The Comparison to Adam
5: 18-21
The comparison to Adam DIG: Make a list of the comparisons between Adam and Yeshua. What surprises you? What doesn’t? From 5:1-21, what do you see that God has done for you through Yeshua Messiah? How does this help you understand the meaning of God’s grace in verses 1, 15, 17, 20 and 21? How does this chapter illustrate why “Grace and peace to you” (1:7), is especially meaningful to believers? Why was the Torah given?
REFLECT: When your “First Adam” is in conflict with your “Second Adam,” what can you do (see First John 1:9)? How is Messiah the “first fruits” of more to come? If you have been declared righteous by God at the moment of faith, why do you still sin? Does your obedience to Messiah have to be perfect? Or should it characterize your life? Why is that important to you? Are you secure in the knowledge that you are eternally saved by Messiah’s blood?
Adam lit the forest fire that devastated the entire human race; however, Messiah not only put it out, but planted a new forest, an eternal one, for all who will receive His gracious gift.
Summary conclusion: In these verses, Paul concludes his analogy between Adam and Messiah which began in 5:12. In other words, just as it was through one offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one righteous act that all [believers] come to be considered righteous (5:18). Paul’s primary teaching here is that the essence of Adam’s sin was disobedience, whereas the essence of Messiah’s sacrifice was obedience. When God commanded Adam not to eat of the forbidden fruit, Adam disobeyed and brought death. When YHVH sent His one-and-only Son into the world to suffer and die, the Son obeyed and brought life.136
Adam in Genesis is the First Adam, and Messiah is the Last Adam. The TaNaKh says: The first “Adam,” became a living human being; but the last “Adam” has become a life-giving spirit (First Corinthians 15:45). Adam was created with a natural body. It was not glorified, but it was perfect and good in every way (Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve originally were in a probationary period. Had they proved faithful rather than disobedient, their bodies would have become glorified and immortalized by eating the fruit of the tree of life, which they could have eaten (Genesis 2:9). Because they sinned, however, they were put out of the Garden lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever in a state of sin (Genesis 3:22).
The last “Adam,” however, became a life-giving spirit. The last “Adam,” is Yeshua Messiah. For just as through the disobedience (Greek: parakoe, this is one of the nine words for sin in the B’rit Chadashah) of the one man, Adam’s first act of sin, which plunged the entire human race into sin with its accompanying ruin and misery. Through the first “Adam,” we have inherited our natural, sinful bodies; however, through Messiah, we will inherit spiritual bodies in the first resurrection (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ff – Blessed and Holy are Those Who Have Part in the First Resurrection).
Adam’s was a prototype of our natural bodies, whereas Messiah’s was the prototype of our spiritual bodies. All the descendants of Adam have natural bodies, and all the descendants of Messiah will have spiritual bodies. Messiah’s resurrection, therefore, was the prototype of all subsequent resurrection.137 Yeshua is the first fruits of more to come (see the commentary on Leviticus Ea – Resheet).
So also, through the obedience of the other man, many will be made, or declared, righteous (5:19, also see 1:17). Adam’s disobedience caused him and his descendants to be made sinners by nature and make-up. In the same way, but with the exact opposite effect, Messiah’s obedience causes those who trust in Him to be made righteous by nature and make-up.
From beginning to end, Yeshua’s earthly life was characterized by perfect obedience to His heavenly Father. Even at the age of twelve, He reminded His parents that He had to be about His Father’s business (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ba – The Boy Jesus at the Temple). Yeshua’s sole purpose on earth was to do His Father’s will (John 4:34, 5:30, 6:38; Matthew 26:39 and 42). In His incarnation: He humbled Himself to becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
Dear Great and Loving Heavenly Father, You are Awesome! Praise You, that You adopt as Your own children those who love and trust You. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). How comforting that those who love You, You love back and they belong to You. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God (First John 3:1a)! You live within and help and guide in all areas of the lives of those who love You. If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17).
Praise You for cleansing those who love You by giving them the perfect righteousness of Yeshua Your Son thru His perfect life, death and resurrection. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). To have the Jewish Messiah of the world living right inside of those who love Him is fantastic! How special to have the most wonderful of friends to be right with us. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them (John 14:21 NIV). I love You Father, Yeshua Messiah, Ruach Ha’Kodesh! In the name of Yeshua and the power of His resurrection. Amen
The person who genuinely belongs to Yeshua Messiah will reflect that same spirit of obedience, because he has Messiah’s own life within him. When a person places his trust/faith/belief in Messiah, he not only is declared righteous legally, but is actually made righteous, that is, given an inward righteousness that must, and will, bear spiritual fruit. As long as a believer is in the flesh, he will have shortcomings and weaknesses of the flesh, and his righteousness will not be expressed perfectly. But if a person’s life is characterized by sin and shows no fruit of the Ruach (see the commentary on Galatians Bv – Walk by the Ruach, and Not the Desires of the Flesh), that person has no legitimate claim on Messiah. People who are made righteous by Messiah, live righteously.138
Contrast between Torah and grace: And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more (5:20). One of the reasons YHVH gave the Torah was to cause us to sin more (see the commentary on Exodus Dh – Moses and the Torah). No matter how great our sin becomes, God’s grace overflows beyond it and abundantly exceeds it. No wonder Paul wrote that God’s grace is enough for us (Second Corinthians 12:9a). The Torah has never been a means of salvation during any Dispensation. Paul has already declared that Abraham was righteous completely apart from any good works he accomplished, and several years before he was circumcised and centuries before the Torah was given by Moshe (see Be – The Sign of Justification).
All this happened so that just as sin (Greek: a ‘amaptia, meaning, sin nature) ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer), through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord (5:21). Here, at the end of Chapter 5, we see our [sin nature] being personified, since it reigns as king. Thus, two realms or kingdoms are spelled out. No middle ground is given. This prepares us for our look at Chapter six, and how we, as believers, can live a holy separated life, disengaged from our [sin nature], no longer compelled to obey it.
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