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From time to time the theory is revived that the account of the creation of man in
Gen. 1: does not refer to the same man as does Gen. 2: The reference to the "image of
God" in Gen. 9: is an allusion to Gen. 1: In Gen. 5:, there is an explicit statement
concerning the identity of the Adam of Gen. 1: with the Adam of Gen. 2::--
"This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the
likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them and blessed them and
called their name Adam, in the day when they were created" (Gen. 5: 1, 2).
This is a direct reference to Gen. 1: The passage proceeds:--
"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image; and called his name Seth" (Gen. 5: 3).
This is a most positive reference to the Adam of Gen. 2: & 3:, and the teaching that
has recently been revived that there are two Adams in view must be repudiated as
mischievous error.
The organic unity of the race with the first man Adam being established, we must next
ascertain whether Christ, as the Second Man and the Last Adam has any vital and real
union with the race. If we find it to be so, identification becomes a glorious fact.
Underlying this doctrine lies the Hebrew conception of the Kinsman-Redeemer (which
has been dealt with in our Redemption Series, Volume XII) which makes it imperative
that Christ should have been made partaker of flesh and blood. The truth is set forth most
clearly in Heb. 2: 14, 15:--
"Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage."
Christ, to fulfil all His great mission, must come as the Seed of the woman, the Seed
of Abraham, the Seed of David, the Son of man and the Son of God. The kingdom
purpose required that His genealogy should go back to David and Abraham (Matt. 1: 1),
but the gospel committed to Paul necessitated that He should have a lineage that went
back to Adam (Luke 3:). The virgin birth of Christ made it possible for Him to be
related to man, without partaking of the awful entail that came to the race from Adam.
The genealogy of Luke 3: goes back, and back, until we read that Adam was a son of
God. There is not the slightest difference between the wording of the last clause of this
genealogy and those that go before: "Tou Kainan, tou Enos, tou Seth, tou Adam,
tou Theou."
There is no warrant for hiding, or slurring, this great truth, in order to emphasize the
sinfulness and the fall of man. The same Bible that teaches the one teaches the other, and
we shall never understand redemption aright, or appreciate the relation of redeemed man
to Christ, if we reject any item of truth regarding man himself. The doctrine of Rom. 5:
is impossible apart from the organic unity of the human race, the headship of Adam and
the new headship of Christ. This doctrine we express in the one word Identification.