Morning By Morning #361

The last Adam…

1 Corinthians 15:45

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Jesus is the covenant head of His elect. Just as every heir of flesh and blood has a personal stake in Adam because he is the covenant head and representative of the race that is under the law of works, so every redeemed soul is one with the Lord from heaven under the law of grace because He is the second or “the last Adam”—the Representative and Substitute of the elect in “a new covenant” (Heb. 12:24) of love. The writer of Hebrews taught that “when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor” (Heb. 7:10). Thus, it is a certainty that the believer was in the body of Jesus Christ, the Mediator, when during eternity past the covenant agreements of grace were decreed, ratified, and guaranteed forever.

Consequently, everything Christ has done He has done for the entire body of His church. We were crucified in Him and “buried with Him” (see Col. 2:10-13), yet even more wonderful, we were “raised…up with Christ and seated…with him in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 2:6). It is through Him, therefore, that the church “fully met” the “righteous requirements of the law” (Rom. 8:4) and is “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6 KJV). Because of Him the law has been satisfied and the church now stands justified before a just Jehovah, for He views her in Jesus, never seeing her separate from her covenant Head.

As the anointed Redeemer of Israel, Christ Jesus lays claim to nothing distinct from His church, for all He possesses He holds for her. Adam’s righteousness was ours as long as he maintained it, but his sin became ours the moment he committed it. In the same manner, all that “the last Adam” is or does is as much ours as His because He is our representative.

This truth is the very foundation of the covenant of grace and the gospel of our salvation. It is this gracious system of representation and substitution that moved Justin Martyr (AD 100-165) to proclaim, “0 blessed change! 0 sweet permutation!” Thus, it should be received with strong faith and rapturous joy.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Today’s devotion brings to mind the doctrine of imputation, an accounting term that means to charge to an account. For example, if someone makes a credit card purchase with their card on your behalf, then your purchase is imputed to their account. With that in mind, here are the three imputations in the Scriptures:

Adam’s sin to all mankind: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

The sins of the elect to Christ: “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

The righteousness of Christ to all believers: “A righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known…This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Rom. 3:21 – 22).

“My soul rejoices in [You] my God. For [You have] clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10).