Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,. . . the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
(Luke 3:23, 38).
When I am honest with myself, I have to admit I deeply resent Adam and Eve — we’ll call them Adam 1.0 for now — for blowing everything for all the rest of us who have lived on planet earth. Their sin and rebellion against God have given us broken world that is in bondage to decay and death (Romans 8). While I know that I am flawed and would have probably blown it for everyone else like they did, the human arrogance in me once to blow it for myself rather than have to endure the consequences of someone else’s rebellion.
But then… the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart and reminds me that I have blown it with my rebellion. My sin brings hardships and heartbreak to other people and consequences to me personally. I would make a mess of my world and bring the same consequences upon myself as the sin of Adam 1.0 has brought on all of us. When I come to grips with the reality of my fickle faith and sometimes rebellious spirit, I have to join the apostle Paul in saying:
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (Romans 7:21-24)
I become my own Adam 1.1! I live a newer version of the world's sin-infected operating system. While I don’t have to misfire in my execution of life, I keep leaving open doors to sin, Satan, temptation, and willfulness that leads me back to the willingness to welcome in harmful death-programming options!
So, who can and who will save me from this mess I am in as Adam 1.1? Enter Adam 2.0!
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one [named Jesus] who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Because our lives are joined to Jesus through faith that we expressed in baptism, we will share with Jesus in his glory (Colossians 3:1-4).
So, when Luke writes his good news story about Jesus, he wants us to know that as much as we may resent Adam 1.0, or resemble Adam 1.0, God has remade us in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to be transformed into Adam 2.0 (2 Corinthians 3:18). And that, my friend, is the promise of Luke’s gospel and the basis of our confident hope. Hear it again as Paul reminds us:
Reader Comments
Archived Facebook Comments