The First Man And The Second Man

I Corinthians 15:47

There are two, only two covenant heads and legal representatives in this world through whom God deals with all the human race, two men whose actions (good or bad) are imputed to all who are represented by them. In that sense, there are only two men with whom God deals: the first man and the second man, the first Adam and the last Adam.

ALL MEN WERE LOST BY THE SIN AND FALL OF THE FIRST MAN - ADAM. When Adam sinned, we sinned in him. His sin was imputed to us, through we had no being at the time except in the mind of God and in the loins of Adam. This is the doctrine of Romans 5:12-19). We were made to be sinners by Adam's transgression. We died when he died. And we receive from Adam, by natural generation a corrupt, depraved nature.

I THANK GOD FOR THIS WISE AND GRACIOUS ARRANGEMENT OF THINGS. Does that seem strange to you? It shouldn't. The angels who sinned, sinned not by a representative, but each one fell by his own voluntary choice of rebellion. Having sinned on their own they are forever lost, without mercy, without hope, reserved in chains of darkness until the day of judgment. But, since we were lost and ruined by the deeds of a substitute, representative man, we have hope. We might also be saved by the deeds of another substitute, representative man.

THAT SECOND MAN, THE LAST ADAM, BY WHOM ALL GOD'S ELECT HAVE BEEN SAVED, IS THE LORD FROM HEAVEN, JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD! Living in perfect obedience to God as our Representative and dying under the wrath of God as our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ has made all who are in him, all God's elect, (all who have believed, do believe, and shall believe on him), perfectly righteous. When he obeyed God's law, we obeyed it. When he died under the wrath of God, we died. When he was raised and accepted again in heaven, so were we. His righteousness is imputed to all for whom he performed it and his righteous nature is imparted to all for whom he is a Representative in the new birth. THE FALL OF THE FIRST ADAM PREPARED THE WAY FOR THE COMING OF THE LAST ADAM.

Don Fortner