Christians.. Why does 1 Corinthians15:45 call Jesus the last Adam and call him a life giving spirit?

Question

I thought Jesus if he was God almighty, how is it he was equal to Adam as a replacement for him? And as a spirit also? If he is a spirit that Gives life Does that make him also the holy spirit? and if the holy spirit is the one that causes us to live move and breathe, is that not Just the life force or power of God and not God himself? Did the bible say that the life is in the blood? so how can Jesus be the life force in the blood of the original Adam, without being Adam himself?

Answer 1

The Apostle Paul tells us in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).



Paul is here pointing out the difference between two kinds of bodies, i.e., the natural and the spiritual. Genesis 2:7 speaks of the first man, Adam, becoming a living person. Adam was made from the dust of the ground and given the breath of life from God. Every human being since that time shares the same characteristics. However, the last Adam or the “second Adam”—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. Just as Adam was the first of the human race, so Christ is the first of those who will be raised from the dead to eternal life. Because Christ rose from the dead, He is “a life-giving spirit” who entered into a new form of existence. He is the source of the spiritual life that will result in believers' resurrection. Christ's new glorified human body now suits His new, glorified, spiritual life—just as Adam's human body was suitable to his natural life. When believers are resurrected, God will give them transformed, eternal bodies suited to eternal life.



Paul tells us in verse 46 that the natural came first and after that the spiritual. People have natural life first; that is, they are born into this earth and live here. Only from there do they then obtain spiritual life. Paul is telling us that the natural man, Adam, came first on this earth and was made from the dust of the earth. While it is true that Christ has existed from eternity past, He is here called the second man or second Adam because He came from heaven to earth many years after Adam. Christ came as a human baby with a body like all other humans, but He did not originate from the dust of the earth as had Adam. He “came from heaven.”



Then Paul goes on: “As was the earthly man [Adam], so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven [Christ], so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:48-49). Because all humanity is bound up with Adam, so every human being has an earthly body just like Adam's. Earthly bodies are fitted for life on this earth, yet they are limited by death, disease, and weakness because of sin which we’ve seen was first brought into the world by Adam.



However, the good news is that believers can know with certainty that their heavenly bodies will be just like Christ's—imperishable, eternal, glorious, and filled with power. At this time, all are like Adam; one day, all believers will be like Christ (Philippians 3:21). The Apostle John wrote to the believers, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Answer 2

You ask such great questions, this is the second one I have answered. Okay to answer this question you need to also read the rest of it (verses 45- 58) and also need to read earlier in the passage at (20- 22). You see Adam is the first Adam and Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus is the last because the first Adam (which is Adam) brought death and sin into the world(1 Corinthians 15:22), so Jesus was the only one that could restore eternal life to mankind when he died on the cross (thus the name of life giving spirit). The Bible is not equaling Jesus to Adam because we know that Jesus has the greatest name on heaven and earth and all authority was given to him (Philippians 2:1-10) (Matthew 28:18). The point is that Adam was the first living being recorded in Genesis and this man bought death and sin into the world through his disobedience. Before this sin, man was an eternal being because the only time God told them they would die is if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice in Genesis 2:9, we know there were many trees in the garden, but the Bible names two specific trees (Tree of Life, Tree of knowledge). God told them they could NOT eat the tree of knowledge or they would surely die in Genesis 2:17. Notice he did not tell them they could not eat of the tree of life. But because they ultimately disobeyed God, the tree of life was taken away and death came upon the Earth. So Jesus was the second Adam because he restored eternal life with God and in a sense the tree of life and reversed what the first Adam did.



One more thing, the Holy Spirit is not Jesus because Jesus used the Holy Spirit's power for most of the miracles he did. The Godhead worked together to achieve the salvation of man's souls.

Answer 3

Let's FIRST agree that there are more then 1 way of saying things. There is such a thing as Metaphor AND there are more then 1 meaning or "sense" of a word.



AGREED?



So what we have here are multiple senses of the word and different ways of stating things.



The Apostles were trying to make a point that God used a bit of symmetry in his plan for salvation.

Through 1 man sin entered the world - that would be Adam.

Therefore, God in his infinite perfection, used a similarity to bring about the salvation of mankind. That is, through God becoming man as a sign of his love, he allowed MAN to bridge that divide that sin created and through a man, Mankind sin was conquered.

See the parallel there?

You see, God didn't have to, but in his perfection, he sought symmetry.





Secondly, Spirit has more then one connotation. there is "spirit of the law" as opposed to "letter of the law" there is a person's SOUL, which is spirit... and there are Spiritual beings, those spirits which lack physical form, like Angels and God.



"Spirit" therefore is that inmaterial state of being. Be it the reasons behind the law which lacks the proper words, be it our animating life force. OR, be it God himself. ALL of three of those are a "sense" of the word "spirit"



What you have done is confuse the senses of those words and tried to make Spirit mean all the same thing.







Thirdly, Life IS in the blood, in a SENSE, in that, if blood drains out of an animal, it will surely die. (though coconut water can be used as a temporary replacement for blood plasma...but that's not the point)



But life is also in the Soul, for without a soul or "animating life force" things are not alive.



But in another sense, not every Soul is worthy of eternal life. Plant life has an animating life force, but we don't think that every weed and ever flower goes to heaven.



So CLEARLY there are different meanings and senses of the word Soul, Spirit, and Life.



It is MORE complex then we first assume.









Hope this helps







God Bless! and Shalom! (Hebrew for Peace)

Answer 4

Do note that Jesus in the Bible says no where, no where at all, that he is God or even the son of God. Jesus.



He was human being, and like Adam he was created without a father.



To try to have God everywhere, in the blood of original Adam, is again something never stated by Jesus himself.



There is another perspective of Jesus and who he is that matches the description he gives of himself. Check the sources below.

Answer 5

Philosophical questions don't work on Theology,Hon..Try again.