In the beginning, God created Adam in his own image, and he gave him authority over everything he had created (Genesis 1:26-28). If I search the scriptures. I would never find anyone other than Adam, whom God gave such great authority, except for Jesus. This same authority was given him, later. Christian tradition, however, places a mythical archangel, called Satan,[1] in authority over the earth, prior to the Lord’s creating mankind. Nevertheless, there isn’t a shred of evidence in God’s word that would support such thinking.
All human history pivots on the fact that God gave mankind authority over everything he had created upon the earth. As for man’s rebellion (Genesis 3), nothing has changed. The Lord removed mankind from the garden, but he did not take away his authority over the things God had created, and history is our evidence that man has remained in authority over the earth, albeit, that authority has been divided among the leaders of the nations, but mankind still holds the strings. The question is, if mankind is in a state of rebellion against God, his Creator, how is it possible rebellious mankind to ever be reconciled to the Lord, God, his Creator?
The problem is that all mankind is derived from Adam. He is the head of our race. Just as the whole nation, the king and all the folks he rules, is at war with the king upon whom war has been declared by the first king (Romans 5:12), so we are at war with God, because of Adam’s rebellion in Genesis 3. The Earth and everyone and everything within it is at war with God, unless reconciliation has been achieved (Romans 5:13-18).
Thus, Christ is not just a Way out of the grave (new life) but a Way out of Adam’s race (physical), because God is creating all things new (spiritual). All who are in Christ are a new spiritual creation (Revelation 21:1, 5; 2Corinthians 5:17). When I come to Christ, I am shedding my old man (Adam) and putting on the new man (Christ). If I am in Adam, I am abiding in death, because Adam and all that is in him are dust and will return to dust (Genesis 3:19). However, if I am abiding in Christ, my new Adam, I am abiding in eternal life (1Corinthians 15:21-22, 45). Christ has become the Firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15; cp. Genesis 1:26-28). This is salvation, exchanging death for life, Adam for Christ. I am admitting my old man (Adam and all I am in him) is corrupt, unclean and worthy of death, and I am reaching out to Christ, my New Man, my Savior, my Life (John 14:6)!
The word of God says in Romans 5:12 that sin entered into the world through one man (Adam). Adam is the responsible party here. There is no mention of another being. What was the curse of the serpent? Was it not that he would eat dust all the days of his life (Genesis 3:14)? What do we eat today? Is there anything that we eat that does not take its nutrition from the soil? Man and all beasts come from the soil (Genesis 3:19). We all eat the dust of our garden, which is nutritionally packed into our vegetables and fruit, and the animals we eat are made of dust. The only exception to this came in the wilderness, when manna was given to God’s people, and they came to loathe it (cp. Exodus 16:11-15 with Numbers 21:5). Man ate the bread of heaven (Psalm 78:24-25) and loathed it, proving he was a child of Adam. Today, we partake of Christ our spiritual food (cp. John 6:47-58). Still, so many loathe this Bread! Man has come to love his curse (John 3:19).
There exists in this world, today, two entities. The first is the Body of Christ (1Corinthians 12:12-27), of which Christ is the head (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 4:15). The second is the Body of Sin (Romans 6:6) of which our old man (Adam) is the head (Romans 6:6; cp. 7:1-4). Adam was our husband and while we were in him, we drew our life from him; we had to fulfill his desires (cp. John 8:44). If we are not abiding in Christ, we abide in the flesh, or in our old man (Adam – the Body of Sin, Romans 6:6; 8:8-9), and our inheritance will be that of Adam: this body of death (Romans 7:24).
Adam’s work of rebellion was powerful enough to affect the lives of all mankind. Every last man, woman and child has become what Adam was, a rebel (Romans 5:12, 17-19). However, Jesus’ work of righteousness, is much more powerful than Adam’s work of rebellion (Romans 5:15-16). Just as Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7:10-12), so too, the righteousness of Christ swallows up the unrighteousness of Adam (Romans 5:17-19). This is clearly seen in that death, itself, which came into the world with Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12, 14), shall be destroyed by Christ, vis-à-vis it will exist no longer (1Corinthians 15:22-26).
However one wishes to define death, the point is that death will be destroyed. If a single man, woman or child remains dead, death still exists and reigns over that person, and shouts out a life over which God found it impossible to reign. The scripture says that death will end, and will itself be destroyed (cp. 1John 3:8; James 1:14-15; with 1Corinthians 15:26, 55). Praise God! Bless his Name forever!
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[1] See my study series: Satan, which takes issue with our Christian tradition of this figure. Also, this study has been updated from its original state in December of 2024.
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