God's Higher Order of Man
by T. Austin-Sparks
I think there are a lot of Christian people who have the idea that what God is seeking to do through the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus in atonement for sin - in the salvation and recovery of man from his lost state - is to get him back to the place where Adam was before the fall. Now do you have that idea? Is that your idea of redemption - that you just undo everything that went wrong in and through Adam and restore things to that unfallen state in which Adam was before he fell? If that is so, you are entirely wrong. God is not seeking to do any such thing. He is not conforming to the first Adam at all, not even to an unfallen first Adam. He has gone immeasurably beyond an unfallen first Adam. He has left him behind altogether... and has One who is an entirely different order of being from the unfallen Adam. The first Adam was a living soul; the last Adam was a Life-giving spirit. The first man was of the earth, earthy; the last is of heaven, heavenly. Therefore, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." This heavenly Man, this last Adam, this Life-giving spirit is of an entirely different order from unfallen Adam - of a higher order altogether. God has something transcendently greater than unfallen first Adam. His last Adam, His second Man, is of a heavenly order - a spiritual order; and blessed be God, an order which cannot know death. So do not let us drop down on to the poor level of an unfallen first Adam. It might be a great deal better than our present natural condition, but it is not good enough for God; and it should not be good enough for us. Therefore, let us "bear the image of the heavenly." That brings clearly into view what God's objective is. Having made the Lord Jesus the Head of His new creation - His new race - His objective is to conform the race to the likeness of its Head. Christ then becomes the one object in the eye of God concerning which and unto which He is doing all His works. And the Lord is now working in the new creation - in you and me - to conform us to the image of His Son. We may take it that God has no other work on hand. God has only one work on hand, and that is His work. That is to be taken account of when we realize the Lord is trying to do something. The Lord is at work. We may not be able to see what He is doing at this time; but if we ask the one general, all governing question, "What is it that the Lord is seeking to do?" The answer is one... and comprehends everything - every method of God, every means of God, every interest of God. It is reduced to one single, comprehensive thing... He is seeking to reproduce His Son in us - to conform us to the image of His Son. From eternity God has been governed by a desire to express Himself... and all creation is God's way of seeking to express Himself. Now, when we look at the Lord Jesus, we see God's realizing His desire; and then, when we look at His activity with us, we see God's seeking in this yet more fully extended way - beyond the individual Person of the Lord Jesus - to reproduce Himself in the Church, which is Christ's Body; that is, to make it Christ in expression. That is very simple and very elementary; but this heavenly order of which Christ is the Head is what God is seeking to bring about in a new race. Then the next thing is this: the last Adam is a Life-giving spirit. Thank God for that! You see, Adam could only produce after his kind, and his kind was an earthly order - a soul order of man. He could not produce after the full, complete, and final thought of God. It was not in him to reproduce himself in an order above his own level. Even as unfallen, he could not do that. The Lord Jesus is bound by the same law, but the difference is that as a Life-giving spirit, producing after His own kind, He has power to accomplish the Divine purpose by bringing in the heavenly - this spiritual - order. You have, then, a new race in view, set forth in its Head and, in union with Him - as one with Him - the Spirit with the Son, a Life-giving spirit, becoming the energy by which the end shall be reached. The Lord Jesus in us - the Holy Spirit in us - is the energy and power to produce, or reproduce, after His own kind. That makes a heavenly order possible.
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2 comments:
This is an awesome contemplation which assumes that:
1.) The original man -- in the image of God, was inferior.
2.) That God betrayed his own desire and ability by making something inferior to his purpose and called it "very good." That he waited for all eternity to produce something in his image which was less than?
3.) If there is no similarity between the two then God is misleading us by referring to the "last Adam" or the "second Man." If there is no comparison, why use the language of comparison?
4.) Why call Adam the "son of God?" Luke 3:38 A title that hails back to Jesus.
5.) The effects of Adam's fall are far exceeded by Christ's redemption. Romans 5:15 This is a reflection on the limited power of sin and not the limitlessness of God's creative ability exhibited in Adam.
6.) If Adam was not the full expression of the creative ideal then he was formed for limited fellowship, since his perfection and nature are essential attributes for unbroken fellowship with God. This limited fellowship could not have been satisfying to God or man. In fact, man has a case for the fall against God. He could claim he fell because he was improperly created. Satan's statement that he was not like God would not have been a deception but a statement of original truth. Man would even have a case against God's own perfection in producing something so obviously contrary to God's heart and desire. God had withheld the eternal purpose. Was Adam a betrayal of the Divine purpose and a fumbling of the Divine ability and a compromised form of the Divine image?
Just a few questions to ponder and to stir up your sincere minds.
Blessings
Mike
Hmm.. good points.
Maybe a better way of expressing this would be to say that Adam never reached his full potential. Regarding creation - yes he was as perfect as a baby is perfect. All the parts are there, just not fully developed. So I would agree - God's work is perfect, but yet Adam never fulfilled all that God had in mind for him - not because he lacked the ability, but because he chose something else.
Thanks Mike
Andre
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