Divine Justice Issues (XV)

"Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come"

That Adam and Christ are heads and representatives of human beings is a fundamental truth. Foundational to this truth fact is "union." All human beings have a union with Adam and Eve, especially Adam. Likewise all the elect (or all believers, or all saved people) have a union with Christ, "the second Adam" or "last Adam." (See Rom. 5: 14; I Cor. 15: 45) Paul says that Adam is a type of Christ and one of the chief ways both Adam and Christ are alike is in their status as "federal heads" of their respective peoples. Adam is the head and representative of every human being, of everyone who has descended from him. The second Adam is the head and representative of all those from among the human race who are united to him by faith. Physical birth unites humans with Adam. Spiritual birth, the second or new birth, unites humans with the second Adam.

It is a well known fact that "in Christ" or "with Christ" are ways in which union with Christ is described. It is described as a person being "in Christ" as well as Christ being in the believer. Getting into Christ, and his getting into the believer, occurs when a person believes in Christ and asks Christ to come into his life. That is when union begins. This is evident from the words of the apostle Paul when he says - "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." (I Cor. 15: 22 nkjv) "In Adam" and "in Christ" denote union. Water baptism pictures entering into Christ and the Lord's Supper pictures Christ entering into the believer.

There are kinds of union. Theologians speak of several kinds of ways all are in union with Adam. As we will see, there is a sense in which union with Adam begins with physical birth, and another sense in which union occurred at the time Adam was created. In other words, every human being was in some sense "in Adam" when Adam was created. Theologians call this "seminal union." By this they mean that every human comes from Adam's semen (and Eve's egg too of course), or "seed" (the Greek word for seed is sperma, i.e. sperm), which also means that all are but "Adam multiplied." All get their DNA from him and Eve. A text that speaks of seminal union is where Paul says that Levi, before he ever existed, was "in the loins of Abraham." (Heb. 7: 10) Not only that, but Paul says that Levi "paid tithes in Abraham." (vs. 6) That act of paying tithes by Abraham is said to have also been the act of Levi when he only had a seminal existence in Abraham. In like manner we say that every human being was "in Adam" seminally so that when Adam acted in eating of the forbidden tree and sinned, so too did every human being eat that tree and sinned. Let the Pelagians disprove that Levi acted in Abraham or that every man acted in Adam. 

There is also what is called "representative union" and a union that involves headship. The headship of Adam and his being constituted by God as the legal head of the human race is implied in the fact that Adam and Christ are alike, and surely this likeness cannot exclude the idea of being the head and representative of groups of people. We read in the scriptures where it is stated by Paul that "the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." (I Cor. 11: 3 nkjv) The head represents the entity of the body of people to which it is connected. A man is the head of the woman and the family. He represents the family. Christ is "the head of every man." But so too is Adam. They both represent the human race. Christ represents the human race but especially those of the race who are elect, who are believers.

The Case of the Angels

The Lord could have made the human race after the example of the angels. Angels, as all acknowledge, were all created individually. No angel was born of other angels. The angels of heaven do not marry nor have sex, nor have children. (See Matt. 22: 30) Each angel therefore could not be held responsible for what another angel did. We also read of where some angels sinned and were, like the first fallen angel Lucifer (who became the serpent, Satan, or the Devil), cast out of heaven. (See Luke 10: 18; II Peter 2: 4; Jude 1: 6; Rev. 12: 3-4, 7-9) There was no original sin among the angels. God did not impute the sin of Lucifer to the other angels. They were not constituted by God as a self propagating race. Not all the angels sinned. Those who did not sin are the "holy angels" who Paul calls "the elect angels." (I Tim. 5: 21) This of course implies that there are non elect angels; These would be the angels that sinned. So, was there no salvation provided for the angels that sinned? And, if there was, what would that entail? How would the sin of angels be atoned for or propitiated? Notice these words of the apostle: "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." (Heb. 2: 16 kjv)

Barnes in his commentary wrote:

"Margin, "He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold...The general idea is that of seizing upon, or laying hold of anyone - no matter what the object is - whether to aid, or to drag to punishment, or simply to conduct. Here it means to lay hold with reference to "aid," or "help;" and the meaning is, that he did not seize the nature of angels, or take it to himself with reference to rendering "them" aid, but he assumed the nature of man - in order to aid "him." He undertook the work of human redemption, and consequently it was necessary for him to be man." 

Most bible teachers agree that the election of some angels was for the purpose of keeping them from sinning and from falling. This being so, the angels not chosen were not kept from apostasy. With man, however, God chose to let him fall into sin and then to redeem those who he likewise chose to salvation. The case of the election of angels was to keep them secure, or immutable, in their holiness and fealty to God. The case of the election of men, however, was to allow them to sin and then to provide forgiveness through Christ and by his becoming a sacrifice and substitute and bearing the penalty for those condemned. 

God could have made every man personally and individually as he did the angels and so there would have been no original sin or imputation of one man's sin to another man. But, he did not. 

Under "Adam and Federal Headship," A. W. PINK wrote the following things which I fully endorse (See here - emphasis mine):

“It is of vital importance for a right understanding of much in God’s Word to observe the relation which Adam sustained to his posterity. Adam was not only the common parent of mankind, but he was also their federal head and representative. The whole human race was placed on probation or trial in Eden. Adam acted not for himself alone, but he transacted for all who were to spring from him. Unless this basic fact be definitely apprehended, much that ought to be relatively clear to us will be shrouded in impenetrable mystery. Yea, we go further, and affirm that, until the federal headship of Adam and God’s covenant with him in that office be actually perceived, we are without the key to God’s dealings with the human race, we are unable to discern man’s relation to the divine law, and we appreciate not the fundamental principles upon which the atonement of Christ proceeded."

Since Adam is a type of Christ, understanding how his original sin affected the human race is most important. It helps us to understand the person of Christ and how our sins were imputed to him, how he paid the penalty for our sins by being the sinner's substitute.

Pink says further:

“Federal headship” is a term which has almost entirely disappeared from current religious literature—so much the worse for our moderns. It is true that the expression itself does not verbally occur in Scripture; yet like the words Trinity and the divine incarnation, it is a necessity in theological parlance and doctrinal exposition. The principle or fact which is embodied in the term “federal headship” is that of representation. There been but two federal heads: Adam and Christ, with each of whom God entered into a covenant. Each of them acted on behalf of others, each legally represented as definite people, so much so that all whom they represented were regarded by God as being in them. Adam represented the whole human race; Christ represented all those whom the Father had, in His eternal counsels, given to Him."

This seems clear to me to be the teaching of Romans chapter five and First Corinthians chapter fifteen. It is because Adam is a figure of Christ and because Christ is called the second or "last Adam," that they are alike in regard to imputation. They are alike and yet different. Their likeness is chiefly because they are both heads and representatives of mankind. Their differences are seen in the fact that Adam disobeyed God but Christ obeyed God (and never disobeyed); And, is seen in the fact that Adam's disobedience made all he represented sinners (or unrighteous) while Christ's obedience made all he represented to be sinless (or righteous); And, Adam's sin brought condemnation and death to all that he represented, but Christ's obedience and holiness brought justification and life to all that he represented. 

Pink says further:

“When Adam stood in Eden as a responsible being before God, he stood there as a federal head, as the legal representative of all his posterity. Hence, when Adam sinned, all for whom he was standing are accounted as having sinned; when he fell, all whom he represented fell; when he died, they died. So too was it with Christ. When He came to this earth, He, too, stood in a federal relationship to His own people; and when He became obedient unto death, all for whom He was acting were accounted righteous; when He rose again from the dead, all whom He represented rose with Him; when He ascended on high, they were regarded as ascending with Him. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22)."

This is why Paul said that believers had been "made alive together with Christ...and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2: 5-6 nkjv) This is why he also said that every saved person, every believer or every elect man, died when Christ died. Wrote Paul: "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died." (II Cor. 5: 14 nkjv) It cannot be said that a person died when Christ died, or was resurrected when Christ was resurrected, or ascended to heaven when Christ ascended except on the principle that there was a representative union between Christ and the elect. Just as the elect died when Christ died (died to sin, self, the law, the world, etc.), so too did all men die when Adam died (to God and righteousness) in the day he disobeyed God. 

Pink says further:

“The relationship of our race to Adam or Christ divides men into two classes, each receiving nature and destiny from its respective head. All the individuals who comprise these two classes are so identified with their heads that it has justly been said, “There have been but two men in the world, and two facts in history.” These two men are Adam and Christ; the two facts are the disobedience of the former, by which many were made sinners, and the obedience of the latter, by which many were made righteous. By the former came ruin, by the latter came redemption; and neither ruin nor redemption can be Scripturally apprehended except as they are seen to be accomplished by those representatives, and except we understand the relationships expressed by being “in Adam” and “in Christ.”"

This is what Paul was teaching in Romans chapter five.

Pink says further:

“Let it be expressly and emphatically affirmed that what we are here treating of is purely a matter of divine revelation. Nowhere but in Holy Scripture do we know anything about Adam, or of our relation to him. If it be asked how the federal constitution of the race can be reconciled with the dictates of human reason, the first answer must be, it is not for us to reconcile them. The initial inquiry is not whether federal headship be reasonable or just, but, is it a fact revealed in the Word of God? If it is, then reason must bow to it and faith humbly receive it. To the child of God the question of its justice is easily settled: we know it to be just, because it is a part of the ways of the infinitely holy and righteous God."

In chapter three of this series I gave this syllogism:

1. All that God wills and does is just. 

2. God willed and did A. 

3. A is just

So, just because we cannot fully demonstrate how all that God does is just and right does not mean that we abandon our belief that God is just and righteous. If the major and minor premise of the above syllogism are true, then the conclusion must be true. 

Pink says further:

“Now the fact that Adam was the federal head of the human race, that he did act and transact in a representative capacity, and that the judicial consequences of his actings were imputed to all those for whom he stood, is clearly revealed in God’s Word. In Romans 5 we read: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all sinned” (v. 12); “through the offence of one many be dead” (v. 15); “the judgment was by one to condemnation” (v. 16); “by one man’s offence death reigned” (v. 17); “by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation” (v. 18); “by one man’s offence many were made [legally constituted] sinners” (v. 19). The meaning of these declarations is far too plain for any unprejudiced mind to misunderstand. It Pleased God to deal with the human race as represented in and by Adam."

The Pelagian cannot say these things. To him the one act of disobedience that separates one from God is the personal first act of sin that a child does and is what constitutes him a sinner and under condemnation. However, Paul sees that one act as having been done by Adam and it is this sin that makes all a sinner under condemnation. 

Pink says further:

“Let us borrow a simple illustration. God did not deal with mankind as with a field of corn, where each stalk stands upon its own individual root; but He dealt with it as with a tree, all the branches of which have one common root and trunk. If you strike with an axe at the root of a tree, the whole tree falls—not only the trunk, but also the branches: all wither and die. So it was when Adam fell. God permitted Satan to lay the axe at the root of the tree, and when Adam fell, all his posterity fell with him. At one fatal stroke Adam was severed from communion with his maker, and as the result “death passed upon all men.”

This fits in with what I said above about the case of the angels. Each angel was its own stalk standing on its own individual root. 

Pink says further:

“Here, then, we learn what is the formal ground of man’s judicial condemnation before God. The popular idea of what renders man a sinner in the sight of heaven is altogether inadequate and false. The prevailing conception is that a sinner is one who commits and prac­tices sin. It is true that this is the character of a sinner, but it certainly is not that which primarily constitutes him a sinner. The truth is that every member of our race enters this world a guilty sinner before he ever commits a single transgression. It is not only that he possesses a sinful nature, but he is directly “under condemnation.” We are legally constituted sinners neither by what we are nor by what we are doing, but by the disobedience of our federal head, Adam. Adam acted not for himself alone, but for all who were to spring from him."

Again, if this is not just, then neither is it just to condemn Christ to death for the sins of men, to make him a substitute and a sacrifice.

Pink says further:

“But it will be said, It was unjust to make Adam our federal head. How so? Is not the principle of representation a fundamental one in human society? The father is the legal head of his children during their minority: what he does, binds the family. A business house is held responsible for the transactions of its agents. The heads of a state are vested with such authority that the treaties they make are binding upon the whole nation. This principle is so basic it cannot be set aside. Every popular election illustrates the fact that a constituency will act through a representative and be bound by his acts. Human affairs could not continue, nor society exist without it. Why, then, be staggered at finding it inaugurated in Eden?"

This is a point I have already emphasized. Every American is born today with a responsibility to pay the national debt. 

Pink says further:

“Finally, let it be pointed out that the sinner’s salvation is made to depend upon the same principle. Beware, my reader, of quarreling with the justice of this law of representation. This principle wrecked us, and this principle alone can rescue us. The disobedience of the first Adam was the judicial ground of our condemnation; the obedience of the last Adam is the legal ground on which God alone can justify the sinner. The substitution of Christ in the place of His people, the imputation of their sins to Him and of His righteousness to them, is the cardinal fact of the gospel. But the principle of being saved by what another has done is only possible on the ground that we are lost through what another did. The two stand or fall together. If there had been no covenant of works there could have been no death in Adam, there could have been no life in Christ."

This is so well stated. If it is just to justify for the sake of Christ, then it is just to condemn for the sake of Adam.

Pink says further:

"The corruption which we inherit from our parents is a great evil, for it is the source of all our personal sins. For God to allow this transmission of depravity is to inflict a punishment. But how could God punish all, unless all were guilty? The fact that all do share in this common punishment proves that all sinned and fell in Adam. Our depravity and misery are not, as such, the appointment of the Creator, but are instead the retribution of the judge."

There are some brothers who believe in mediate imputation of Adam's sin, believing that immediate imputation is not just nor the teaching of the bible. They say that Adam corrupted his moral nature when he sinned and this has caused all his descendants to be born with a corrupt depraved nature, a nature that will be the reason why all at some point in childhood commit their first act of sin, which first act of sin is what brings condemnation. They see this inheritance of a corrupt nature as a consequence of Adam's sin but see this depraved nature as not being a penalty for Adam's sin. But, this scenario does not eliminate their view from the charge of infidels that this is likewise unjust. So, if they believe in mediate imputation because it makes God to appear more just, let them know that their view does not do what it is intended to do, for God will still appear to be unjust to the infidel. But, about that we will have more to say in the next chapter. But, I certainly do believe that Pink was right when he said that God's allowing the transmission of depravity is an infliction of a punishment. The same with physical death. Though Pelagians affirm that physical death is not a penalty for sin, yet the bible teaches otherwise. Both physical death and a depraved nature inherited from Adam are penalties for being judged as sinners.