Several passages in the Word link together Adam and Christ, and therefore it behooves us to carefully compare and contrast them. In thinking of Christ and the Fall a threefold line of thought may be developed. First, a contrast between the first man and the second man in their characters and conduct. Second, Christ Himself bearing the Curse of the Fall. Third, Christ reversing the effects of the Fall and bringing in the "better thing." Let us take up these thoughts in this order.

It has been suggested by another, that in eating of the forbidden fruit Adam cast reproach upon God's love, God's truth and God's majesty. Created in the image of his Maker: vitalized by the very breath of Deity: placed in a perfect environment: surrounded by every blessing the heart could desire: put in complete authority over the works of God's hands: provided with a suitable companion and helpmeet: made an example to all the universe of Jehovah's goodness and love, and given one single command that he might have opportunity to show his appreciation by an easy observance of it-yet, he gives ear to the voice of the tempter and believes the Devil's lie.

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." What did Satan wish these words to imply They were as though he said: Did God tell you not to eat of this tree? How unkind! He is withholding from you the very best thing in the garden. He knows full well that if you partake of this fruit your eyes will be opened, and you yourselves will become as God. In other words, it was an appeal for them to distrust God, to doubt His grace, and to question His goodness. Thus in eating of the forbidden fruit, Adam repudiated and dishonored God's love.

Moreover, he questioned and dishonored God's veracity. God had plainly warned him. In unequivocal language He had threatened, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam knew nothing of death. He was surrounded only by living creatures. Reason might have argued that it was impossible for death to enter such a fair land as Paradise. But there rang the Word of Him who cannot lie, "Thou shalt surely die." The serpent, however, boldly denies Jehovah's Word-"Ye shall not surely

die," he declares. Which would Adam believe-God or Satan. He had more confidence in the latter: he dared to doubt the former, and the fell deed was done. Thus, in eating of the forbidden fruit, Adam repudiated and dishonored God's Truth.

Further he rejected God's authority. As the Creator, God possesses the inherent right to issue commands, and to demand from His creatures implicit obedience. It is His prerogative to act as Law-giver, Controller, Governor, and to define the limits of His subjects' freedom. And in Eden He exercised His prerogative and exprest His will. But Adam imagined he had a better friend than God. He regarded Him as austere and despotic, as One who begrudged him that which would promote his best interests. He felt that in being denied the fruit of this tree which was pleasant to the eyes and capable of making one wise God was acting arbitrarily, cruelly, so he determined to assert himself, claim his rights and throw off the restraint of the Divine government. He substitutes the Devil's word for God's law: he puts his own desire before Jehovah's command. Thus, in eating of the forbidden fruit, Adam repudiated and dishonored God's Majesty. So much then for the character and conduct of the first Adam.

In turning to the last Adam we shall find that everything is in direct antithesis. In thought, word and deed, the Christ of God completely vindicated the love, truth, and majesty of Deity which the first man had so grievously and deliberately dishonored. How He vindicated the love of God! Adam harbored the wicked thought that God begrudged him that which was beneficial, and thereby questioned His goodness. But how the Lord Jesus has reversed that decision! In coming down to this earth to seek and to save that which was lost, He fully revealed the compassion of Deity for humanity. In His sympathy for the afflicted, in His miracles of healing, in His tears over Jerusalem, in His unselfish and unwearied works of mercy, He has openly displayed the beneficence and benevolence of God. And what shall we say of His sufferings and death on the cruel tree? In laying down His life for us, in dying upon the cross He unveiled the heart of the Father as nothing else could. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, CHRIST died for us.' In the

light of Calvary we can never more doubt the goodness and grace of God.

How Christ vindicated the truth of God! When tempted by Satan to doubt God's goodness, question His truth and repudiate His majesty, He answered each time, "It is written." When He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day it was to read out of the Holy Oracles. When selecting the twelve apostles He designedly chose Judas in order that the Scriptures "might be fulfilled." When censuring His critics, He declared that by their traditions they made void "the Word of God." In His last moments upon the Cross, knowing that all things had been accomplished, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled He said, "I thirst." After He had risen from the dead and was journeying with the two disciples to Emmaus, He "expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." At every point, and in every detail of His life He honored and magnified God's truth.

Finally, Christ completely vindicated the majesty of God. The creature had aspired to be equal with the Creator. Adam chafed against the governmental restraint which Jehovah had placed upon him. He despised God's law, insulted His majesty, defied His authority. How different with our blessed Saviour! Though He was the Lord of Glory and equal with God, yet He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon the form of a servant. O matchless grace! He condescended to be "made under the law," and during the whole of His stay here upon earth He refused to assert His rights, and was ever subject to the Father. "Not My will" was His holy cry. Nay, more: "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Never was God's law so magnified, never was God's authority so honored, never were God's government claims so illustriously upheld, as during the thirty-three years when His own Son tabernacled among men. Thus in His own Person Christ vindicated the outraged majesty of God.

We turn now to contemplate Christ Himself bearing the Curse of the Fall. What was the punishment which followed the first Adam's sin? In answering this question we confine ourselves to the chapter now before us. Beginning at the seventeenth verse of Genesis 3 we may trace a sevenfold consequence upon the entrance of sin into this world. First, the ground was cursed. Second, in sorrow man was

to eat of it all the days of his life. Third, thorns and this

tles it was to bring forth. Fourth, in the sweat of his face man was to eat his bread. Fifth, unto dust man was to return. Sixth, a flaming sword barred his way to the tree of life. Seventh, there was the execution of God's threat that in the day man partook of the forbidden fruit he should surely die. Such was the curse which fell upon Adam as the result of the Fall.

Observe now how completely the Lord Jesus bore the full consequences of man's sin. First, Christ was "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). Second, so thoroughly was He acquainted with grief, He was denominated "the man of sorrows" (Isa. 53:3). Third, in order that we might know how literally the Holy One bore in His own body the consequences of Adam's sin, we read "Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns" (John 18:8). Fourth, corresponding with the sweat of his face in which the first man was to eat his bread, we learn concerning the second man, "And His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). Fifth, just as the first Adam was to return unto the dust, so the cry of the last Adam, in that wonderful prophetic Psalm, was "Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15). Sixth, the sword of justice which barred the way to the tree of life was sheathed in the side of God's Son, for of old, Jehovah had said, "Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My Fellow" (Zech. 13: 7). Seventh, the counterpart of God's original threat to Adam, namely, spiritual death (for he did not die physically that same day), which is the separation of the soul from God, is witnessed in that most solemn of all cries, "My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Mat. 27:46). How absolutely did our blessed Saviour identify Himself with those which were lost, took their place and suffered the Just for the unjust! How apparent it is, that Christ in His own body, did bear the Curse entailed by the Fall.

In conclusion we shall now consider Christ reversing the effects of the Fall. God alone is able to bring good out of evil and make even the wrath of man to praise Him. The Fall has afforded Him an opportunity to exhibit His wisdom and display the riches of His grace to an extent which, so far as we can see. He never could have done, had not sin

entered the world. In the sphere of redemption Christ has not only reversed the effects of the Fall, but because of it has brought in a better thing. If God could have found a way, consistently with His own character, to restore man to the position which he occupied before he became a transgressor, it would have been a remarkable triumph, but that through Christ man should actually be the gainer is a transcendent miracle of Divine wisdom and grace. Yet such is the case. The redeemed have gained more through the last Adam than they lost through the first Adam. They occupy a more exalted position. Before the Fall Adam dwelt in an earthly Paradise, but the redeemed have been made to sit with Christ in heavenly places. Through redemption they have been blest with a nobler nature. Before the Fall man possessed a natural life, but now, all in Christ have been made partakers of the Divine nature. They have obtained a new standing before God. Adam was merely innocent, which is a negative condition, but believers in Christ are righteous, which is a positive state. We share a better inheritance. Adam was lord of Eden, but believers are "heirs of all things," "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Through grace we have been made capable of a deeper joy than unfallen spirits have known: the bliss of pardoned sin, the heaven of deep conscious obligation to Divine mercy. In Christ believers enjoy a closer relationship to God than was possible before the Fall. Adam was merely a creature, but we are members of the body of Christ-"members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones." How marvellous! We have been taken into union with Deity itself, so that the Son of God is not ashamed to call us brethren. The Fall provided the need of Redemption, and through the redeeming work of the Cross, believers have a portion which unfallen Adam could never have attained unto. Truly, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."