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ADAM, A TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST
Victor M.
Eskew
In the Old Testament, God was preparing His people for the coming
Messiah. He made His people to
become a great nation. He settled them in the land
There is a plethora of people, things, and events that fall into the
category of types in the Old Testament.
Some are very obvious (e.g., Moses as a type of Christ). Some are more obscure. In this article, we want to examine one
of the more obscure types. In fact,
this type is so obscure that we would have missed him. Fortunately, Paul revealed him unto
us. In Romans 5:14, the apostle
refers to Adam as a type of Christ.
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had
not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of
him that was to come.” When
something is a type of something else, there are always similarities between the
two. When we compare the two, there
are some striking likenesses that exist between the type and the antitype. Let’s look at some of the likenesses
that exist between Adam and Jesus Christ.
First, Adam and Jesus are both “sons of God” in very unique ways. Luke’s genealogy refers to Adam as “the
son of God” (Luke 3:38). Mary was
told by the angel Gabriel that the child which she would bear would be “called
the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Adam
was unique because he had no family background. He was created by God from the dust of
the ground. “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” (Gen. 2:7). In like manner, Jesus became the Son of
God in a unique way. He was born by
means of the virgin birth. Mary
conceived Jesus without having known a man (Luke 1:34). She became pregnant by the power of the
Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35). The prophet
Isaiah had so declared it in the days of old. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:23; Isa. 7:14).
Second, Adam and Jesus both bear the image of God the Father. When Jehovah was about to create man, He
said: “Let us make man in our image
after our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26).
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27). Being made in the image of God is what
set man apart from the animal kingdom.
Man possessed self-consciousness, free will, and a conscience. He could love, communicate, and have
intimate relationships with God and other human beings. Jesus, too, bears the image of God. He does so in absolute perfection. The writer of Hebrews describes Him as
“the express image of his person” (Heb. 1:3). Other passages make this claim as well
(II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; John 1:18).
Jesus so completely resembles the Father that to see Him is to see the
Father. During His earthly sojourn,
one of His disciples said to Him:
“Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8). Jesus responded with these words: “Have I been so long time with you, and
yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew
us the Fther?” (John 14:9). With
this concept in mind, we are to imitate Jesus Christ (I John 2:6; I Pet.
2:21). When we do, we become like
God, or “God-like.”
Third, Adam and Christ were invested with power and dominion. Adam’s power was over the earth and
animal kingdom. After creating the
first couple, “…God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth” (Gen. 1:28). This
concept was known and appreciated by King David. In Psalm 8:6-8, he wrote: “Thou madest him (man) to have dominion
over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts
of the field; the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the sea.”
This thought was one of the things that caused David to exclaim: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy
name in all the earth!” (Ps. 8:9).
Jesus, too, was given dominion and power. His power, however, was not limited to
this earth. “And Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”
(Matt. 28:18). Paul declared the
preeminence of Christ with these words:
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all
things were created by him, and for him:
and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the
church: who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col.
1:16-18).
Fourth, Adam and Jesus both brought something to man. Perhaps it might be better to say that
both of them committed acts that had a tremendous impact on man. Romans 5:18-19 reveals each of their
actions and the consequences thereof to man. “Therefore as by the offence of one
judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.” Adam sinned and brought
sin, death, and condemnation to man.
Jesus died and brought forgiveness, life, and the reward of heaven to
man. “For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-22).
Fifth, the final comparison that we will mention involves the brides of
Adam and Jesus Christ. The bride of
Adam was Eve (Gen. 2:18-24). The
bride of Christ is the precious church for which He shed His blood (Acts 20:28;
Rom. 7:4; II Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:22-33; Rev. 21:2). Each one of these brides wore the name
of her husband. Eve wore Adam’s
name. “This is the book of the
generation of Adam. In the day that
God created man, in the likeness of God made he him: male and female created he them; and
blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created”
(Gen. 5:1-2). In like manner, the
church bears the name of her husband.
“…And the disciples were called Christians first in
Who would have ever thought that Adam could resemble Christ in so many
ways? Had Paul not told us that
Adam was a figure of him who was to come, we many have never considered the
likenesses. From the very beginning
of the Creation, God was preparing man for His Son.
