This is part 8 of a series exploring how the Bible teaches that Jesus was greater than all who came before him.  This series is not intended to be exhaustive.  The topic of Jesus as “greater than” or “better” than those who came before him is inexhaustible.  Libraries could and should be written on this subject.  But we have attempted in these pages to explore what such a rich subject would look like. (Each entry is excerpted from There Is No Greater Love)

Christ Greater than Adam (6 of 6)

And God blessed them and said to them (Adam and his wife), “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen 1:28).

The Lord God established His end purpose for the earth early in Genesis.  He blessed the first couple and commanded them to be fruitful and to multiply upon the earth, thus filling the world with men and women in the image of the living God.  He also commanded mankind to have dominion over all animal life, including the beast of the field.

But Adam’s sin made the fulfillment of God’s purpose for the earth impossible.  Instead of ruling over the beast of the field, man obeyed the voice of the serpent. He was therefore himself ruled over by the beast.  Furthermore, Adam’s sin brought death, and his sinful progeny could never satisfy the original command to fill the earth with men and women in the image of a holy God.

But God’s wisdom is greater than the counsels of the enemy.  God promised a Seed to the woman, a new Adam to be born in the perfect image of the holy God.  This new Adam would crush the head of the serpent and so have dominion over the beast. He would beget a spiritual seed that would fill the earth with men and women redeemed from the power of the evil one and remade in the image of the living God.

All of the work of this greater Adam will culminate in one single day—the great day of the resurrection of the just.  For in resurrecting His redeemed people, the new Adam will destroy the power of the serpent of old, demanding to know, “O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor 15:55). The new Adam will crush Satan under the feet of His new Eve, under the church (Rom 16:20).  And this same resurrection day will see the earth, that ancient womb of the first Adam, bring forth anew all the redeemed of all the ages.  The earth herself will be released from the curse of vanity (Rom 8:20-23), and all the earth will be filled with a great company renewed in the image of the holy God.

Thus the last Adam will accomplish everything that God commanded the first Adam to fulfill.  Then Christ will present His Father with the fulfilled commission that God made to man in the beginning and that will be fully accomplished by man.  The mortal will be made immortal.  The corruptible will be made incorruptible. Since death came through man, through man also will come the resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:21).  Then the last Adam will defeat the last enemy—even death itself. He will deliver up the kingdom to His Father, and God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).