St. Paul refers to Jesus as “the last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45). Now the first Adam and, of course, Eve were created to be the children of God. (While I don’t have space to flesh this out here, I take this to be the point of their being created “in the image and likeness” of God [Gen 1:26; cf. 5:3].) Disbelieving and disobeying God, however, they alienated themselves from Him, thus placing themselves outside the LORD’s family. (Here it may be helpful to recognize a biblical principle: True sons of a father do what their father does [John 5:19; 5:30; 8:39-44].) The story of redemption is thus the story of God making a way for those created to be His children but alienated from Him by their disobedience to come back into His family. Christ, the only begotten of the Father, became human in order to “undo” (so to speak) what Adam had done. So while the first Adam alienates himself and his descendants from God by disbelief and disobedience, the second Adam believes and obeys His Father to the uttermost, humbling Himself even to the point of an ignominious death on a cross (Phil 2:5-11). In so doing, He makes it possible for the first Adam’s descendants to be adopted back into the LORD’s family.
Here a comparison of Adam in the Garden and Christ in the Wilderness may be helpful (Gen 3; Luke 4:1-13). In the Garden, Adam was in an environment extremely conducive to belief and obedience; yet he disbelieved and disobeyed. In the Wilderness, Jesus was in an environment which made belief and obedience extremely difficult; yet in response to the same Tempter who seduced Adam and Eve into sin, Christ remained faithful and obedient to His Father. Of course, His obedience is anchored in His confidence in God’s word; in response to the devil’s temptations, Jesus repeatedly quotes Deuteronomy! Ultimately, moreover, Jesus’ obedience—His submission to His Father’s will—leads Him to the cross. There He offers Himself as a sacrifice on the Tree of Death in order to redeem those corrupted by Adam’s partaking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, in order to benefit from Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we must identify with Him by believing God (Eph 2:8-9); and being justified through faith, we are sanctified as we live, with the Spirit’s help, in obedience to Him (Eph 2:10; 4:11-24).
Blountly Stated 