INTRO:

How many here enjoy history?

The past is fascinating! Going through high school and college, one of my favorite classes was history because it was filled with stories, strange and exciting stories of people from the past! Great generals who fought mighty battles, mad scientists who made headline discoveries, presidents and rulers who governed vast nations! History is captivating because of the people we read about, and we can see how the choices made long ago by a single individual has impacted us today.

Where would be had Christopher Columbus not braved the mighty sea to discover America? Where would equality be in the United States, had Abraham Lincoln not stood on marble steps leading a nation toward liberty? How would our world be different without Henry Ford & automobiles or the Wright brothers discovery of airplanes and flight? Could you imagine a world without these inventions, now used every day to carry people as Daniel said “to and fro”

You see the people of our past have a profound impact on the lives we live today, but of all historical figures from our past, none have had so great an influence on all of humanity, as these two men — Both called Adam, and both having lives that have impacted literally every person born on this blue planet! The man who grew up on the remote island, uncontacted by the outside world, and the billionaire in his high-rise both are inescapably and totally influenced by these two Adam’s — The First Adam made in the Garden Eden, and the Last Adam Jesus Christ, called the “Second Man” in Scripture.

But why? How? The Second Adam lived 2,000 years ago, the First Adam lived more than 6,000 years ago — how could a life so distant in the past reach you and reach me living down in modern history? We fly rockets, we drive automated cars, we build buildings so tall they are described as scraping the sky, we dive in complex submarines to the deepest parts of the ocean — how could a man in a garden 6,000 years ago, or a man on a cross 2,000 years ago, reach down through time and touch the complex life of the modern man or woman today? To the secularist in Portland, it must seem absurd, irrelevant, even obtuse to Christians or the Bible to claim that the life of Adam has a bearing upon my life today, but it is true — and had the choices of either Adam been different than they were our lives would not be what they are today!

Paul declares: [Rom 5:12 NKJV] 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—

Who is this “one man” through whom sin & death entered the world and spread to all men? Adam #1 (In 1 Corinthians 15 it calls him “The first man”, or “The Man of dust”). [1] See footnote at bottom of notes.

But Paul declares there is a second man who has also uniquely affected every person on the planet. He is called in Scripture, “The Second Man”, “The Heavenly Man”, and the “Last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15. Ellen White describes Him as “The Second Adam” — He also, and much more, has impacted humanity:

[Rom 5:19 NKJV] 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

It seems then that the destiny of the world rests on these two Adam’s!

According to Romans 5:11-19:

• Through the First Adam came: Sin, Death, Judgment, & Condemnation
• Through the Second Adam comes: Righteousness, Life, Grace & Justification

In other words — The first Adam has made certain our death and destruction

                              The second Adam has made certain our life and eternity

But what is it that binds up our life in these two Adam’s, that is different than how our life is bound up with any other person? How are we connected so intimately to Adam #1 & Adam

#2?

Let’s start with the second Adam first!

[Col 1:16 NKJV] 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

[Jhn 1:3 NKJV] 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

So Scripture says everything derives it’s existence and life through one man, the Heavenly Man Jesus Christ. You live, because He lives! It is His Life that pulses through your body! His Spirit that animates your mind. His Breathe that keeps your heart beating, and lungs breathing, and kidney’s functioning, and liver filtering…  

Illustration: Scientists can put together the elements of a cell, or human body in a petri dish, but although all the elements are seemingly there for life, they can not animate the dead tissue. Back in 2008 it was hailed a medical and scientific breakthrough when reporters announced the sensational news “Scientists have created a beating heart in the lab” — Then you click on the article and begin to read that scientists: “grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells.” [2] See link at bottom of notes

What was the essential ingredient? They had to find living cells first. Why? Because life is not something we can create in a laboratory! Those living cells are animated by the life force of the second Adam, and without that life force, no amount of electrical stimulation is going to bring back a dead heart, let alone create a new one that beats and functions on it’s own like your heart.

It was Jesus who bent down and shaped the First Man, It was Jesus who blew His life-giving breathe into that clay body, and it was the life of Jesus that animated that man of dust, and each one of us who have come from him.  

Do we now have life independent of Christ? Can we live forever, without His life pulsing through our bodies? Are we immortal apart of God?

[1Ti 6:16 NKJV] 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom [be] honor and everlasting power. Amen.

The wise man Solomon explains that when we die, our bodies turn back to dust and the breathe or spirit of God (In scripture breathe and spirit are the same word) returns back to God who gave it.

[Ecc 12:7 NKJV] 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

When did God give his “Spirit”, “Breathe”?

[Gen 2:7 NKJV] 7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

If we turn to dust, and our life-force “The Breathe of God” goes back to Him, is there anything that lives on as a conscious soul after death? The Bible answer is no!

(Eccl. 9:5 “Know nothing” ; Ps. 115:17 “Dead praise not”; Acts 2:34 “David did not ascend”; 1 Cor. 15 “Without the Resurrection, we are without hope”)

So you see friends how intimately, eternally, and universally we are all bound to the second Adam Jesus Christ! His Breathe pulses through your body today, and animates it with life. Without His Life, we would have no life… Just as crazy as it is to say your car doesn’t need a motor to drive you to church, your refrigerator doesn’t need electricity to keep your food cold, or you don’t need a brain to pass your SAT’s — So crazy it is for the modern world to say, we can live our life apart from Christ. It is the grace of Christ that allows the heart of the wicked to remain beating in their chest — for that life force is not theirs by ownership, they can neither give themselves life, nor retain it for themselves once God decides their earthly life is finished.

Ok, so we see how we are connected to the second Adam, the heavenly man — we are connect through Creation! He was the one medium through which all things came into existence, and the one being in the universe that all are dependent on existence and life. Without Him, nothing would exist! Because of Him, all things exist!

But what about the First Man, Adam? How are modernists today, connected with some guy who lived in a garden 6,000 years ago?

[Gen 2:7 NKJV] 7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

In Hebrew that phrase “Breathe of LIfe” is very interesting, because the english translation does not capture the full meaning. In English, it says “Breathe of Life”, which we read as a singular life — but in Hebrew the word is “Chay’im”, it’s plural, meaning more than one. If you want to make something plural in english, you add an “s” typically. In Hebrew, to make something plural you ad the sound “im” to the end of a word.

The Hebrew Bible reads that God “breathed into his nostrils the breathe of LIVES”…. Now why is “Lives” plural? Because, when God made Adam, he made the entire human race in that one man! The Apostle Paul agrees with this by saying:

[Act 17:26 NKJV] 26 “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…”

Why did he use the term “one blood” instead of “one man”? Because Scripture teaches that the life force force, The Breathe of Life, the Life which God breathed into Adam  — resides in the blood.

[Lev 17:11 NKJV] 11 ‘“For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood…”

So God made every nation of men… from one blood (Which is to say, from ONE life)…

Let me illustrate this further:

Adam received his life from who? — Jesus Christ (God), but how did he receive it? Jesus imparted it, gave it, transferred it directly to him. The life giving breathe of Jesus came from His being, and directly entered into Adam’s being through is nostrils, and when it came into his lifeless form, it energized that form and gave it life and consciousness, and awareness! Is that how God created you? Unlike Adam, you were mud before you became you!

There were living cells, charged with the life force of Jesus Christ in your Mother and your Father, and it was this life that was in your parents that was given to you. We did not have the same experience of Adam, in having God breathe into us. Why? God designed that the life He gave to Adam would be passed on to his offspring, and to theirs, and that from that one life, life would be given to the entire world. To pass on the life that God has given us is a direct command from God in the beginning:

[Gen 1:27-28 KJV] 27 “So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Even, Eve did not have life independent of Adam — God didn’t create the woman in the same way as He had formed the man did He?

[Gen 2:21-22 NKJV] 21 “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”

Now why is this significant? Because if your life & future were bound up inside of Adam — The truth is, whatever happens to Adam will affect your life today!

Illustration: Consider this illustration with me. Let’s say after church we all go on a hike, but only one of us brings water. Do you need water to live? Absolutely! In Arizona, there are some days in summer that are so hot (122 degrees) that you can go for a hike, and if you don’t bring enough water, you will die before the hike is finished. So water is essential to life. The problem is that on this hike, only one person brought water. After five miles of hiking, somebody mentions “I’m thirsty” , and then another “i’m thirsty” and then a third “i’m thirsty” — but how many have life giving water to share? “Just one hiker” — In some ways, everyone’s life is dependent and affected by that one. Now let’s say that one hiker gets the first taste of the water. He wraps his lips around the bottle and takes the first swig of the fresh cool liquid. But wait theirs a problem, He has just caught the “CoronaVirus”, but he doesn’t know it yet.

The hiker next to him says, can I have some water. He says yes, and the one bottle of water is passed from lip to lip, until all have received life from that one source! What’s the problem?

They all will get the CoronaVirus! Why? Because they all drank from the same source!

We have all drunk from the same source — The life of Christ, given to the first man, was tainted at the beginning with the deadly virus of sin, and thus sin was passed through Adam to all humanity, and thus death through sin affects the entire human race.

Paul could not say that Eve was the one who passed the affects of sin onto humanity, because the life of all humanity was in Adam. Upon Adam hung the destiny of the human race! Had Adam remained faithful, God could have and would have provided another helper for Adam — but when Adam chose to transgress God’s commands, the destiny of humanity was corrupted!

“In consequence of Adam’s sin, death passed upon the whole human race. All alike go down into the grave…” — GC88, 544.

The consequences of Adam’s sin affected all humanity — The Bible says, even those who did not transgress like Adam, were mortally affected by his sin.

[Rom 5:14 NKJV] 14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

When Adam was removed and banned from the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life, all humanity was removed and banned with him. Eternal life was forfeited for all through Adam’s sin. (Gen. 3:22-24)

But Adam’s sin goes deeper in that it hasn’t just affected our mortality — physical death is not the only consequence. Adam’s sin has affected us all on the moral level as well — The nature of humanity changed because of Adam’s sin —  

 “… Adam sinned, and the children of Adam share his guilt and its consequences…” — Faith & Works, 88.

[Rom 5:18 NKJV] 18 “Therefore, as through one man’s offense [judgment came] to all men, resulting in condemnation,…”

[Rom 5:19 NKJV] 19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”

Do you see it there in Scripture… We share Adam’s guilt and it’s consequences, we are judged and condemned with Adam, we through Adam’s disobedience have been made sinners.

Ellen White indicates that every person has three aspects to his nature: Physical, Mental, & Moral

“marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and happiness of the race, it provides for man’s social needs, it elevates the physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.” — Adventist Home, 25.4

“When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker…” — Education, 15.

“…this likeness [was not only] manifest in the physical nature… Every faculty of mind and soul reflected the Creator’s glory…” — Education, 20.2

This was the nature that was to be our! This was the life given to Adam in the beginning for the entire world!

“Christ knew that Adam in Eden with his superior advantages might have withstood the temptations of Satan and conquered him…” —  Confrontation 46.1

The fall of Adam, changed the nature of mankind.

“After tempting man to sin, Satan claimed the earth as his, and styled himself the prince of this world. Having conformed to his own nature the father and mother of our race, he thought to establish here his empire. He declared that men had chosen him as their sovereign. Through his control of men, he held dominion over the world.” — Desire of Ages, 114.

“After their sin, Adam and Eve earnestly entreated that they might remain in the home of their innocence and joy. They pledged themselves for the future to yield strict obedience to God. But they were told that their nature had become depraved by sin. They had lessened their strength to resist evil. Now, in a state of conscious guilt, they would have less power to maintain their integrity.” — Eternity Past, 29.4

Man who was to physically live forever, had his physical nature changed — disease and death came upon Adam and the sons of Adam.

Man who was to mentally reach the highest thoughts of heaven, had his mental thoughts depraved even to the point that the Bible declares that at the time of the flood the thoughts of men were only evil continually.

The moral nature of man that was to reflect their Creator Jesus, was warped and by nature they reflected their enemy Satan.

By the sin of Adam, the Nature of Christ (The image of the glory of God) was traded for the Nature of Satan (A complete distortion of God’s image).

[Psa 51:5 NKJV] 5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

“Because of sin his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience.” 5BC, 1128.

Ellen White and Scripture reveal that we have inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil, that can only be overcome through the power of Christ.

“Those who put their trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency. Instead of being held in bondage to the lower nature, they are to rule every appetite and passion. God has not left us to battle with evil in our own finite strength. Whatever may be our inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, we can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart.” — Temperance, 112.1

Jesus says: [Jhn 15:5 NKJV] 5 “I am the vine, you [are] the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

“You cannot bring up your children as you should without divine help; for the fallen nature of

Adam always strives for the mastery.” — Adventist Home, 205.

Scripture & Spirit of Prophecy are in perfect agreement, the condition that the first Adam has placed humanity in is a hopeless condition. (We are placed in this lost condition through heredity — what we gained from Adam and our parents, and through cultivation — The sins we have nurtured in our own lives) But praise God there is a second Adam to redeem all that the first Adam lost through disobedience!

This is why ONLY Jesus could be the second Adam! Humanities life is tied to only two individuals in history (Christ & Adam) Christ because He breathed life for all humanity in Adam, and Adam because He was the conduit through whom life was passed to all humanity.

No angel, No human, No being in the all the universe outside of Christ could trod the winepress for us! None but Christ was qualified to walk the path where Adam had failed on our behalf. The reason Christ’s life alone could be given for all humanity, is because all humanity derive their life from HIM!

Not only that — but Christ had to take on our fallen nature, our destitute condition, in order to reach man in His fallen and destitute state. This does not mean that Christ sinned as we sin…  

“As the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil.” {Steps to Christ 93, 94}

“Never lived there another who so hated evil.” {Education 79}

“Never before had there been a being upon the earth who hated sin with so perfect a hatred as did Christ.” {1 Selected Messages 254}

“The refined sensibilities of His holy nature rendered contact with evil unspeakably painful to Him.” {7BC 927}

Although He was sinless, Scripture and Spirit of Prophecy tell us that Jesus was tempted as we are tempted! He came to earth as the second Adam, and took on our fallen nature.

[Heb 2:17 NKJV] 17 “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like [His] brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest…”

“It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.” —  The Desire of Ages, 48, 49.

What does this mean?  

Christ did not overcome as Adam did, with the strength of Adam’s nature before the Fall — Oh no, Christ overcame in the weakness of the children of Adam after heredity had weakened humanity for 4,000 years!

• Jesus hungered as men hunger today ( 4:2)
• Jesus thirsted as men thirst today (John 19:28)
• Jesus was tempted as men are tempted today (Hebrews 4:15)
• Jesus suffered as men suffer today (Hebrews 5:8; 1 Peter 2:23)
• Jesus overcame through power from His Father, as we may overcome through His power (John 5:30; 14:10; Phil. 4:13)
• He did all this and was sinless, spotless, perfect, righteous ( 4:15)

“What love! What amazing condescension! The King of glory proposed to humble Himself to fallen humanity! He would place His feet in Adam’s steps. He would take man’s fallen nature…” — Confrontation, 18.1

Now why was it necessary that Jesus, as the “Second Adam” had to take on our fallen nature? Why not come just as the divine king and die on the cross? Wasn’t there more at stake to lose by placing Himself in such a weak position, liable and susceptible to the temptations and trials which the enemy could heap upon Him? Why the temptations, why the trials, why the suffering for the infinite one? Why could Christ not come as Adam in his perfection?

[Rom 5:19 NKJV] 19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Christ’s must gain the victory where Adam had transgressed! But Jesus must do more than gain the victory where Adam transgressed — for Adam had all the powers and advantages of perfection on his side, and should Jesus only overcome in the perfect condition of Adam, we would say Righteousness can only reach mankind in an unfilled state, but can not reach mankind in our fallen condition. But to show that we too may live a righteous life through His power, Jesus took on our fallen nature, and overcame in our weakness — Physical Weakness, Mental Weakness, & Moral Weakness (Solely Through the Divine Power available to us in our weak condition) — In this way proving that Man can be uplifted from His fallen state through the power of God!

“Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by temptation. Then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position; He could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.” — DA 117.2

But there is another reason Jesus had to take on our fallen nature, and that was to Disprove the Claims of Satan:

Claim #1 — God’s Law Can Not Be Kept

“Christ came to vindicate the sacred claims of the law. He came to live a life of obedience to its requirements and thus prove the falsity of the charge made by Satan that it is impossible for man to keep the law of God. As a man He met temptation and overcame in the strength given Him from God. As He went about doing good, healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God’s law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.” — 8T 207.3

“Satan claimed that it was impossible for human beings to keep God’s law. In order to prove the falsity of this claim, Christ left His high command, took upon Himself the nature of man, and came to the earth to stand at the head of the fallen race, in order to show that humanity could withstand the temptations of Satan.”—The Upward Look, 172

“It was necessary that Christ should take upon him our nature, in order to prove the falsity of Satan’s statements. The apostate cast contempt upon the law of God, and declared that it was impossible for men to keep God’s commandment, which had been preordained in the counsels of heaven. Therefore Christ became man’s representative and surety, thus demonstrating to heavenly intelligences, to unfallen worlds, and to the human race, that, through cooperation with divine agencies, humanity could be pure and holy.” — Signs of the Times, June 18, 1894 (par. 5).

Claim #2 — Satan Claimed Dominion Over Earth Because All Had Sinned

After tempting man to sin, Satan claimed the earth as his, and styled himself the prince of this world. Having conformed to his own nature the father and mother of our race, he thought to establish here his empire. He declared that men had chosen him as their sovereign. Through his control of men, he held dominion over the world. Christ had come to disprove Satan’s claim. As the Son of man, Christ would stand loyal to God. Thus it would be shown that Satan had not gained complete control of the human race, and that his claim to the world was false. All who desired deliverance from his power would be set free. The dominion that Adam had lost through sin would be recovered. DA 114.3 What then is the conclusion?

As Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”

Through Christ the Divine Nature is restored to those who struggle now with a fallen nature. You can live free! You can have the life offered to Adam in Eden, because Christ has taken the life we inherited from Adam after Eden. Listen to this promise of Scripture:

[2Pe 1:2-4 NKJV] 2 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that [pertain] to life and godliness, … by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption [that is] in the world through lust.”

Appeal: Today there is Good News — Jesus our advocate has overcome in our weakness, that we may overcome in His strength. Will you take ahold of Christ today through faith?

“Blessed is the soul who can say, “I am guilty before God: but Jesus is my Advocate. I have transgressed His law. I cannot save myself; but I make the precious blood that was shed on Calvary all my plea. I am lost in Adam, but restored in Christ.” — Sons & Daughters, 120. Who will joyfully accept this new life purchased and offered by the Second Adam?

[1] By the way, the name “Adam” comes from the Hebrew word which means “Red or Ruddy” — which

Ellen White used to describe Adam when he came forth from the reddish clay of the ground. She says, “His countenance bore the ruddy [red] tint of health and glowed with the light of life and joy.” DG, 22.

Arabs used this word in antiquity to describe youthfulness, as when the face flushes red