Last week we looked at how sin entered the world through Adam; this week it was time to look at the parallels between Adam and Christ (Romans 5:13-21).
Adam is a type of Christ. A type is a pattern, a shadow pointing to a greater truth, a symbol, if you like. Whilst it is dangerous to build doctrine on types and whilst all types have their limitations, they are like stained glass windows, illuminating and highlighting aspects of truth which might otherwise remain hidden. Adam is like Christ in that he was a representative of man; he had free choice; his choice affected all manking and he knew what it was to walk with God and to know Him intimately. So too Christ chose to obey His Father (a choice which affects us all, since we partake in His righteousness) and knew His Father; He became the representative for man, freely choosing to live as man was designed to live, showing us to how to be human without sinning. Christ became the provision for sin; Adam, on the other hand, showed us the penalty and power of sin.
In comparing Adam’s trespaass with Christ’s gift of eternal life, we see a number of differences, however. In Adam, sin and death reigned and condemnation was the consequence (see John 3:17-19). In Christ, we are given the gift of ‘reigning in life’ and are justified, given right standing before God: ‘no condemnation now I dread’. Adam’s sin brought condemnation for all; Christ’s right living and sacrificial death brought justification for all.
God’s wonderful gift of grace is described as ‘overflowing grace’ (vs 15). God hasn’t just given grace; He has given an ‘abundant provision of grace’ (vs 17) and we are told that ‘where sin increased, grace increased all the more’ (Rom 5:20). May we know that grace more and more in our lives!