Jesus the new Adam

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

• First man of creation: Adam was created on the sixth day (Gen 1:27); Jesus's resurrection on the eighth day (Mk 16:2), the first day of the new creation (2 Cor 5:17)

• No original sin: Adam was created as very good (Gen 1:31); Jesus is sinless (2 Cor 5:21)

• Source of his bride: Eve was formed from the rib of Adam (Gen 2:22-23); the Church was formed from the side of Jesus when he was pierced on the cross and outpoured water and blood (representing the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist) (Jn 19:34)

• King, priest and prophet: Adam was given dominion over all living things on earth (Gen 1:28), he worked and kept the garden of Eden (Gen 2:15) and he named all the living things for God (Gen 2:19-20); Jesus has a kingdom (Jn 18:36) and is King of Kings (1 Tim 6:15), he is the eternal high priest (Heb 5:10; 7:24) and he identified himself as prophet (Lk 4:24)

• Protector of his bride: Adam watched on as Eve succumbed to Satan's temptations and then participated in the fall (Gen 3:6); Jesus is always with his Church (Mt 28:20) which is guided by the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:13)

• Obedience to God: Adam's disobedience in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:6); Jesus's submission in the garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26:39)

• Consequences to us: Adam’s sin of eating fruit from the tree of knowledge brought death (Gen 3:22-23); Jesus’s sacrifice on the wooden cross (Jn 19:17) brought eternal life (Jn 3:16 & Heb 9:12)

• Nakedness: Adam was unashamedly naked (Gen 2:25) but after the fall was clothed because of his shame of nakedness before God (Gen 3:10,21); Jesus was clothed but on the cross was naked (Jn 19:23)

• Jesus’s testing in the wilderness by Satan undid the sins of the fall:

  • sin of the flesh / pleasure that the tree was good for food (Gen 3:6); Jesus refused to turn stone into bread when he was very hungry (Lk 4:4)

  • sin of possession / lust of the eye that the fruit was a delight to the eye (Gen 3:6); Jesus refused to worship Satan to gain possessions of the kingdoms of the world (Lk 4:5-8)

  • sin of pride / ambition that by eating the fruit would be as wise as God without needing God (Gen 3:5-6); Jesus refused to test God (Lk 4:9-12)

• Jesus took on the curses told to Adam due to the fall:

  • curse of thorns in the ground (Gen 3:18); Jesus wore the crown of thorns (Mt 27:29)

  • curse of the sweat of labour (Gen 3:19); Jesus sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane (Lk 22:44)

  • curse of death (Gen 3:19); Jesus's death on the cross was a curse (Dt 21:23 & Gal 3:13)

• Called the Woman mother: after the fall, Adam called the Woman Eve, mother of all living (Gen 3:20); when undoing the effects of the fall while on the cross, Jesus called Mary "Woman" then to the beloved disciple "mother" (Jn 19:26)