Focus: The Last Adam

Text: 1Cor.15:45

"And so it is written, The FIRST man Adam was made a living soul; the LAST Adam was made a quickening spirit."

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the last Adam. The Greek word for last is eschatos. It is the word that speaks of the end. The story or history of Adam finds its head in the last Adam. Christ as the last Adam is the end of story for Adam. Christ is the final Adam. After or beyond Him there is no other Adam. What we missed or lost in the first Adam we recovered in the last Adam.

Paul speaks also of the first and second man. He says, "The FIRST man is of the earth, earthy: the SECOND man is the Lord from heaven" (1Cor.15:47). In the first Adam we have the earthly man. In the last Adam we find the heavenly man - "the Lord from heaven." The first man failed and flopped, but the last man surmounted all obstacles and succeeded in His heavenly mission to the earth. In the last Adam heaven came down. 

The birth of Christ is the arrival of the Lord from heaven. The first man is a living being or personality, but the second man is the life-giving Spirit. He is the source of spiritual and eternal life. He revives and revitalizes the mortal body. The integrity, dignity and authority of man as the head and crown of creation are made to reside in Him. Christ in us is the hope of glory. 

The limitations of the first man are nonexistent in the last Adam. Through Christ we can do or bear all things.

In Christ we have been liberated from the dominion of sin and restored to the full liberty of divine sonship. By spiritual regeneration and resurrection we have been removed from the headship of the first Adam and brought under the authority of the last Adam. The cross of Jesus Christ has ended the first Adam and opened the door for the emergence of the generation of the last Adam. Our real identity and destiny are realized by the last Adam.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter