Who was Adam in the Bible?

The first man. The name is supposed to be derived from Adamah, 'earth, or red earth,' agreeing with the fact that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, Gen. 2:7. He differed from all other creatures, because God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, by which man became a living soul. He differed also in being made after the image and likeness of God: he was God's representative on earth, and to him was given dominion over all other living things, and he gave them names. He was placed in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it, showing that occupation was a good thing for man even in innocence. God said also that it was not good for man to be alone, so He caused him to sleep, took from him a rib, and of this 'builded' a woman. Adam called her Isha for she was taken out of Ish, man: the two being a type of Christ and the church, in the closest union: cf. Eph. 5:31-32.

Adam and Eve were permitted to eat of all the trees of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: of the which if they ate, in the same day they should die. Eve, being beguiled by Satan, ate of that tree; and at her suggestion, though not deceived as Eve was, Adam also took of it. Their eyes were at once opened, they knew they were naked, and hid themselves from God. They were transgressors, had fallen from their state of innocence, and acquired a conscience, and with it the sense of their own evil and guilt. When questioned by God, Adam laid the blame on Eve, ungratefully saying, "the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." The ground was then cursed for Adam's sake: in sorrow he should eat of it all his life: thorns and thistles should be produced, and in the sweat of his face he should eat bread.

God made for Adam and Eve coats of skins and clothed them, foreshadowing the need for a vicarious sacrifice, and the righteousness that could only come to them through death. They were driven from the garden, and Cherubim with a flaming sword prevented them re-entering, lest they should eat of the tree of life and live for ever in their sin. Adam did not beget a son until after his fall: hence all mankind are alike fallen creatures. Acts 17:26; Rom. 5:18-19; 1 Cor. 15:22. Adam lived 930 years and begat sons and daughters. We have no details of the life of Adam as a fallen man. Viewed typically as head of a race he stands in marked contrast to Christ, the last Adam.

In contrast to the first man, Adam, who was made a living soul, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, was a life-giving Spirit: the first was natural; the second spiritual: the first man was of the earth, earthy; the second Man was out of heaven. 1 Cor. 15:45-47. Everything committed to man having failed in Adam, Christ as last Adam becomes the head of a new and redeemed race. He is the last Adam because there will be no other: every man must come under one of these two headships: the first Adam, man; or the last Adam, Christ: cf. 1 Cor. 15:22; Ps. 8:3-9; Heb. 2:6-9.

Adam is presented to us in Scripture as the original progenitor of the human race. He came fresh from God's hand as recorded in Genesis 2:7, as to his body formed out of the dust, but receiving the spiritual part of his constitution by God's in-breathing, and in this way becoming a living soul. This tripartite nature of man is clearly stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. What characterized Adam's position in creation was, however, that he was a living soul — a living soul, we may say, possessing spirit as well as body. The last Adam, who is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, bears an infinitely higher character. He is "spirit" rather than "soul"; and not merely "living " but "quickening" or "life-giving."

Here there breaks out upon us the true Divine glory of the Lord Jesus. He is a Spirit — so is God. He is life-giving because the Life-Giver. "Am I God to kill, and to make alive?" asked the distracted King of Israel (see 2 Kings 5:7). No; he was not; but Jesus was and is. But then He who is the life-giving Spirit is the last Adam, i.e. really and truly Man; the Head and Source of a new race of mankind, having stamped upon it the character of spiritual as definitely as the character natural is stamped upon the first Adam and his race.

Notice, too, that He is "the last Adam." The contrast here is between the first and the last, not the first and the second. Why last? Evidently because that word excludes the idea that any third or subsequent race can ever be needed, or enter upon the scene. "He takes away the first that He may establish the second," is what Hebrews 10:9 says. He never takes away the second in favour of a third! The second is established. The last Adam abides without rival or successor, for perfection — Divine perfection and not merely human — is reached in Him.

The name Adam, as a fact, was not a personal name originally, but simply meant “red earth,” and was used to designate our first parent, describing his origin. It is simply the name for man. It was as a fallen sinner that Adam became the progenitor and head of the human race. He could only reproduce his own kind, his own sinful nature with its characteristics, qualities and limitations. He produced a race of sinners like himself upon whom the sentence of death lay. All under that headship are under the same condition and doom as marked the head.

In the light of Gen. 1:27, it is sheer infidelity to speak of man as an evolution from some other being. Three times in this one verse the Spirit is pleased to use the word "created" in relation to man. Man is thus a work of God distinct from every other. The whole human family has sprung from a single pair, Adam being the federal head of the race. He is thus the type of Christ as head of a new race, i.e., of the whole company of those who believe the Gospel. The dream of pre-Adamic man is absolutely forbidden by 2 Cor. 15:45, not to mention other Scriptures. "The first man Adam" leaves no room for man in any form before him.

Man was distinguished from all other creatures in that he was made the subject of divine counsel before his creation. "And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion," etc. (Gen. 1:26). There is a solemnity about this which commands attention. It was not a new kind of animal that was about to be brought into existence, but a moral being with marvellous endowments and possibilities. "Image" has reference to man's position as set here to represent God and rule for Him; "likeness" has reference to his moral being, as one capable of entering into relationships, and bearing responsibilities. Neither the image nor the likeness of God have been lost by the fall (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

There was a twofold act of God in the creation of man. First, his body was formed of the dust of the ground; then life was imparted to the clay by the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim (Gen. 2:7). The life of man is thus a thing altogether distinct from the body. Let us note this carefully, for the lessons suggested by it are of the most momentous character.

“By one man sin entered into the world.” Innocence existed in one man — Adam. God made Adam free from evil; without the knowledge of sin. This was the starting point of man's existence upon earth — a life in its moral characteristics totally distinct from our present life. But Adam preferring disobedience to obedience, and exercising his will, his nature became evil, and thereupon the character of the fountain of human life became changed. Innocence disappeared from the earth, and sin entered the world. This is the origin of our sinful nature which we received through our parents, and with which we were born. We trace the river from this present day to the past generation — we follow it back further and further till we reach its source — and we find that every age has produced a nature which is sinful.

The ruin was complete. Distrust of God's love, unbelief of His truth, slight of His glory in seizing it, introduced open self-will and transgression. And so it has been since with ever increasing corruption. For Adam was head of the human race and involved his posterity in his own evil. He became a father only after he was a sinner.

View Adam in the garden, and we shall discern in his conduct that he had everything that qualified him to be the head and root of a sinful world. So Christ (as manifesting the very opposite conduct, under the most difficult circumstances) is eminently qualified to be the Head of His people. Adam was placed in an innocent world, surrounded by every blessing, and with every holy and righteous feeling which could call forth his love and gratitude to the great Giver, and which ought to have led him to confidence in Him. God had placed trust in him: He put him as a steward over His goods. He reflected His own image on him, and made him capable of holding converse with Himself: he was the link, as it were, between God and this world.

It is important to consider this chapter as laying down, in a special manner, all the principles of the relationship of man, whether with God, with his wife, or with the inferior creation. Here were all things in their own order as creatures of God in connection with the earth; but man's labour not the means of their growth and fruitfulness. Nor did rain from heaven minister fruitfulness from above. The mist that watered it rose from the earth, drawn up by power and blessing, but not coming down. Yet man was, as to his place, in a peculiar one in reference to God. Man did not dwell in heaven; God did not dwell on earth. But God had formed a place of peculiar blessing and delight for man's habitation, and there He visited him. Out of this garden, where he was placed by the hand of God as sovereign of the world, flowed rivers which watered and characterised the world without. Upon Adam reposed the duty of obedience. The image of God upon earth, in the absence of evil from his nature, and as the centre of a vast system around him and in connection with him, his own proper blessing was in his immediate connection and intercourse with God, according to the place he was set in.

The first Adam received life, and was a dependent man; the last Adam is the source of life and the communicator of it. The first Adam sinned, and dragged down his posterity after him in ruin and shame. The last Adam is Divine as well as Human, never to be superseded, for there is, and can be, no breakdown with Him. The first Adam was the Head of a fallen race; the last Adam is the Head of a new creation.

"All men," says the Apostle, "have not faith." Faith is indeed the greatest vantage ground that the creature could receive. Wealth, power, intellect, — these fall infinitely short of it; for faith connects one with God, and gives an intelligence which even intellect cannot attain. But the sad thing is that, not only men generally have not faith, but they are opposed to those who have, and to those things which can only be apprehended by faith. When redemption is known, and the love of Christ in saving us, what could be more interesting to us — as at any time what could be more solemn for all men — than the account of our creation, as revealed to us in the word of God! What deliberation! "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Thus Adam is called "the Son of God" (Luke 3:38), and God's loving interest in him is thus expressed, "And my delights were with the sons of men" (Prov. 8:31).

With the utmost deliberation God forms man, directly and immediately, from the dust of the ground, and, by the direct and personal impartation of His breath, endows man with a rational and imperishable soul. Adam is thus formed in the image of God. True, of all living creatures upon the face of the earth, Adam and Eve were the last formed. This terrestrial creation, of which Adam was to be the head and lord, was first prepared for him, and then, by a distinct and superior creative act, Adam was placed at the head of it. In the face of this plain yet noble statement of divine revelation, what are we to think of the disgusting and atheistic theory of Evolution? That in other ages of the world men have so utterly given up God, and become so debased in their minds and thoughts, as to propound and believe all kinds of irrational theories, is indeed true; what is so extraordinary and so startling is, that in the light of Christianity, and side by side with the Bible, such atheistic theories can exist and find acceptance. It is infidelity as to the Bible, and as to every truth the Bible contains. In a certain sense and to a certain degree men may persuade themselves to anything; yet we doubt if a man can ever succeed in altogether eliminating from his mind and conscience the conviction that there is a God. We doubt if there is such a being as a genuine atheist. We doubt, too, the possibility of really believing in annihilation. There is that within us all which tells us that the rational soul cannot die, and that to God it is accountable. And why, the gospel being what it is, should men wish it to be otherwise? "Come, for all things are now ready," is the gracious invitation to us all. It is infatuation, and worse than infatuation, to refuse it. It is to reject Divine mercy, and to retain a responsibility which renders men liable to eternal punishment. Throughout the whole of Scripture we can trace, as it were, two parallel threads, which are never separated, yet never confused. These are righteousness and grace, represented in the Garden of Eden by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (responsibility), and by the tree of life (grace). In Christ alone these have been perfectly reconciled, so that God's love and mercy can now have free course. Out of Christ they are irreconcilable, and judgment consequently ensues.