Here are the notes as they pick up from last weeks notes:
A. Adam
God created Adam as the pinnacle of creation to resemble him more particularly than anything else as God made him in His image (Genesis 1:26-18). This answers the question whether this is the best that God could creation or could he have done better, because nothing in creation resemble or compares to him more than man.
1. Covenant
God tested this resemblance by conditionally covenanting with Adam such that Adam would be charged to do what God would do (discharged a divine duty) by judging the Serpent (Genesis 2:8-25). Now, this is not obvious because we are told that Adam should not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil (Genesis 2:17). However, because of the context of trees in the garden and the charge to keep and guard (Genesis 2:15) in the historical context lead me to believe that Adam should have judged the Serpent at the tree and banish or exile him from the garden.
2. Sin
As we all know, Genesis 3 recounts that Adam failed to discharge their duty, thus displaying that they are not God and cannot do his work (Genesis 3:6-7):
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
3. Exile
God banishes Adam (and Eve) from the Garden of Eden such that God guarded the way back to the Garden (Genesis 3:22-24):
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever–” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
4. Restoration
God then steps in to judge the Serpent, as only He can do, and in so doing unconditionally covenants to restore Adam/Eve by coming in the flesh as their Offspring to crush the Serpent (Genesis 3:15):
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
B. Israel
As this promise of restoration flows from Adam to his offspring, his offspring become evident as opposed to the Serpent’s offspring (see Genesis 4-11). This unconditional restoration promise flows particularly into the life of Abraham (formerly Abraham) (see Genesis 12 and following) for the creation of a nation. This nation Israel was promised a land that was likened to Eden (Genesis 13:10).
1. Covenant
After Israel was led by Moses from Egypt through the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai, God brought them to the mountain to give them a national covenant (see Exodus 19-20). They are charged to be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 20:7), and by judging the Canaanites (the seed of the Serpent) by casting them out of the land (Deuteronomy 7:1-26). Just as with Adam, he was testing the nation’s resemblance to Him:
Leviticus 20:7-8 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
2. Sin
Just like Adam, Israel fails to discharge her duties and breaks the conditional covenant God had arranged with her (Isaiah 1:2-31; Jeremiah 1:1-37; Hosea 6:7).
Hosea 6:6-7 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
3. Exile
God banished Israel from the land (2 Kings 25:1-30; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21) and they were, as a nation, exiled to Assyria and Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons
4. Restoration
Throughout Israel’s failure over centuries after the covenant at Mt. Sinai, God graciously promised restoration in the “latter days” for Israel by way of New Creation (Isaiah 65) , a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31), a new Temple (Ezekiel 40-48), and a new Heart (Ezekiel 36). Although God had brought them back to the land a number of years after their initial exile, it was obvious that the remnants who returned were still awaiting the restoration of Israel in the future.
Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
C. Jesus
Adam and Israel (a corporate Adam) failed to resemble God and do what he does, and thus proved that the greatest of God’s creation, both on small and large scales, cannot not truly compare to Him. The only way for both Adam and Israel to truly resemble God, was for God to incarnate them as Jesus of Nazareth: the New Adam and the New Israel.
1. The New Adam
The apostle Paul makes this clear connection for us in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:45-49:
Romans 5:12-21 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned– 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:15-28 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:45-50 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Jesus was tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12-13), but resisted and cast him out of people everywhere (Matthew 12:22-37)*. Jesus was called the Son of God, a title that truly only Adam could claim (Luke 3:38). His people are now being conformed to his image (Romans 8:29).
2. The New Israel
Although there is no one verse that says “Jesus is the New Israel”, it is very clear by description that this is the case. First, by way of analogy, Israel is understood as God’s Son and as I have stated, Israel is a corporate Adam. This is drawn out textually by Matthew’s quotation of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:
Matthew 2:12-15 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Hosea 11:1-3 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.
The way to really do justice to the original context of Hosea is to understand Jesus as the True Son of God and, thus, true Israel. This is also demonstrated by the correspondences between Jesus and Israel. Jesus came out of Egypt as did Israel. Jesus came through the Jordan from east to be baptized as did Israel (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-10). Jesus was wandering in the wilderness for 40 days, as to 40 years for Israel. Jesus chose 12 disciples, as there were 12 tribes of Israel.
As the New Israel, he has come to expand Israel as God’s people, not replace them with Gentiles. As the New Adam, he fuses people from every tribe, language, and nation to be God’s people, Israel.
Romans 2:28-29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
(image courtesy of Roy Ciampa)
