One of my colleagues at work is named Adam. I asked him if he was named after “the” Adam. When he said “yes,” I asked him if he had heard of the “second Adam.” He gave me a puzzled look and said “no.”
The first man, Adam, was created by God from the dust of the earth and placed in a perfect garden. There were no weeds, thorns, or biting insects – just all he could eat from a vast array of delicious, nutritious fruits 12 months out of the year.
But there was one prohibition. He could not eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God told him that if he did, he would surely die. Adam and his wife, Eve, succumbed to temptation and disobeyed God. God pronounced a curse on them that had devastating consequences for all of creation.
The “second Adam” came down from heaven and was born of a virgin so that he would not inherit the sin nature passed down to all of us from the first Adam. The second Adam was tempted in every way like the first, yet he never sinned. This qualified him to offer himself as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin. As a result, you and I have the opportunity to receive His great gift and be born from above in Christ, the second Adam. Our first birth ends in death, but the second birth results in the free gift of eternal life. Ultimately, that life will be lived on the new earth, with the curse removed, and the restoration of all creation to the way it was originally created.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:1-4)
The last two chapters of the Bible give even more details.
Ed Hill, Franklin