JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

165
even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God
of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive" (Lk 20:34-36).
Historical existence in every culture is based in one way or another on the sex drive-family,
parents, children, husband, wives. The Age to Come is unimaginable because it is so
difficult to imagine existence in which these basic sociological, emotional and physical realities
will no longer prevail.
Paul adds:
"The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit."
(1 Co 15:45)
When Paul states that the first Adam "became" a "living being" and the last Adam (Jesus)
"became" a "life-giving spirit" he is referring to the creation of Adam and the birth of Jesus.
Only Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is the last Adam. God the Son, or the Word (logos)—still the
second person of the Godhead, as found before the birth of Jesus was not the last Adam. This is
so because previous to that first Christmas the second person of the trinity was only divine. At
that time He was sharing in the glory and majesty of the heavens with God the Father and God
the Spirit.
The last Adam had to be human. Otherwise He could not be Adam since the word or
name means "mankind." God, who is spirit, whether as Father, Redeemer, or Spirit, cannot be
referred to as "man." This would be ludicrous. Thus only the God-Man—Jesus Christ—qualifies.
To try to prove, therefore, that the above verse proves that the last Adam was created
because He is referred to as having "become" a "life-giving spirit" is totally unwarranted.
Here Paul contrasts the two heads of two different families: the family of Adam
consisting of all people; and the family of Christ consisting of believers, who are therefore
indwelt by the Spirit and who find their existence "in Christ."
The word describing "Adam" is literally "a living soul" (psyche). Adam's existence was
altogether on the level of psyche--natural, human life. As such, Adam—and all the children of
Adam—have "natural" (psychika) bodies. Christ in His resurrection entered into a new realm of
existence—a new order, which is nothing less than the invisible world of God—the Age to
Come. As such Paul calls him "a life-giving spirit." He has entered the spiritual realm, taking his
resurrected, glorified body with Him.
Paul expresses the same truth at other places such as 2 Corinthians:
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (3:17).