There are two special phrases in the Bible that speak of a basic truth concerning God’s salvation: in Adam and in Christ. If we want to know God’s salvation, we must know the matters related to being in Adam and in Christ.
1. “The first man, Adam”; “The first man is out of the earth” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47).
Although there are millions of people in the world, in God’s eyes there are only two men. The first man is Adam. The Bible calls him the first man and the first Adam. He is out of the earth, so he is earthy. He is the beginning of man. He is the first man and the first Adam because before him there was no man. All the people in the world are his descendants, and everyone is out of him; thus, everyone is in him. Although his descendants number in the millions, in God’s view Adam and we as his descendants are just one man because we are out of him and in him.
Every person in the world is one with Adam. Everyone has come out of Adam and is a part of Adam. When a watermelon is cut into many slices, the slices are still a part of the watermelon, and the slices equal only one watermelon. Every person in the world is a “slice” of Adam, a part of Adam. Everyone together equals Adam. Although every person is an individual, every person is Adam because everyone is a part of Adam. Strictly speaking, our name is Adam because we are out of Adam and in Adam. Therefore, in God’s eyes Adam and his descendants are one man, Adam. As the first man, Adam is the first Adam.
1. “The second man is out of heaven”; “The last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:47, 45).
The Bible speaks of Christ as the second man. This may seem a little peculiar because, according to our thought, Cain was the second man. However, the Bible says that the second man is Christ. This is God’s view. In God’s eyes the only man after Adam is Christ because there was only one man before Christ. Apart from Adam, there was no other man before Christ. Thus, in God’s eyes Adam is the first man, and Christ is the second man.
In 1 Corinthians 15 Christ is called not only the second man but also the last Adam, or the last man. This tells us that in God’s eyes, Christ is not only the second man but also the last man. After Christ there is no other man. Although there is one man before Christ, there is not another man after Christ. Adam is the first man; Christ is the second man. In God’s eyes, just as there was no man before Adam, there is no man after Christ. Furthermore, there is no man between Adam and Christ. Therefore, in God’s view there are only two men in the universe—Adam and Christ.
If we want to thoroughly know and accurately experience God’s way of salvation, we must see that there are only two men in the universe—Adam and Christ. Apart from these two men, there is not another man. In God’s eyes every person in the world is either in Adam or in Christ. If we are not in Adam, we are in Christ because there is not a third man. This is God’s vision. This is God’s point of view. We must have God’s vision and God’s point of view to thoroughly know and to accurately experience His way of salvation. May the Lord open our eyes to see this.
1. “He made from one every nation of men” (Acts 17:26).
Some ancient manuscripts use the phrase one man instead of one in this verse. The one man is Adam. God made myriads of nations out of one man, or out of one. The nations are all out of Adam, and they are all in Adam. The people of the world are all descendants of Adam and out of Adam because they have been born in Adam. Strictly speaking, before we were born, we were in Adam. We are born in Adam because we were in Adam and are people of Adam.
1. “Through the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners” (Rom. 5:19).
The first thing that man has received from Adam is sin. Through Adam sin has come to every man. We are not sinful because we have committed sins; we were constituted sinners in Adam. Before we even committed a sin, we had a sinful nature. Because of the disobedience of Adam, we have sin, and we have been constituted as sinners. Adam became a sinner through disobedience, and since we are in him, we have sin and are sinners. We do not need to commit a sin in order to be a sinner, because we were born as sinners.
After Korea was defeated by Japan, the children who were born in Korea were also defeated because their country was no longer their own. They lost their country because their forefathers lost their country. Before they were even born, they were in a country that their fathers and grandfathers had lost. Thus, they were born as people without their own country. Similarly, we are descendants of Adam, and as his descendants, we are sinners because of his disobedience. It does not matter whether or not we have committed sins ourselves, we are sinners because we are in Adam. As long as we are in Adam and born of Adam, we are sinners.
In Adam we are sinners. We do not become sinners when we sin; that is, we do not become sinners because we have sinned. First, we are sinners, and then we commit sins. We commit sins because we are sinners. We are sinners, so we commit sins. We spontaneously sin because we are sinners; there is no exception to this fact. It would be an exception if we did not sin. An orange tree spontaneously bears oranges. If it did not bear oranges, it would be strange. Furthermore, it does not become an orange tree after it bears oranges; it is an orange tree before it bears fruit. It bears oranges because it is an orange tree. In the same way, we commit sins because we are sinners. We inherited our status as sinners. We commit sins because of what we received from Adam.
2. “It was through one offense unto condemnation to all men” (Rom. 5:18).
Since we all are sinners in Adam, we also deserve to be condemned because we share in his condemnation. We were included in his one offense in the garden because we were in him. When he sinned in the garden, we also sinned. When he sinned, we were included in him. When Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek, his descendant, Levi, also offered a tithe to Melchizedek because he was included in Abraham (Heb. 7:9-10). When the ancestor of the Chinese people, Huang Ti, crossed over the Pamir Plateau toward the east, all Chinese people crossed over the plateau in him. The Chinese people may not feel as if they crossed over the plateau, but when he came, they came in him and with him because they were included in him. Similarly, when Adam sinned in the garden, we were in him. His sinning was our sinning because we were in him. Thus, his one offense was unto condemnation to all men. If we see this, we will understand the Lord’s word in John 3:18: “He who does not believe has been condemned already.” We are in Adam, and when Adam was condemned, we were condemned. So just as we obtained sin in Adam, we also inherited condemnation in Adam. Being in Adam causes us to partake of condemnation.
3. “In Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22).
In Adam we first inherit sin, then condemnation, and finally death. This order is automatic. Where there is sin, there is condemnation, and where there is condemnation, there must be death. The result of sin and condemnation is death. Our death in Adam has several aspects. The first aspect involves the deadening of our human spirit, in which fellowship with God was broken, and the human spirit lost this function. The second aspect involves the death of our body, in which our body will lose its life and return to dust. The third aspect involves the death of the soul, in which the soul is tormented in Hades (Luke 16:22-25). The fourth aspect is the second death, in which the spirit, soul, and body of those who do not believe are cast into the lake of fire to suffer (Rev. 20:15; 21:8). The spirit of an unbeliever is dead toward God. One day his body will die, and his soul will go to Hades to suffer. On the day of judgment at the great white throne (20:11-14), he will be raised, and his spirit, soul, and body will be cast into the lake of fire to suffer eternally. This is the final death and the eternal death. These are all aspects of death, and they are our common inheritance in Adam. In Adam we have three terrible things: sin, condemnation, and death.