Certain about Satan or confident in Christ?

I don’t know where I first got the thought— “we seem more confident in the enemy’s ability to deceive us— and to steal, kill, and destroy— than we are about Jesus’ ability to heal and mend and restore all things.”

I guarantee the concept isn’t original to me, but maybe you can relate. Maybe you’ve even— like me— found yourself on the WRONG side of that belief structure at some point. 

Let’s make it more personal. Let’s talk about us. 

When we look through the New Testament, we discover that the authors suggest that Jesus actually created a new humanity, a genealogy unchained to sin and yoked to the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Buried in the New Testament we find an interesting title given to Jesus. Actually, we find two of them that correspond to each other. They’re so closely related that they’re virtually inseparable. Yet, as important as they are, I bet you’ve never heard a sermon on either one:

1. The Last Adam
2. The Second Man

We find them both in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (AMP, emphasis mine):

Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the Last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life]. But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man [was] from out of earth, made of dust (earthly-minded); the Second Man [is] the Lord from out of heaven.

Ending the old

As the “Last Adam” Jesus ended something Adam began— a lineage of sin and (subsequent) death.

Adam was the “first man.” Everyone, everywhere on the planet knows that. He’s the first guy that ever walked on this planet. No argument about him being the first man, so let’s move on. 

Jesus was the “Last Adam.” Paul tells us that as the “Last Adam” Jesus ended something that Adam began.

Somehow in the great scheme of it all, we can theoretically trace our lineage back to him. Given enough time and help from ancestry dot com or some intensive archaeological work, we can map our family trees all root right back down to him. Physically, that is. 

Not just ending the old, but also starting something new

As the “Second Man” Jesus began something new— another bloodline of humanity which is unchained from sin and hitched to radical freedom.

But Paul tells us there’s another kind of life than the life we merely see in the physical realm— a spiritual one. The physical one came first, and then the spiritual one emerged (1 Corinthians 15:46). 

Jesus has given us a new spiritual DNA.  And, as you might suspect, He’s done this because we’re included in Him like we discussed in the previous chapter.

As the “Last Adam,” Jesus walked this planet as the final man born in that spiritual line of natural-born sinners. Yet, at the same time He lived as the Last Adam, He became the “Second Man” (v47). Jesus literally launched a new race of humanity— one unchained to sin yet bound to freedom!

•  Physically, you’re related to Adam… in the flesh. You have his physical nature.
•  Spiritually, though, you stand in the lineage of Jesus. You have His spiritual nature. The “us” that was born in the image of Adam was crucified, died, and was buried (see chapter 3). We arose— re-made in the image of Christ. 

Death used to spread, now life spreads… 

In the same way death spread to all, so also does life spread to all.

You see, the first Adam started a tidal wave of sin. The Last Adam stopped it dead in its tracks, stripping it of power. Romans 5:12,15,19 says it like this (AMP, emphasis added): 

Sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned…

But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man’s falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God’s grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow…

For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).

Here’s what these two titles look like visually, placed side by side: 

And here’s what it means for me and you...

Either Jesus makes all things— or He doesn’t. And if He does, I mean, if we truly believe He does, then we really need to look at the ramifications of what that means for us…

… and, even more, we need to “walk out” those beliefs… with a humble confidence that, in time, all things change.

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