“156 Pictures of Christ in the Old Testament” – Adam

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Fact About Christ from page 2: Adam is a type of Christ as the first man, the first ancestor, of the New Creation race.

Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

– Romans 5:14

as through one transgression… there resulted condemnation to All Men! Even so through one act of righteousness… there resulted justification of life to all men.

– Romans 5:18

The first picture of Christ in the Old Testament comes from the very beginning of the Bible—Adam in Genesis. Let’s begin by dwelling in this picture a little bit. (Some verses will be below, but it might be helpful to read Genesis chapters 1-3 if you do not think you are familiar with the details).

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

– Genesis 1:26-31

Chapter one ends on the sixth day with the creation of man. So the first thing we see is that wow, there is a man. The fact that there is mankind is amazing. The whole creation was for man. We could even say that man is God’s best idea. Many times during the creation process, God sees that “it was good,” yet on the sixth day, after man is created, God said “very good.”

Man is in the image of God. God would commit all of creation under the man’s headship. Nothing else has a higher position than man. Angels? Not higher than man.

What happened with this one man Adam affected the whole race. For this point, we will now go to the New Testament verses.

What does the New Testament say about it?

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

– Romans 5:12-14

(Please also read: Romans 5:15-21)

Adam sinned. Through that sin, death entered into the world. Thus, Adam died. We, as his children, as the race of mankind, die. People don’t have to do what Adam did, but they still die.

Sin was not imputed (counted against man) during that time (from Adam to Moses). But people in that time still died, though God did not impute sin to them. Why? Because of Adam. Adam is the source, the prototype, of all mankind. You need to know what happened to him to know what happened to you.

In THAT WAY, he is a type of Christ. What Adam did affected all the people after him. People die because of Adam, not because of their sin.

So what does this picture say about Christ?

When there was a righteous act with Christ, the whole race was affected. Just like I don’t have to sin like Adam, I don’t have to do what Christ did. But I get the benefit. There is an abundance of grace and a free gift of righteousness. There is justification and life. Just as Adam was the father of a race that died, Christ began a “new race” that can reign in life.

What does this mean for me as a Christian?

It is really good to know Him. Know about Him: What He has done and the details of what He went through. As a Christian, we take our intrinsic nature from Him. We really are born again into a new life. Jesus is not just a man who inspires us or a model to emulate, but we all have this DNA. Christ is in us. Our root is this man.

Have any inspirations or questions about the content of the article? Or do you just want to say hello and introduce yourself? We’d love to hear from all our readers! Leave a comment or send an email to editors@asweetsavor.org with the title of this post in the subject line. If you are burning to engage with us, but don’t know what to say, here are some questions that could be a help: 

1. Many are familiar with the concept that Christ’s act of justification affects all men. Yet we see here that Christ is the head of a “New Creation race.” When the Apostle Paul encouraged the Philippians to consider others more highly than themselves, he said: “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). What other aspects of Christ do you think apply to this “New Creation race”?
2. What’s the difference between having Christ as a role model and having him as the root of our intrinsic nature as a born-again Christian? Have you experienced this difference?
3. What practices or habits have you formed to help you both know Jesus and know about Him?