THE TWO ADAMS
1 CORINTHIANS 15:45-49
Introduction: There is a amazing contrast presented in 1 Corinthians 15 between two Adams — the first Adam created in the Garden of Eden, and the second Adam born in Bethlehem. Every person listening to this message to-day is either in the family of the first or second Adam. Which family you are in will determine your eternal destiny. For the next few minutes let us consider the two Adams.
I. The First Adam
A. Created from the dust of the earth
1. 1 Corinthians 15:47a “The first man was of the earth, made of dust…”
2. Genesis 2:7 “"The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.”
3. The creation of man is described in this passage as from dust. The verb translated “formed" normally means to be forged from pre-existing material.
4. The material from which Adam was forged is aphar which refers the common earth.
5. Either God created man directly from the dust of the earth or He didn’t.
6. It is interesting to note that scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center have confirmed that all of the elements in people can be found in soil.
7. 1 Corinthians 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living being.”
B. Created in the Image of God
1. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
2. Genesis 5:1-2 “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.”
3. Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. Adam was created in God’s image, free and spiritual, competent to deal directly with God, with an upward look. He was created with a free will and the ability to choose his actions and with the purpose of fellowship with and the worship of God.
4. Adam was created sinless and perfect.
C. Chose to Sin
1. Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
2. The Bible opens with man being created in God’s image. Sin shows up and messes that image up.
3. Disobedience of God’s Word almost always affects someone else. Most tragically, it affects those we love the most. Eve’s disobedience affected her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, and every descendant since. The problem of sin doesn’t stop with the choice. Choosing to sin leads to consequences. The word “with” is what is so devastating about this verse. Adam was with Eve while this tempting dialogue with the Serpent was going on. Sadly, Adam did not say a word and then he sinned willfully by eating of the fruit.35 Make no doubt about it; although the woman was deceived, the man was not (see 1 Tim 2:13-14). Adam passively watched everything. He sinned willfully, eyes wide-open, without hesitation. His sin was freighted with sinful, self-interest. He had watched Eve take the fruit, and nothing happened to her. He sinned willfully, assuming there would be no consequences. Everything was upside-down. Eve followed the snake, Adam followed Eve, and no one followed God. – Keith Krell, "Paradise Lost" (Genesis 3:1-7), bible.org
4. 1 Timothy 2:14 “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”
5. Satan can’t make temptation work unless he can convince us to buy into the deception that yielding won’t hurt us. – Kent Crockett’s Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
D. Carrier of death to the human race
1. Genesis 2:15-17 “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
2. Had Adam and Eve retained their original state, they never would have died. But Eve and then Adam yielded to the serpent’s temptation, and death came into the world. Before that moment, they were in a beautiful, pristine state. They existed on a level far above the present condition of the human race. It is difficult to imagine what man was like then by viewing him as he is now. It would require something like trying to reconstruct the original version of an aircraft from its wreckage. If we knew nothing of flying, we would hardly suspect that it had once soared above the earth. The material would be the same; the capability of flight, however, would be lost. – David Breese, Living For Eternity, Moody Press, 1988, p. 99
3. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”
4. 1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die…”
5. You’ve got a day, you’ve got a time and you’ve got a place and your name is on it. People keep that appointment every day, three every second, 180 people every minute keep that appointment, 11,000 people every hour keep that appointment, 260,000 today kept that appointment. This year 95 million people will keep this appointment. You cannot delay it and you cannot deny it. – copied
6. The first man Adam was a living being but he did not give life rather he brought death. Hence the need for the second man – Christ.
II. The Second Adam
A. Source of Creation
1. 1 Corinthians 15: 47 “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.”
2. 1 Corinthians 15:45 “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
3. John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
B. Son of God
1. Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
2. Hebrews 1:1-3a “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint (expression, representation, or image) of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power
3. Mary had the little Lamb, who lived before His birth; Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. - Copied
4. Philippians 2:6–8 “...though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross”.
C. Sinless
1. Mark 1:13 “...He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan”
2. The corrupter of Adam and Eve and the opposer of every good work and person, Satan attempted to corrupt the Son of God. Satan tempted the first Adam in the garden, the Second Adam in the wilderness but with quite different results.
3. Sin is in consenting or yielding to temptation, not in being tempted.
4. Hebrews 4:15b “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
5. Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
D. Supplier of life to the human race
1. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
2. Through the first Adam you were made a condemned sinner. Through the second Adam you can be made a justified saint.
3. Sin and death (Gen 2:17) were brought into the human world by Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:14; 6:23). Holiness and life were brought into the world
4. As there are two Adams, the first bringing death on mankind, and the second Adam (Christ) bringing life to those who receive Him; there are two classes of people, those outside of Christ who are under the penalty of death and those who are in Christ Jesus and have eternal life and are being made into the likeness of Christ.
5. God formed you, Sin deformed you, the Bible informs you, that the Blood of Jesus Christ can and will transform you.
