Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, the Second Man - “It is Finished!” – Part 3 by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 05/01/24
This message was originally recorded December 18, 2013, the third in a series of 8 messages.
My notes:
As Doug continues the theme of the revelation of Jesus Christ as the last Adam, the second man, he relates the passage in Philippians 2, known as the kinosis (self-emptying) of Jesus. I know Doug has taught us well through the years, but for me, only upon recently listening to an amazing message by Art Katz, Growing Unto Sonship (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65d8Key9Z1E&list=WL&index=5&t=15s), did I come to the realization that Jesus laid aside EVERYTHING pertaining to deity and became fully man. His life was a demonstration of man as God intended man to be and live, in complete dependence on our Father in heaven. Therefore, everything we read of Jesus' life, everything He did, all the miracles and supernatural activity was not his divinity peeking through, but what we can expect when we live in complete dependence on the Father - doing only the things we see Him doing - speaking only that which we hear Him speaking. I know I've got a long way to go before that's a 24/7 reality in me, but that revelation floored me. And what floors me further is what Jesus said, "Greater things shall you do, because I go to the Father." (John 14:12)
Doug adds, "As I think about Christ... every day that He got up and faced His day, His first thought was, 'I'm here to please the Father. I only do those things that are pleasing Him.'" "As the last Adam, all that which God intended in the first Adam was realized in Him."
Here's something to think about: "God did not redeem Adam." Before you think Doug went off the rails here, listen to how he explains it. "He doesn't save Adam. Adam dies! We are saved judicially as we put our trust in Christ. And when we put our trust in Christ, the legal justification of God is imputed to us in terms of the righteousness of God in Christ. But in terms of being alive unto God in Christ Jesus, that's only on the ground of resurrection. There's nothing of Adam that survives. God did not save Adam. He didn't save anything good in Adam, even the best of Adam... all that is dead to God."
In Adam, we died. We in Adam weren't saved. We were born again - born from above - born as a new creation in Christ. How much of our Christian life is trying to make our old Adam better? We call that 'self-improvement' and buy many books to help us accomplish nothing. Jesus didn't die on the cross to improve who we are in Adam. He died and took us with Him. It's only in resurrection as the new humanity do we discover our lives as not improved, but replaced.
Perhaps we thought that people were born again during the age of Israel. Jesus was the first man to be born again. "He was born again, not because He needed personal salvation, but He's the first begotten from the dead."
"Eternal salvation is justification, sanctification (growth in holiness), culminating in glorification." Jesus is the source of our salvation, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
The bible tells us to "press on to maturity ('perfection')" as Christians. So, does this mean "I have to grab my bootstraps and do something", as Doug asks? No, "We let God do it. Why? Because He's already in Christ, the perfected one, as Man for man." The better rendering of this is, "Allow Him to bear us along to maturity... That perfection is already ours in Him." Doug continues, "Where we still have roots in Adam, those roots gradually shrivel up through the internal work of the cross, and we gradually through death transition practically and experientially out of Adam into Christ."
Resource mentioned: The Historical Account of the Revelation of the Mystery: The gradual unveiling of the church in the book of Acts
(https://www.salembible.org/the-historical-account-of-the-revelation-of-the-mystery/)
Link to today's audio: https://dougriggs.s3.
Maranatha!
John Mark
...hereby committing this unto the providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!