1 Corinthians 15:46 Commentary and Bible Study

The first representative man was Adam: ‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul’ (Genesis 2:7). To emphasis his earthly origin Moses tells us that Adam was formed by God out of dust, the lowliest of materials. The life given to him was a special gift of God that raised him up above this humble origin. God can make life out of the most lowly of materials. After the fall, the gift of life was taken away again, and man was allowed to fall back to what he had been taken from: ‘For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Genesis 3:19). The second representative man was Christ.But what Paul emphasises here is God’s order. It is Adam, the earthy man who comes first. This was true even without the fall. Adam, it seems, could not have inherited heaven as he was. He would have needed transforming, even without sin coming into the world. As it was, he fell, and it became even more apparent that he was unfit for heaven. Therefore God sent forth the second man, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. Christ said of himself, ‘no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven’ (John 3:13). The natural comes first and then the spiritual. God does not deal in anti-climaxes. There is the contrast: Adam was a living being, but Christ was a life-giving man. Adam brought death into the world; Christ brought life into the world. By his atoning death, his substitutionary death for sinners, releasing them from condemnation, Christ purchased the right to save souls and to give resurrection bodies. Adam received life; Christ gives life – what a vast difference between these two representative men!