Jesus, the True and Better Adam

By Grant Walker

​   “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, ESV)  

There is One who does fulfill your hopes and desires this Christmas. And there is One who does live up to the anticipation and the hype.  You’ve just been anticipating the wrong Advent, the wrong arrival.  
You’ve been anticipating the advent or arrival of…

• gifts 
• family
• holiday meals
• a break from work
• warm feelings 
• fun movies
• holiday traditions

We’ve been taken captive by the advent of all the wrong things, rather than being captivated by the arrival of Christ.
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The way we will anticipate Jesus’ arrival at Franklin City Church is by looking back through a few Old Testament characters and learning how they were foreshadowing and pointing to Jesus’ arrival.  Jesus affirmed this fact that all of scripture points to and was anticipating his advent, when speaking to some of his disciples after his resurrection:

​   “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27, ESV)  

A pastor named M.R. DeHaan once said this, “If we search long enough we shall find upon every page of Scripture, standing somewhere in the shadow, the outline of the central Person of the Book — the Lord Jesus Christ.”  He goes on to a godly minister who told him, “Son, you have never found the true interpretation of any passage of the Scriptures until you have found in it somewhere a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you search long enough you will find Him standing somewhere in the background, sometimes clear and unmistakable, sometimes faintly and dimly, but He is there.”
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This week we looked at Adam and how we can celebrate the fact that what was lost in the garden was won back by Jesus.

​   “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.” (Romans 5:14, ESV)  

Adam is a type of Christ.  This means that his actions, just like Jesus’ actions, would have far reaching consequences and affects. So much so that all humanity is either in Adam or in Christ.  It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself religious or non-religious. It doesn’t matter if you identify as agnostic or an atheist. It doesn’t matter what philosophical thought you are currently following. The Bible makes it quite simple and clear that you are either in Adam or you are in Christ.  

• In Adam, we lost God’s presence.  In Jesus, we have won back what was lost in the garden.  And now we can, once again, dwell in His presence.  
• In Adam, sin entered the world and was spread to all.  In Jesus, righteousness was obtained and has been spread over all those in Him.  
• In Adam, physical and spiritual death infected all humanity. In Jesus, death has been put to death for he came that we might have life.  
• Adam failed to trust God in a garden. Jesus perfectly trusted God in the garden, and his obedience is credited to us.  
• Adam was conquered by sin.  Jesus perfectly and infinitely conquered sin, once and for all.  
• Adam broke the law.  Jesus fulfilled the law. 
• In Adam, we thought God was holding out on us.  In Jesus, we realize that he has given us all things and has given us the richest treasure in the universe—himself.  

Let us praise God that what was lost in the garden has been won back by Jesus. 

Full Sermon

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