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The Other Son of God

BY ED CHRISTIAN

". . . the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38, NKJV).

e're used to people referring to Christ as "the second Adam." We're not used to hearing Adam called "the other son of God." Yet Luke traces Christ's ancestry through Adam to God and calls Adam "the son of God."

Actually, the phrase "Second Adam" doesn't occur in Scripture, but Paul tells us, "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit [in context, at His resurrection]. . . . The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man" (1 Cor. 15:45-49, NKJV).

If Christ is "the last Adam," was Adam in any way the first Christ? Well, Adam certainly wasn't divine or preexistent, and he wasn't a savior, but the question leads to some interesting thoughts.

Adam was made of dust enlivened by God's life-giving breath (Gen. 2:7). Jesus was made (i.e., "conceived") when Mary (who eventually returned to dust) was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). "Spirit" and "breath" are English translations of the same word in both Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma).

Jesus was divinity made flesh. Adam was dust made flesh. For both, the life-giving force was the breath or spirit of God. Adam wasn't divine, yet in a sense the divine breath was in him. Like Scripture, Adam's life was "God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV).

Was "the image of God" in Adam a tie to divinity that raised him above the rest of God's creation and gave him authority to "have dominion" and "subdue it" in God's name (Gen. 1:26, 28, NKJV)? Adam functioned not "as God" but as "the image of God."

This brings to mind Job 1:6: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them" (NKJV).

Who were these "sons of God"? Some say that they were the planetary princes of other created worlds and that all these leaders, each bearing the title "son of God," periodically appeared before God to report. Satan would have come after Adam's fall because he claimed the title "prince of this world" (John 16:11).

If Adam had not fallen, would he too have one day visited heaven as our planet's "son of God" to make his report? Perhaps he would have.

We're all familiar with the story of David and Goliath. These two men were the chosen champions of their respective sides: the Israelites and the Philistines. Their rule of combat was "winner take all." Each man represented in himself the lives and freedom of his comrades in arms. The loser's entire army would become the slaves of the opposing army (1 Sam. 17:8-10).

Similarly, when Adam faced temptation, he was the champion of God's creation. If he lost the battle, that creation would enter into bondage (Rom. 8:21). That's what happened. Instead of the creation being subject to Adam, the earthly viceregent of God, it fell subject to the enemy, Satan (Rom. 8:20-22).

Within the champion analogy Satan agreed to a rematch, this time with Christ as our champion. Had Christ lost, all humanity would have remained permanently subject to death. But He didn't lose.

Both Adam and Christ are called "son of God" in Scripture. Both served as our champion. Had Adam prevailed in his battle against temptation, he would have saved humanity from its fall into sin and death. To that extent he would have been our savior. But once he had lost the championship, he could never free us from our slavery.

It took a better champion, the divine Son of God, come from heaven and made flesh, to win us back and become our eternal Savior.

_________________________
Ed Christian teaches English and Biblical Literature at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. His e-mail address is [email protected].

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