“…The last Adam [became] a life-giving spirit.”

I don’t know when it first rose to prominence in contemporary culture, but it was noticeable around the beginning of the third millennium.  What is it, you ask?  “Issues.”  It became one of the big buzzwords, perhaps beginning in the world of psychology: “Oh, you’ve got issues…”  That was not a compliment.  “Got issues?” and “I’ve got issues” became T-shirt parlance.  I know: I’ve got one (a T-shirt with “issues” on it, not an issue myself…Well, I don’t mean I don’t have issues; I do.  There are some things that really bother… Uh, let me put it this way, there was a time when… Oh, never mind.  That’s not what this is about!).

Issues were what the Corinthian church had, and Paul’s first letter to them meant help resolving them.  The last issue, a doctrinal one, concerned the resurrection of the dead.  In what has come to be called the “Resurrection Chapter” by many, 1 Corinthians 15 bears a description of Jesus found nowhere else: “Last Adam” (v. 45); closely tied to it is “second man” (v. 47).  Not knowing exactly where to begin, let’s start at the beginning, verse 35, where Paul raises this issue: “But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?’” His first reply, “How foolish!” (v. 36), is the equivalent of today’s “Duh!” suggesting they should have known what he was about to say.  Ever the teacher, Paul.

“Look to the earth,” he begins (vs. 36-38).  “Dead” seeds that are buried bring forth new life; life comes from death.  The seed is not the body but brings forth a body “as [God] has determined.”  Looking at the grains of the world and how they are perfectly formed and function, we are left to ponder the amazing ways our resurrected bodies will likewise be formed and function.

Next, Paul says, “Look to the animal world” (v. 39).  Consider their physiology and their purpose.  What does that say about the Creator’s intention for our future?

Then he says, “Look to the heavens” (vs. 40-41).  Those bodies that give off light, whether direct or reflected, are all different, even unique.  Doesn’t that give the lie to Eastern religion, which says we reach nirvana by being absorbed into the ultimate indefinable One, losing our identity and personality?

Paul continues with what should be the reasonable and obvious conclusion: “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written, ‘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” (vs. 44b-49).  This reflects some of that down-home totally practical wisdom that comes from those working the soil, those familiar with an agrarian lifestyle.  Nature is a living metaphor, the picture of the spiritual.

ook at …examine…study how God has made things on the earth.  He wasn’t joking when he said, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1).  It speaks — no, it shouts — the fact that if God created a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31) and keeps even a fallen world running pretty smoothly, despite wars, ecological concerns, etc.  What does it imply about heaven?  How glorious will our new bodies be?  How satisfying our heavenly purpose?  How exquisite our joy?

We can glean other parallels between the first and last Adam.  The first was made in God’s image, the last in the likeness of man.  Both began in innocence and gave life to those that came after.  Both were given domains suitable to them.  Both entered a deep sleep for his bride to be created.  In that process, both suffered wounds to their sides.  Both were tested in a garden.  The first Adam failed, was banished and died.  The last Adam passed but was banished outside the city and died.  However, he rose victorious!

The last Adam speaks of a coming heavenly realm of which you and I, as joint-heirs with this Adam, will be a major part.  Are you redeeming the time to intensify the eternity that’s coming?