Theological Term of the Week
Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 7:52PM
rebecca in theological terms

last Adam
A designation for Jesus found in the writings of the Apostle Paul. In bringing redemption, as the last (or second) Adam, Jesus represents those united to him, and thus becomes the inaugurator of the new humanity. In contrast, the first Adam represented all of humanity in the first sin and thus became the inaugurator of sinful humanity.

  • From The Christian Faith by Michael Horton:
  • The eternal Son is the archetypal pattern—the true Son and Image of the Father—according to whom the Spirit creates (and re-created human beings as ectypal copies. Is is no wonder, then, that the Son—after completing his own work—sends the Spirit to inaugurate a new creation on the pattern of his own glory, both as God and as the glorified new Adam. 

    In this way, protology (“first things”) and eschatology (“last things”) are coordinated. Paul demonstrates this expecially in 1 Corinthians 15: “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the las Adam became a life-giving Spirit… . Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (vv. 45, 49). We receive our original nature (both its glory and its corruption) from the first Adam, but we receive our eschatological identity as part of the new creation from the Last Adam, who has triumphed over sin and death and entered as our head into his Sabbath enthronement. 

Learn more:
  1. Theopedia: Jesus as the second Adam
  2. John Samson: Two Federal Heads - Adam and Christ
  3. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary: The Second Adam
  4. Herman Ridderbos: Firstborn from the Dead: The Last Adam

Related terms:

Filed under Person and Work of Christ

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Article originally appeared on Rebecca Writes (http://rebecca-writes.com/).
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