Greater than Good News

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Corinthians 15:45)

The first Adam was a created being and given the breath of life. (Gensis 2:7) He was from the earth. The second Adam was from the beginning with God. (John 1:1) In Him is life which He gives to every man. (John 1:4) He came from above. “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all.” (John 3:31) All these Scriptures are distinguishing the first Adam who God created and disobeyed and the second Adam, Jesus, Who always was and Who obeyed.

They both were the beginning of a race or a people. Every man was born from Adam. Every man born on this earth has characteristics that we inherit from Adam. We look like Adam in that we are human.  We have a soul (mind, will, emotions.) And we have a spirit. We inherited Adam’s nature, a sin nature. “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:” Romans 5:12) And we inherited death. (Romans 5:14) It may seem unfair, that we are born with Adam’s sin, but in God’s eyes we were present in Adam when he sinned, in his loins.

To understand that this applies to all man we go to the time Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedec.  Melchisedec was a king of Salem (which later became Jerusalem.)  He was also a priest whom Abraham admired and recognized as a priest by giving him a tithe of all he had. Scripture recognizes that the Levitical priests who receive tithes as Melchisedec did, also paid tithes to Melchisedec while they were not even born yet, being in Abraham’s loins when Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec. “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.” (Hebrews 7:9-10) With this understanding we can see why God punished the generations of a man who had worshipped idols to the fourth generation. (Exodus 20:5) Later in Ezekiel, God establishes that each man will take the consequences of idol worship because God does not take pleasure in a man dying in their sin. (Ezekiel 18:1-32)

And as the first Adam fathered the human race, Jesus, the second Adam fathered a spiritual race. I keep harping on the rebirth of man through Jesus because we must be born again. “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) Nicodemus couldn’t understand it. But by faith he obeyed and was born again. Although Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea kept their faith in Jesus secret from the Sanhedrin, after the death of Jesus, they take the body of Jesus anoint Him with spices and bury Him.

Peter also writes about being born again. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1Peter 1:3-5)

How we are born again is a spiritual rebirth.  When our spiritual eyes and ears of understanding are opened and we recognize our sinfulness and need of a Savior, we believe on Jesus.  Immediately, we are translated out of the kingdom of sin and death to the kingdom of Jesus, light, life, peace and love. (Colossians 1:12-13) In the foreknowledge of God, He saw our old sinful man die with Jesus on the cross.  And when Jesus arose, we arose a new man. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:” (Romans 6:6-8). When Christ arose, we were raised a new person, reborn of God, with a spirit that is holy and pure, born of God. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) We are become a new race with the Spirit of God in us. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1Peter 2:9-10) 

The whole Gospel is about how Jesus “quickened” us and how He created us a new people, born of God and living in righteousness. That is why the Gospel is the “greater than Good News.”