Thus also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit.
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But that which is spiritual [was] not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual
Paul has just set two men side by side: Adam, made a living soul, and Christ, the life-giving Spirit. Now he gives the order in which God works. That order is not an accident. It explains why the natural comes first and why God's best comes last.
One writer shows why the first man is called "natural" and the last is called spiritual:
To understand it we must consider the contrast between the two Adams, the first and the last. The first was made a living soul, as Genesis 2 tells us. The last is of another order entirely. Though as truly Adam (that is, Man) as the first, He is a life-giving Spirit. The one, then, is "natural" or "soulish"; the Other, spiritual. We might have expected that the spiritual would take precedence of the soulish as to time. But it is not so, as verse 46 points out. The first Adam had a "natural" or "soulish" body (verse 44), which was "earthy." All who come from him are earthy too, since they belong to his order.
If God's purpose was always the spiritual, why did He not begin there? One writer answers by looking at what a sinful man passes on to his children:
Man has become sinful; he fell at once after his beginning. God has purposes of grace toward him. Yet it is still a settled fact that as a sinner he first begets sons in his own image. They have no connection with the divine counsels. They are the seed of a fallen and corrupted nature. If God in His mercy does not step in, man can only beget evil. So we find the line of the flesh first, and the line of the Spirit second. God does not beget until sinful man has first shown what his nature could produce.
Once the rule is stated, it can be traced backwards through story after story where the first son is passed over:
Cain, the first man born into the world, was set aside in favour of the second, Abel... Ishmael, the seed after the flesh, set aside in favour of Isaac, the seed according to promise. Esau, the profane despiser of the birthright, set aside in favour of Jacob... Saul, head and shoulders above the people, and their choice, judged and set aside for David the young man, but the "man after God's own heart."
In each case what came first looked stronger and lasted longer — and that appearance is part of the trial:
It is well to notice that what is after the flesh always succeeds at first, to put the faithful to the test. Cain and his doings come first, before we hear of the true seed. Ishmael, the apparent heir, came long before the birth of Isaac. Esau remained in the promised land, while Jacob was a fugitive. Saul was king before David, and for a long time Saul seemed to hold the title to God's power, while David did not resist him.
This order tells us something about God's purpose, not only about history:
Here a great principle stands revealed, and it marks all God's ways. Once we see it, we can see that it has marked them from the beginning. From the very start of man's history as a sinner, God shaped His dealings with men after this pattern. This shows that His raising up of Christ, His sending of Him as a sacrifice for sin, and so His bringing in of spiritual and heavenly blessings, was no afterthought. It was a settled purpose, formed before man's sad history began.
The same order repeats in each person. It puts everyone into one of two families:
Notice first how God, when teaching us about His Spirit, divides mankind into two vast families. We cannot be in both — we are all in one or the other. There is no place in between, since birth decides entrance into each of them. First comes the natural family. We all entered it when we were born into the world. Afterwards comes the spiritual family. Grace brought us into that one, when we were born again.
The order stops at two, and one writer explains why:
Again and again God makes it clear that His thought was first the natural, and then the spiritual, and that the second is what God had before Him. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the last Adam, the great Head of a new race, humanity truly, but new and altogether according to God. So perfect is He that never to all eternity will there need to be a third; the second is the last.
The order ends in a likeness. One writer says when that likeness will be complete:
We were, and are, naturally the family of the first man, and bore his image (compare Gen. 5:3); we, as now in Christ, shall also bear the image of Christ in the day that is coming... it is the full and final likeness. That cannot come until Christ completes salvation and transforms our humble body into the likeness of His body of glory.
- First — tested. The natural comes first so that man's own nature shows itself fully, before God brings in anything of His own.
- First — displaced. Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Saul: the one with the natural claim is set aside again and again, so the pattern was visible long before Paul named it.
- First — deceptive. What is after the flesh succeeds early and looks like the winner. That delay tests faith.
- Second — planned. Christ was no afterthought; the order itself proves a settled purpose formed before man's history began.
- Second — final. The second Man is the last Adam, and there will never be a third; the order closes when we bear His image.
the first man out of [the] earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven.
Paul has been contrasting the resurrection body with the body we carry now. Here he traces the difference back to two men and two origins.
One writer separates where the first man came from and what he is made of:
Here we see a contrast: the material beginning and make-up of the first man, and the heavenly origin of the second... The first man is earthly in where he came from, and earthy in what he is made of. He is both of and for earth. The blessings of Paradise were suited to the nature his Maker had given him. He was not made for heaven.
"From heaven" is not a statement about where Christ happens to be now. It describes what He is, and it does so by naming where He is from:
"Of the earth, earthy" — the first phrase gives the cause that makes him what he is; the second gives the character itself. But the cause came from origin; and so with "out of heaven." It is characteristic, but because of the place of origin. He has not ceased to be that now. The words do not describe what He is now because He has gone to heaven. They describe His character, which comes from His origin. It belongs to His Person. He is so now because He cannot be otherwise: because His origin was such, He was so on earth. Not that He came from, but that He was from, and of, and ever is.
The wording varies between translations, and commentators note it without treating it as a difficulty:
Verse 47 names the two as the first and second man, and gives their further character as "out of the earth made of dust" and the "Lord out of heaven," (or perhaps "out of heaven" only).
One writer sets the verse in its run of three, then marks a limit:
There is origin, verse 47; character, verse 48; and destiny, verse 49; all in contrast between those under Adam and under Christ. The word "out of" for the Greek here may be a little too strong in English. It is even more so if it is taken to mean that the Lord brought His body out of heaven. That would go far to affect the reality of the incarnation, as Luke 2 shows. It is characterization by source.
Cain was born before Christ, and so were countless others. Yet Scripture calls Christ the second man:
Let us keep it clear in our minds that He is not only "last Adam," but also "the second Man." This second title shows that God counts no man between Adam and Christ. Cain was not the second man. He was only Adam reproduced, and so were all men in their various generations. But when Christ was born, He was not Adam reproduced. In the virgin birth, by the work of the Holy Spirit, that inherited line was broken. A new and original Man appeared, worthy of being called "the second Man."
The very name "second man" carries a verdict on the first:
The very fact of there being "a second man" proves that the first man had been set aside: for if the first man had proved faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. The first man is a total wreck — an irreparable ruin.
But the setting aside is not the end of the story. God's way is not repair:
And why the Second Man? Because evil has come in and spoiled the glory of the first. And here too is a difference beyond words. If manhood is to be raised up again, it cannot be in the old condition only. There is no good in bringing back what was so soon lost, and which might therefore be so soon lost again! God never simply restores: He replaces the first with what is different from it and far better. Yet it is not the mere setting aside of man in judgment, but help, salvation for him, and "the Second Man is the Lord from heaven."
The two origins produce two races. One writer traces that into the believer's present life and future body:
We began our existence as part of the race of the man "made of dust." Now, through grace, we are joined to the Man "out of heaven." In the first condition we could only show the features of the first man. Now, by the power of the Spirit of God, we are able to show the features of the "second Man." We still bear the image of the first man in our bodies. But we shall yet bear the image of the "second Man" — the heavenly One. Our destiny is to be with Him and like Him forever at His coming again.
- Origin. The first man came from the earth and is earthy in make-up. The second is marked by where He is from — heaven.
- Character. "From heaven" says what Christ is, not just where He came from. His origin gives His Person its character, and it did so while He walked on earth.
- Limit. Do not stretch the phrase to mean His body came down out of heaven. That would undercut the reality of His birth as a man.
- Displacement. God counts no man between Adam and Christ, so Christ is the second. A second was needed because the first was set aside, not repaired. God replaces with something better, and does it to save.
- Destiny. Everyone belongs to one man or the other. We have borne the image of the man of dust. By the Spirit we show the second Man's features now, and we will bear His image at His coming.