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possibility, in themselves of pleasing God. The cry of Rom. 7: 24 "O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" will startle us, as though
we heard the echo of our own heart's cry beat back to us" (Just and the Justifier, p.102).
The argument that the Apostle Paul now begins to develop concerning Adam and the
human race shows that he accepted the facts recorded in Gen. 1:-3: as events that really
happened:
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sins; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12).
The ten verses that follow contain the word "one" no less than 12 times. There must
be a reason for this emphasis. What we shall discover by careful study in the new section
of the epistle before us is that there is something deeper and fuller than substitution, and
that is identification, which is set forth in chapter 6: and shown in such phrases as
"baptized into His death", "planted together in the likeness of His death", "our old man
crucified with Him", "dead with Christ". These statements require substantiation by
something more intimate than substitution, and that is identification with Christ. This is
another aspect of truth that is peculiar to the ministry of Paul.
The doctrine of identification must be shown to exist as a fact, and this is
demonstrated by the Scriptural doctrine of the organic unity of the human race. The
essential oneness of the race with Adam is the consistent note of Rom. 5: 11-21. Paul
included this in his address to the Athenians, "He hath made of one (blood) all nations of
men" (Acts 17: 26). Adam was more than an historical individual, for his name in
Hebrew means "mankind", and the whole of mankind is viewed a having existed at first
in Adam. Not only this, in order for Paul's argument to be valid there must also be a real
and vital union of the Lord Jesus with the human race and this is seen in the fact that He
is the Second Man and the Last Adam (I Cor. 15:). Underlying this doctrine is the O.T.
conception of the Kinsman-Redeemer. The type is set forth in the law given in
Deut.xxv.5-10 and ramifies throughout the book of Ruth in the relationship of Boaz and
Ruth. Boaz's interest in Ruth would have been useless without the essential element of
Kinship. The margin of Ruth 2: 20 shows that the goel, the next of kin, is the "one that
has the right to redeem" and no one else could claim this right. Thus it is that it was
imperative that the great Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, should be made a partaker of
"flesh and blood" and become related to us:
"Forasmuch then 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" (Heb. 2: 14, 15).
Christ, to fulfil 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. His genealogy
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 sin,
death and condemnation that came upon the race through fallen Adam. The doctrine of
Rom. 5: is impossible apart from the organic unity of mankind, the headship of Adam,
and the new headship of Christ, and the identification that comes from this relationship.