The First Man

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 subjection 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.

Hebrews 2:6-8

The first man is of the earth, earthy…

1 Corinthians 15:45-50

In six days of creation God took the earth, which was without form, and void, and formed it into a thing of great beauty. He filled it with all manner of green plants, fowl of the air, fish of the sea, and every animal of the dry land. On the sixth day God looked upon everything He had created and saw that it was “good.” Then He created man; He created him in His own image and gave him dominion over all the works of God’s hands. Again, God look upon His creation and saw that it was “very good.” The scripture says that God formed Adam of the dust of the earth, and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and “man became a living soul.” David tells us even more about the make up of the first man in Psalms 8:4-6; “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 dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:” Notice that man was made “a little lower than the angels.” David used the Hebrew word “Elohiym,” which is normally translated “god,” and not “angels.” The first man, Adam, was made a little lower than God, and was “crowned with glory and honour.” What a picture we see of Adam as he was before the fall. He was in the image and likeness of God, just a little lower than God. He “breathed” the breath (Spirit) of God, and was crowned, or, adorned with the glory and honour of God. He had dominion over all works of God’s hands, and everything was under his feet. Adam walked and talked with God, and God worked with him. Adam lived in a “paradise” called “Eden,” where every tree was “pleasant to the eye and good for food.” Adam and God had perfect fellowship one with another until “Sin” entered through disobedience.

In the midst of the Garden of Eden were two trees, the “tree of life,” and “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God told Adam that he could eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He could eat of the tree of life, and live forever in this wonderful estate. His children and all his descendants would have lived in paradise on earth. They would all be born in the image and likeness of God. All would breath His breath, and would be adorned with glory and honour. Had Adam ate of the tree of life, the forbidden tree would doubtless have been taken out of the way, for Adam would have chosen life for himself and for all his seed after him.

Adam never ate of the tree of life, choosing instead to eat of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve had been talking to the “serpent,” who, the scriptures say, was “more subtil than any beast of the field which God had made.” The serpent questioned Eve about the command of God concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God had said they would “surely die” if they ate of it. The serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” The scripture tells us that Eve was deceived, and when she saw that “…the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Immediately their eyes were opened and they “knew that they were naked.” Before they ate of the forbidden fruit, Genesis 2:25 says, “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Now, the shame of nakedness filled their hearts. They took fig leaves and fashioned aprons to cover themselves. When they heard the voice of God in the garden, they hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees. They could not cover their shame, because it wasn’t due to the lack of natural clothing, but rather because the glory and honour of God was departed from them. They no longer bore the image and likeness of God. They no longer breathed His breath. This was the death they died that day. They were “fallen” from all that God had made them to be. Adam had chosen, once for ever, and once for all of his descendants for all time; he had chosen “the knowledge of good and evil” instead of “life.”

The scripture tells of three things Eve saw when she looked upon the forbidden tree; “…it was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise.” All the trees of the garden were “good for food.” Likewise, all the trees were “pleasant to the eyes,” but here was the one tree in the garden that would “make them wise.” Certainly, this was the deciding point in the deception of Eve. She would be “wise;” she would be “as god.” She would never have taken of the “evil” of the tree, only the “good,” but it was that which was good in her sight that destroyed both she and her husband. Both Adam and Eve were indeed made wise, but it was what the scriptures condemn to this day as the “wisdom of this world.” Their eyes were opened. Even God said “behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken (Genesis 3:22-23).” The next verse tells us that God placed “cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” No fallen man, Adam, nor any of his seed, would ever eat of the tree of life. His kind will never live forever.

In the days of Noah, God saw that “the wickedness of man was great…and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” and it repented Him that He had created man, and it “grieved Him at His heart (Genesis 6:5-6).” He determined to destroy His creation, but “Noah found grace in the eyes of God.” For the next hundred and twenty years God waited while Noah built an ark to save his household from the flood to come. Eight souls were saved in the ark, as well as a pair of every living creature God had created. After the flood, God smelled the “sweet savour” of Noah’s sacrifice and said in His heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.” Strangely, the same reason God gave for sending the flood to destroy man is the reason He now gave not to destroy them again by the waters of a flood. The difference was this; after the flood, God said man’s imagination is “evil from his youth.” This is perhaps the first acknowledgement that man is born in sin. There had to be another answer for the sin that reigns in the heart of man.

The Second Man

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Hebrews 2:9

… the second man is the Lord from heaven.

I Corinthians 15:47

The answer is Jesus. These four words, however, are too simplistic, for the problem with fallen man was such that it took the wisdom of God almighty to find the answer. God could never accept fallen man. Forgiveness was not enough. God was always a forgiving God. Fifteen hundred years before Christ, God proclaimed His name to Moses, saying, “The LORD, the LORD God, Merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… (Exodus 34:6-7).” Jesus did not have to suffer the cross to forgive man. God has always forgiven those who humble themselves before Him and repent. Our redemption is much more. Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” That same heart of God that is “grieved” by the wickedness of man requires there be redemption for man. Man, who is “born in sin” because of the first man Adam’s disobedience, must have opportunity to be “born again in righteousness” because of a second man’s obedience. That second man is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His obedience was “unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8).”

The difficulty in redemption was that God could never be reconciled to fallen man. Regardless of why man is a sinner, God will never accept sinful man. Even if man exercised such “self control” that every sinful action were subdued, God could not accept that man because of the “imaginations of his heart.” Even in the days of Noah, man was not destroyed for what he did so much as for what he was. Jesus told the Jews that unless their righteousness “exceeded” the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, they would in no wise enter the kingdom (Matthew 5:20). He explained it this way; the Pharisees taught the law and kept it to the letter. They taught the people “thou shalt not commit adultery.” There is no reason to believe they broke this commandment, but Jesus said if a man looked upon a woman to lust after her, he had already committed adultery in his heart. The “righteousness that exceeds” is righteousness that proceeds from a “pure heart,” and not just from a law. No fallen man has that righteousness. There was “none righteous (Romans 3:10)” until after Jesus Christ, the second man, came and suffered the cross for us.

Fallen man has had the death sentence hanging over him from Adam until this present day. Fallen man is what the New Testament calls “The Old Man.” Some would call him “The Adam Man.” Regardless of what you call him, he must die; the sentence must be carried out. In redemption, our old man is “crucified with Christ, and the body of sin is destroyed (Romans 6:6).” The death sentence is carried out and the demands of justice against fallen man are satisfied; “for he that is dead, is freed from sin (Romans 6:7).” If there is any among us who have never been “crucified with Christ” in this present lifetime, the death sentence will yet be carried out, but it will be in eternal damnation and death in the pit with the devil and his angels.

Peter tells us God has “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” It is obvious that Jesus was crucified before He was raised again. So it is with us. Just as death had to come before resurrection for Jesus, death must come before new birth for us. “We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Romans 5:10).” He has reconciled us “in the body of His flesh through death…(Colossians 1:21-22).” “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” Paul tells Timothy, “It is a faithful saying: for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with him (II Timothy 2:11).” Peter joins in; “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness (I Peter 2:24).”

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

1 Corinthians 15:36

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Ephesians 2:1

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Ephesians 2:4-5

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Colossians 2:13

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1 Peter 3:18

In each of these scriptures, with the exception of the first one, the word “quickened” speaks of our new birth; that we are quickened, or, “born again” by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The first verse of this series establishes that nothing is “quickened” unless it first dies. People continue to struggle because they have never died; yet they believe they have been born again. They believe the source of their struggle is “The New Man” struggling with “The Old Man” within them. Their teachers have told them they have two natures after they have been born again, and they must seek to subdue, or “crucify” their old nature. They are mistaken. No one has two natures. The man in Romans 7:14-24 is an old man, a fallen man. He is a son of Adam, born in sin because of Adam’s disobedience. He wants to do “good,” but “evil” is present with him. He is still eating of the knowledge of “good and evil.” He thinks the “wisdom” he receives from that tree will bring him through his problem, but he is continually brought into captivity to the sin that is in him. When he does evil, he cries, “It is not I, but sin that dwelleth in me.” He tries harder, but the results are always the same. He is told that he will grow out of this “weakness,” but it is the purpose of the “serpent” that deceived Eve to keep fallen man in deception. He would keep man eating at the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Remember, it is “a tree to be desired to make one wise.” “Philosophy (the love of wisdom)” is the fruit of that tree. In dealing through human means with the sin that lies in the breast of every person, we all become “philosophers.” Man’s wisdom will always fail, better sooner, than later. It is only when this man reaches the place of Romans 7: 24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death,” that he finds hope of true salvation. His deliverance is “crucifixion with Christ.” God will not force it upon Him, he must submit unto it, for it is the righteousness of God for fallen man. Submitting to the death of the cross in repentance and faith, he will be “born again” of the Spirit of God.

The counterpart of the old man in Romans 7:14-24 is the man in Galatians 2:20-21. He is a “New Man.” He begins his testimony, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Notice the contrast! The “Old Man” cries “not I, but sin that dwelleth in me;” the “New Man’s” cry is “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The old man is disclaiming his failures: “not I, but sin.” The new man is disclaiming his successes; “yet not I, but Christ!” The new man continues, “…the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He does not frustrate the grace of God (Galatians 2:21), because he knows that righteousness does not come by the law; neither does it come by the “principles” that man’s wisdom have given us. Paul knew that even “preaching the gospel” by the “wisdom of words” would make the cross of Christ of no effect (I Corinthians 1:17). Likewise, if righteousness comes by any other means than by our death and resurrection with Jesus Christ, then Jesus died in vain (Galatians 2:21).