is the eternal Son without beginning. His humanity began when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the blessed virgin Mary but as Son He was in the beginning with God. He was never created, but was the Creator, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3).
Both Adam and Jesus were tempted by Satan, the Devil who is God’s enemy. Adam was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil of which the Lord had said, “thou halt not eat”. He disobeyed. The sin was not sexual intercourse. Adam and his wife Eve had been told to ‘multiply and replenish the earth. Jesus was tempted repeatedly in all points as we are but of note when, in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him to use His miracle working power for His own advancement. Matt. 4:1-11. Jesus remained sinless and became a proper sacrifice who could carry our sins in His body on the cross. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Heb. 9:22).
The Lord made man and placed him in a paradise on earth to dress and keep it; and “The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”(Gen. 2:18) The Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and from a part of Adam’s body created his helper, the woman named, “Eve”. The sleep of Adam foreshadows the death of Christ. And from Christ’s body, the Holy Spirit brought forth Christ’s Bride, the church of the living God. “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church”. (Eph.5:30-32). This fact ought to keep us from knowingly committing a sin. It did the apostle Paul who says, “know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid”. (1 Cor. 6:15-16). What you do with your body, believer, you do with Christ.
“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor.15:20). And we too, believer, shall be raised from the dead to rule and reign with Him in the Paradise of God, fulfilling the type of Adam and Eve who were given to rule in the first Paradise on earth ruined by their disobedience and to be recovered in superior quality by our Lord Jesus. Great things to come!
