The Second Adam / The Theology of Christmas - The Incarnation

Moore's Corner Church

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Have you ever heard Jesus referred to as the second Adam? Or maybe you were reading first Corinthians 15 and you saw how he was referred to as the last

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Adam. What does that mean? Well, I've titled this video, the theology of Christmas. I did a sermon yesterday at Morse Corner church titled, you know, a savior is born.

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And we talked about this, what we're really celebrating at Christmas time is the incarnation. So we're going to build up to this point that Jesus is the second

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Adam and why this is all necessary. So this oftentimes isn't explained.

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This is basic Christian theology. It's deep theology, but it's also very much fundamental.

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So let's talk about this. I'll try to make this as easy as possible to understand. I typed this up this morning.

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I plan on presenting this at our men's breakfast this Saturday at Morse Corner church.

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So let's talk about point number one, the doctrine of the incarnation. What is the incarnation?

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Undoubtedly you've at least heard this term. The incarnation refers to the belief that God took upon himself human flesh.

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Okay. This is a basic Christian teaching that Jesus is divine, right?

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The divinity of Christ. So the incarnation refers to the belief that God took upon himself human flesh, the eternal son of God, the second person of the

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Trinity took on a human nature in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Okay. Where is this taught in the Bible? John chapter one, verse one says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

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God. So this passage identifies Jesus as the word. This was

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John's title that he gives to Jesus as the word. And he says, basically the word

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Jesus was in the beginning with God and he was God. In other words, Jesus was with God in the beginning.

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He was God. And then verse 14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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So Jesus, remember he's called Emmanuel. He's God with us. Okay.

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So that's the incarnation. And you see that this is directly tied to the deity of Christ.

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And this is, I would argue the confession of faith, the profession of faith that saves believing that Jesus is the

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Lord because in the old Testament, the Lord is God. But in the new Testament, Jesus is the

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Lord. Okay. So very, very important. Number two. So we looked at number one, the doctrine of the incarnation.

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Number two, the doctrine of the hypostatic union. Okay. Some people hear that term and they've totally new to them.

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Or maybe you've heard that theological jargon and you're, what does that even mean?

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The hypostatic union? Well, it's fairly simple to understand. I mean, we can never fully understand these things, obviously.

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But we can explain it and we take the rest by faith.

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Right? So the hypostatic union is a theological term describing the joining together of two distinct natures in the one person,

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Jesus Christ. So when Jesus came to earth, most pastors will say that he was fully

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God and fully man. Most Christians, if they know this, this language, they'll say that fully

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God and fully man. Well, maybe the problem there is if Jesus is 100 %

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God and 100 % man, then that's 200%. A theologian, Dr.

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R .C. Sproul once recommended, he said that what you should say is Jesus was truly

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God and truly man. So while God, the

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Trinity is one God in three persons, Christ, the second person of the Trinity is one person, but with two natures, the human nature and the divine nature.

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And the two are joined together. This is the hypostatic union. The two natures of Christ, human and divine are joined together without confusion, change, division, or separation.

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Okay. Following along so far, you're doing good. Stick with it next. Why is this important?

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Why is the hypostatic union important? Well, it's essential to understanding how

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Jesus can be the perfect mediator between God and man. His divinity enables him to reveal

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God fully while his humanity allows him to represent mankind.

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And that's key to understanding this term later on, that Jesus is the second

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Adam or the last Adam. Okay. Where is the hypostatic union taught in the

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Bible? Colossians 2 verse 9 says, for in him, that is in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

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Also Philippians 2, 5 through 7, the apostle Paul writes, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.

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All right, next is the virgin birth. So we've talked about point number one, the doctrine of the incarnation.

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Point number two, the doctrine of the hypostatic union. And now doctrine number three, remember, this is the theology of Christmas.

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Doctrine number three, the doctrine of the virgin birth. This is the teaching that Jesus Christ, now this is one

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I think pretty much everybody is familiar with. The doctrine of the virgin birth is the teaching that Jesus Christ was conceived by the

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Holy Spirit and born to the Virgin Mary. Now at this point,

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I think it's important to not just teach what is right, but also to point out some things that are wrong.

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Some teachers have this philosophy, only tell people what's right and just ignore what's wrong.

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Well, you know, that's sort of the positive only form of Christianity where you just never talk about the things that are wrong or the people teaching things that are wrong.

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I don't see that in the Bible. So I don't take that advice. So it is important to point out where some people get this wrong or intentionally teach something that's wrong.

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Obviously they don't see it that way, but just as several groups deny the incarnation, for example, the

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Jehovah's Witnesses, they deny the deity of Christ. Also the Mormons deny the Trinity.

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They'll talk about Jesus as the Son of God, but they have a totally different concept of all of that than Bible -believing

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Christianity. So just as, say, the Jehovah's Witnesses would deny the incarnation and deny the deity of Christ, some churches also will teach error concerning the

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Virgin Mary. So when I call her, this is important, when I call her the

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Virgin Mary, which I try not to do that just because it's kind of weird, call her

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Mary. But yes, sometimes we, because we hear it all the time. If I call her the

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Virgin Mary, I'm referring to the fact that the Bible teaches she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus.

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In other words, I don't believe that she was always a virgin. What do I mean?

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This is a Catholic teaching. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary was forever a virgin, the perpetual virginity of Mary.

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That's a Catholic teaching. The scripture, however, does not teach that. First of all, in the

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Christmas story found in Luke 2, verse 7 says that Mary, when she gave birth to Jesus, she gave birth to her firstborn son.

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Now that would imply that she had other sons. If Jesus was the firstborn son, right? That's the implication that Mary had other sons, which

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Matthew 13, 55 and 56 clearly states this, that verse or passage says, is this not the carpenter's son speaking of Jesus is not

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Mary, uh, his mother called Mary. And then it talks about, are not his brothers with us and his sisters.

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So according to Matthew 13, 55 and 56, Jesus had at least four other brothers.

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Now they would be half brothers, right? But Jesus had at least four brothers and at least two sisters.

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So Mary was not a perpetual virgin. And that teaching is dangerous because then it leads to almost like a goddess worship where she's the queen of heaven and she's venerated and people bow to statues of her and that's just not biblical.

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So she was a virgin though, when she gave birth to Jesus, this was prophesied in Isaiah 7, 14, where the prophet writes, therefore, the

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Lord himself will give you a sign. That's the word for miracle. God will show you a miracle.

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Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

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And then Matthew chapter one, verse 23 tells us that Emmanuel means

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God with us. Now, if you have the revised standard version or some other Bible translations, sometimes they'll say in Isaiah 7, 14, behold, the young woman will conceive.

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Well, if a young woman had a child, that's not a miracle. And Matthew confirms that, no, she was a virgin in Matthew chapter one.

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So very, very important, the virgin birth. For more scripture on that, you can read

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Matthew 1, 18 through 25, as well as Luke 1, 26 through 38.

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But why is the virgin birth necessary? Not only that the scripture might be fulfilled, proving that the

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Old Testament scriptures were the word of God, are the word of God, the virgin birth is necessary for Christ's divinity.

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After all, if Jesus is the son of Joseph, he'd be a man. He'd be just like anybody else.

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So he has to be conceived of the Holy Spirit to be called the son of God, because if he's just a man, if he's the son of Joseph or some other guy, then

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Jesus was born in sin. He would have the sin nature. He would be disqualified to be our savior.

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And all of this is building up to the final point, because Jesus was conceived by the

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Holy Spirit. He can be called the son of God. This all builds up to the final point, Jesus Christ as the second

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Adam, or as First Corinthians 15, 45 calls him, the last Adam.

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What does that mean? This is how it's defined. Jesus is often referred to as the second

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Adam because he succeeded where the first Adam failed. Adam's disobedience brought sin and death into the world, while Christ's perfect obedience brings salvation.

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This is taught in Romans 5, 12 through 21, as well as First Corinthians chapter 15.

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What's the theological significance of Christ being the second Adam? By taking on a human nature,

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Christ becomes the new representative for humanity. His obedience culminating in his death on the cross brings righteousness and eternal life to those who are united in covenant relationship with him.

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As the scripture says in First Corinthians 15, 22, as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

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So in conclusion, how does one enter into covenant relationship with the last Adam, the new representative of humanity?

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Well, we do that by grace through faith. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast. Romans chapter 10, verse 9 says that if you would confess with your mouth the

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Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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And once a person receives Christ by grace through faith, then the next step is to be baptized and then to join a good local

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Bible believing church. If you have any questions about that, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

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Leave them in the comments section below. But Merry Christmas. And until next time, may the