The first man, Adam, was the father of us all. He alone, by primogenitor, became the federal head of the entire human race. It is not an exaggeration to note that the entirety of Adam’s posterity was literally in his loins. The genetic cessation that began in this one man, Adam, is now realized in every living human being, as well as every human who has ever lived that is now deceased. Does the Bible actually teach this? Most emphatically and straightforwardly, from Genesis 2 onward into the gospels where we find Christ, in Matthew 19, asserting that in the beginning, God made them male and female to the Apostle Paul’s reference to the first Adam and, then, calling Jesus Christ “the last Adam” in 1st Corinthians 15. Adam’s being the first man and originator of humanity was then used by God to produce the first female counterpart of his maleness, in the form of feminine Eve. And, it is significant that Eve was not made by God independent from Adam but, rather, was taken from Adam. Thus, Eve, the first woman had something of Adam in her very being. She is named “woman” because she was taken from man in Genesis 2.
But surely, some would object, we are not to take this literally. And why not? She certainly arrived on the scene literally, mated with a literal husband, and produced literal children from which we are all descended literally, unless you consider yourself to be a non-literal person. How else do you think you got here? The creation account is told to convey information and is straightforward to be understood in a simple, direct fashion. It is when so-called experts insist on mythologizing the account that the simplicity and truthfulness of the narrative is lost, as well as its implication and consequences. Some simply cannot accept the literality of the creation account and might even consider it an offense to their sophisticated intellect to suggest we interpret Genesis literally. But the record stands as the only authoritative account that very well fits the world we have today, and this literal Genesis account was as well cited with unquestioned acceptance by Christ Himself.
In addition to the literal account of man’s creation, we also have an account of the moral failure of Adam and Eve exhibited in their disobedience to their Maker, resulting in separation from Him. We tend not to see this with the seriousness it involved because we have such an inadequate understanding of holiness possessed by God. But, it was demonstrated in bold relief when the divine curse was, then, imposed upon all of creation that would impact our first parents and all their progeny. We see the dramatic results of this in all of history and in all of the world. No corner of the earth has escaped the ravages of disease, destruction, and death as a consequence of sin, both corporately and individually, and this called for a remedy. How can these powerful and ever-present negative realities be reversed? How can morally fallen man be reconciled to his Creator who has remained the holy Being that He is? This is what all of Scripture is about from that moral fall in Genesis 3 to and including the present, extending well into the future as indicated by prophecy.
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