Journey with Jesus: The Last Adam – Deji Okegbile

Lent for Everyone (27)

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 1 Cor 15:45

In our walk with God, Apostle Paul knows of two groupings- people who are in Adam and people who are in Christ. Under the two heads – Adam and Christ, people shares whatever their head does and the consequences (Rom 5:12-21). Jesus Christ is Father (Last Adam) of a new human nature. The first Adam and the Last Adam, Christ compares the forms of our bodies. The first Adam who brought sin and death had one nature, that of a human with the possibility of disobedience. Lent reminds us about God’s perfect provision of human nature sacrificed in place of sinful human nature. Jesus, the Last Adam is without a sin nature. Jesus’ nature was both human and divine.

Jesus, the Last Adam brings and gives abundant life (Jn 3:16). From Jesus flows eternal life. Jesus’ obedience is the answer to Adam’s disobedience. Your obedience to receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour saves you from the sinful and disobedience nature of the first Adam. Lent reminds us about the need for salvation ONLY through Jesus, the Last Adam, “For there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians explained that there is a natural body, that is the one we live in now and there is also a “spiritual body,” the one that believers in Jesus will be raised into after God transforms us. Lent helps us to put our natural body under discipline while on earth in preparation and hope of the spiritual and eternal body which will be built to exist in heaven and eternity. Lent reminds us that we inherit the nature of the first Adam, a mere living soul by his disobedience while we inherit the spiritual nature in us through the second Adam, by his obedience, became a life-giving spirit. John Calvin comments, “[Adam] by his fall ruined himself and those that were his, because he drew them all, along with himself, into the same ruin: Christ came to restore our nature from ruin, and raise it up to a better condition than ever”

Beloved, if you are still in Adam, you are reckoned guilty of his sin with ‘a corrupted moral and spiritual nature that inclines them to hide from God and His ways, as Adam did after his fall.’ (Gen 3). Remember, in Adam all die. Lent humbles us to change from being in Adam to being in Christ with a new heart (1Cor 1:28-30, Rom 6:11).

Lent calls us into repentance in order to be raise up in the resurrection to overcome sin and the death that has plagued our bodies. Only Christ will raise us imperishable. Lent calls us to equip less for life on earth in order to equip more for face to face fellowship with the Last Adam for ever.

Deji Okegbile

Chaplain Nigeria Methodist Chaplaincy United Kingdom/Ireland