King's Business - 1952-11

We read that “ 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” (Gen. 1:28). In the eighth Psalm, David asks the question, “ What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have do­ minion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” (w . 4-8). Were there no New Testament com­ ments on this eighth Psalm, we might well think that it spoke only of Adam. I believe the second chapter of Hebrews refers not to “the first man Adam,” but to “ the last Adam,” our Lord Jesus Christ. “ But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in sub­ jection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suf­ fering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:6-9). Christ brought up in resurrec­ tion all that Adam carried down in death. He can truthfully say, as He does in Psalm 69:4: “ Then I restored that which I took not away.” When He comes again, He shall be Lord over all the re­ deemed creation. In the temptations of the two men, Adam and Christ, we find a contrasting parallelism. Adam was in a perfect en­ vironment, a beautiful garden, fresh from the creative hand of God. Our Lord Jesus was in a cursed wilderness, “with the wild beasts” (Mark 1:13). Adam disbelieved God, who had said: “ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). On the contrary, our blessed Lord stood un­ flinchingly on the Word of God, three times over answering Satan’s tempta­ tions with the Scripture, “ It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). “ Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him” (Matt. 4:11). He showed that He was indeed the Son of God, fitted for the work of the cross, where “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). After God had created “ the first man

us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (1 John 5:6, 7, 11, 12, R.V.). Yes, His bride was also taken from His side. But the greatest line of similarity be­ tween Adam and Christ is found in the fact that they are both federal heads, that is, both have acted in behalf of the whole race. When Adam sinned, he carried the whole race down with him. When Christ died on the cross, He acted for the whole race, and provided salvation for all. The fact that all men will not receive this salvation does not alter the fact that it was provided for them: This doctrine is found in the latter part of Romans 5. There we read: “ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to con­ demnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (w . 18, 19). The old creation went down in ruin with Adam its head; the new creation is on this side of death, on heavenly, resur­ rection ground, with Christ its Head. Men have only to receive what He has provided in order to pass out of the old creation, and into the new. “ For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abund­ ance of grace and of the gift of right­ eousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ ” (Rom. 5:17). Romans 5:12-21 tells us that in Adam there is death (v. 17), sin (w . 12, 18), and condemnation (v. 19). Contrariwise, in Christ there is life (v. 17), right­ eousness (v. 18), and justification (v. 18). All this because Adam was the disobedient one (v. 19), and because Christ was the obedient one, “ and be­ came obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). “And Adam . . . begat a son in his oum likeness” (Gen. 5:3). All of Adam’s descendants bear a moral likeness to him, being members of a ruined race. But those who know Christ “have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:10). And when our glorious Head shall appear, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Beloved reader, are you in Adam or in Christ? You were born into Adam’s race, and if you have never been born the second time, you are under con­ demnation, and abide in eternal death. But when you are born again, then God sees you as dead to the old creation con­ nected with Adam, and a part of the new creation, connected with Christ. “ But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1 :12,13).

Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45), He said: “ It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him . . . And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. 2:18, 21-24). Christ, the last Adam, also has a bride, the church, composed of believing sinners. We read in Ephesians 5 that “ so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and A man's determined will to reach And struggle on without recess. The impossible barriers to breach Within himself—he calls success. I seek success another way: May God my soul possess. And use my life— my all— I pray . . . This I would call success. —William C. Rollins. cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:28-32). Marvelous grace indeed that makes believing sinners the bride of Christ. And just as Adam’s bride was taken out of his side, while he was in a deep sleep, we recall how that, when our Saviour hung on the cross, “ one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34), and that John tells us in another place that “ this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because thé Spirit is the truth . . . And the witness is this, that God gave unto ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Success

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