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What this identification carries with it we learn in chapters 6: and 7:; here we are but
learning the basic fact.
Closely associated with this unity and headship is the scriptural revelation of the two
seeds in the earth. This is seen in Gen. 4:, for I John 3: 12 says, "Cain was of that
wicked one". Physical connection with Adam does not constitute participation in his
headship or prove inclusion in his seed:--
"They are not ALL ISRAEL, which are OF ISRAEL, neither because they are the
seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
They which are the children of the flesh, they are not the children of God; but the
children of the promise are counted for a seed" (Rom. 9: 6-8).
Cain, Ishmael and Esau were "children of the flesh", but that does not constitute them
the true seed. The true seed are the children of promise, they are "in Isaac" if true
Israelites, and "in Christ" in the wider application of the figure. The Lord had dealings
with men who were literal descendants of Abraham, yet children of the devil. He
allowed that they were Abraham's seed, yet He denied that Abraham was their father:--
"We be Abraham's seed . . . . . I know that ye are Abraham's seed . . . . .Abraham is
our father . . . . . If ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham . . . . .
ye do the deeds of your father . . . . ye are of your father the devil" (John 8: 33-44).
There are men who, though "of Adam", are not "in Adam"; such was Cain. For all
"in Adam" Christ became Kinsman-Redeemer, and their names are in the book of life.
We shall find in Rom. 5: that the interchange in the use of "all" and "many" is because
at one time the whole of the true seed are in view by themselves, "all", and, at another,
the whole of the physical descendants of Adam, when the true seed are differentiated and
spoken of as "the many". There are, moreover, differences observable among the true
seed. Just as one star differs from another, though both be in glory, so we shall find that,
when it is a question of "receiving" and "reigning", "many" is used, but when it is a
matter of justification unto life "all" is the word employed.
When once we see that "all in Adam" does not include all that are "of Adam" every
text of Scripture can be accepted at its full value. We do not become Universalists and
spoil the insistent teaching of Scripture concerning the Kinsman-Redeemer. We have no
need to alter the wording of I Cor. 15: 22. All "in Adam" and all "in Christ" are
co-extensive. Only by closing our eyes to the divine principle of Rom. 9: 5-7 can we
assert that "all Israel" of Rom. 11: is as universal as the physical connection. If the
objection is put forward that Rom. 9: 5-7 refers to an election, we have only to read on
in Rom. 11: 28 to find that "all Israel" is an election, too. The same is true of all
"in Adam". As a whole they are an election, a seed of promise, while at the same time
different destinies and callings await them by that "election within an election" of which
we have spoken before.*
[* - See Dispensational Truth, chapter 15:]