Christ in the OT - Death in..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Welcome to our Wednesday's Bible study. Once again, if you have your Bibles with you, please open them up to the book of Luke.

Luke chapter 24. And we are taking back our Bible studies. And we are going to start a different study this time. And the topic, or the intention of the study better, or the topic of the study, is Christ and His Church in the Old Testament. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and His Church in the Old Testament, and the intention with these studies, brothers and sisters, is to study the progress of the development of the history of the story of redemption in the Old Testament and to pick and to choose particular people and events that portray, that communicate, that shadow Jesus Christ.

So we are going to be looking at people or places or events better in the story or the history of the Old Testament that are pointing, that are prophesying, that are speaking of the Messiah that was to come, Jesus Christ. So it is Jesus Christ and his church or his people in the Old Testament. And the passage that we're going to be reading this evening is found in Chapter 24 of the Gospel of Luke, according to Luke. And this is going to help us to give initially an introduction to what the Bible studies are going to be about before we get into the first topic or the first of one of those people or events that are actually shadowing or prophesying about Jesus Christ. And the story that we are going to be reading this evening as the starting point, as I said, is found in Luke chapter 24.

And we're going to do a long reading from verse 13. to verse 49, from verse 13 to verse 49. And this is the story of the disciples that were on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the things that the Lord had spoken about himself that were going to take place including of course his resurrection and the third day had already taken place and now we have these two disciples that are walking towards Emmaus and now we're going to be narrating or reading better this story and let's see important things here that are going to set the framework of the study of Christ in the Old Testament. So let's read carefully the word of God starting from verse 13 in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24.

This is the word of God. That very day Two of them, that's disciples, were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened, namely the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and so on. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, the resurrected Jesus. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of her company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us, disciples, went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

And he said to them, of foolish ones and a slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he, Jesus, interpreted to them in all the scripture the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were open and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose the same hour and returned to Jerusalem.

And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you. They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you trouble?

And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet. That is, I myself touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they are still disbelief for joy, And while they still disbelieved, for Joanne were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat?

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He, Christ, opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer on the third day, on the third day, rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Amen. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of God here. We have these two disciples are walking to towards the road of Emmaus, and then suddenly the resurrected Jesus Christ appears to them. But they are, as the Bible says here, their eyes were kept from seeing this Jesus Christ, their physical eyes. were observing the person that was speaking to them, but spiritually speaking, their eyes were kept from beholding the person that was speaking to them, namely the resurrected Jesus Christ.

They continued this trip and as they continued this trip, the Bible says here that the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of the things that were taking place. Even they asked the Lord Jesus Christ, are you a visitor and you do not know the things that are taking place? And then the Lord asked them, what things? They speak of Jesus, the one who died, mighty in wonders and in deeds. And the Lord Jesus Christ opens the Scriptures or speaks from the Scriptures, from the Old Testament, speaking about the things that were to take place.

The Lord Jesus Christ says to these disciples that the things that they had witnessed that took place just during that time, those things had been already prophesied, were written about in the Old Testament. But something shocking and very interesting happens in verse 32, when the Lord Jesus Christ decides to stay with them and to eat with them when he's blessing the food. In verse 32, he says, they said to each other, oh, sorry, in verse 29, their eyes were open to the Scriptures and then they recognized him. And in verse 32, they said to each other, did not our heart burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? Now, brothers and sisters, do not miss a very important thing that the Bible speaks here to us about the ability of a person to understand scripture and to behold the person of Jesus Christ.

In this chapter, in this portion of scripture, we can see clearly that it is not by human efforts that it is not in the flesh, that it is not with the senses that abide in our flesh, that only a person can see and behold and even understand the things of Jesus Christ. It is required that Christ, through His Spirit, will open the eyes of those who are receiving these words and that these words make sense in the mind of these people. This is the nature of biblical understanding. Many people in that time in Israel, they had had the Scripture in their hands, and even many people of the Pharisees and of the scribes of the Sadducees were very intelligent, intellectually speaking, on the Scriptures, yet their eyes were utterly closed. to the Jesus that had been among them, the Jesus that had been making miracles among them, the Jesus Christ who had been crucified before them, the Jesus Christ who said that was the Son of God.

It is because it is not through the effort of man that the scriptures make sense to the soul. It is required the intervention of the Spirit. Then they will go to meet the other disciples, as we read. And then something very interesting, a parallel verse in verse 45. Then it says that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

He explained to them from the Law of Moses, from the Prophets, and from the Psalms. And He said to them, the Lord Jesus Christ, to their disciples, that all the things that were written in the Old Testament were written about Him. And this is what we are going to try to do, brothers and sisters. We're going to try to find those people or events that took place in the Old Testament that clearly speak of the Messiah, that it is to come, that clearly portrayed Jesus Christ as the Messiah, not only of Israel, but also the Messiah of the Gentiles. Just as Peter says that concerning this glorious salvation that we have now, the Gentiles, the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

The scriptures of the Old Testament were speaking of Jesus Christ. And think about it. that many of the events that took place in history had a divine purpose that went beyond the immediateness of those people who experienced those things. That is that those things that took place in history in the Old Testament had a divine purpose that were pointing to something that was going to happen in the future. So then when when people or the characters of the Old Testament were living their lives, their genuine lives, they were doing things, they were going through struggles, they were going through difficulties.

It was not only that they were living their lives, But God, in His sovereignty, in His providence, in His wisdom, in His control over all things, was also using their lives so that after, someone will put that down, write those things down, and the experiences that they experienced will serve as pointers towards the person that was coming, and that person is Jesus Christ. So we are going to be seen, I hope, by the help of the Spirit and by the help of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Old Testament. So our goal is not only to point to specific events that are pointing to Christ, but actually show the connection between those events and the coming Messiah and how those events were the shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if there was a deeper purpose of this Bible status, I will say that is that which is contained in verse 32. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?

the brothers and sisters, that the opening up of Scriptures might not go into an indifferent, into a cold heart. But just as these disciples say, as the Lord was speaking to us in the Spirit, as He was communicating to us the things about Himself in Scripture, that the heart of the same burns within ourselves, because now we're seeing how the Lord Jesus Christ It is not only a historical character that lived 200-2,000 years ago, but it's a historical divine character that was prophesied from the very beginning of humanity and history. This is the purpose of this status, to see Christ and His people in the Old Testament, and that by the help of the Spirit, the eyes of the Gentile church, us, the eyes of the church under the new covenant will be opened so that our hearts may burn within us. When we see Christ, not only in the Old Testament, but in the Scripture, the purpose of that is that we will be transformed from inside, and beholding Christ, we will desire to be like Him, because His Scriptures testify of Christ. brothers and sisters from the very beginning.

And here Luke says that the Lord mentioned the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. This is speaking of the completeness of the Old Testament that not even nothing or better everything in the Old Testament was speaking somehow of the Messiah that was going to come of the story of redemption that God was providing means of salvation for fallen humanity. And because this is this is related to the story or to the history of salvation, there's no better place to start and to start from the very beginning. So the first character of the first person that we are going to study in this study of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is the person of Adam. Adam as a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ and I want to take you to Romans chapter 5 because in Romans chapter 5 I will be able to explain to you a very important concept that is foundational for this type for this type of studies that we will have brothers and sisters.

If you go to Romans chapter 5 and in verse 14 the Apostle Paul is going to give us the word the single word that defines the nature of the status that by the grace of God we will have in the weeks that are ahead. In chapter 5 in the book of Romans, in verse 14, when the apostle has spoken about sin and the consequences of sin, we will focus on that, but not now. In verse 14, he says in the end of verse, he says, Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam. But in the end of the verse, he is going to give us a qualifier of Adam with a particular word. He says that Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come, who was a type, he uses the word a type, of the one who was to come.

And the one who was to come, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. This word, brothers and sisters, is very important. This word, type. This is the word that is going to basically define all the Bible studies that we are going to have in the weeks that are coming ahead. Because a type is not so much speaking of a category or a kind, but it's speaking of a shadow.

When Adam is a type of Christ, it means that Adam was a figure or was a shadow that was reflecting something of the One who was to come. That if we see and if we put our eyes in Adam, that means that we can see something of the One who was to come. And then we will be going through these Bible studies, picking or selecting different people, as I said, or events or times in history. And those people or events or times in history are types, in a sense, of Jesus Christ. That means that when we put our eyes, as I said, to those people or events or times in history, we can see something of the Messiah that was going to come.

And this is a means of prophecy, if you want. So in the Old Testament, Christ, the Messiah, was portrayed, was prophesied, was communicated by the means of types. The fulfillment of a type is called the anti-type. So Adam is the type, is the shadow, and Christ is the anti-type, is the fulfillment of it, is the substance of it. Just when I'm walking on the street and there's the sun shining and then I can see my shadow on the ground, the shadow speaks something about me, my figure, my shape, my body, but it is not my body.

I am the substance of what that shadow communicates of me. That is a type. So we're going to be selecting types in the Old Testament, as I said, people or events or times in history. And the first one, as I said, that we're selecting is precisely Adam, because when it comes to people, Adam is the first type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is that if we put our eyes again in Adam, there's certain things.

Actually, there's plenty of things. that we can see of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are so many things that it would be impossible for me to go through the many, many, many tens of things that we can see in Adam that speak or are typological of the person of Jesus Christ, that foreshadow the person of Jesus Christ. So I have decided that I'm going to focus on four things that I want us to have in our mind every time that we think about Adam. Every time that we tell the story of Adam and Eve to our kids, or when we think about creation and when God created men and women after their image and after his likeness.

Every time that we think about Adam and Eve, and particularly of Adam as a type of Christ, I want us to have these four elements of these four categories as elements that are foreshadowing or speaking something about the coming Messiah. The first thing is that Adam was a son of God or the sonship of Adam. Adam was the son of God. But not only that Adam was the son of God or a son of God, but that Adam by being the son of God, the Bible says that he was made together with Eve after the image of God. So he was the son of God and he was made after the image of God.

And because Adam, the son of God who was made after the image of God, was preeminent in creation. He had a role of headship over the things that had been created. So he was the head of creation, in a sense. And then the offspring of Adam was made in conformity to the head. So Adam was the son of God.

Being the Son of God, He was made in the image of God, and because He was made in the image of God, He had this role that was preeminent over all other creatures. He had headship over creation, and then the offspring of Adam will be conformed, if you want, or will be made after the image of Adam. Those who are under the headship of Adam inherit, receive, reflect the person of Adam. And in those four items, I want to see the person or I want us to see the person of Jesus Christ. So let's start with the first one.

Every time that you think about Adam, now it's important that you think about this, at least these four categories. Adam as the son of God. The Bible calls Adam the son of God in a very particular and important place that is here also in the book of Luke, the first one that we read. So let's go to Luke chapter three, because I want to show you just a simple word that will speak of this condition of the sonship of Adam, the sonship of Adam to God. So Luke in chapter 3, starting in verse 23, we are not going to read it, but he gives the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is speaking from whom or from where does this Jesus Christ who is among us come from. So he's giving the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when he's coming to the end, he's doing it regressively, if you want. going all the way back in verse 38 in Luke chapter 3 In verse 38, he's going to give us the last names of the genealogy of the people that belong to the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, the son, verse 38, the son, after he has spoken of all these people and whose father they were, the son of Innos, the son of Seth, and Seth is the son of Adam, and Adam is the son of God.

So in the genealogy, Luke decides to go all the way back and then he takes here and he speaks of Adam being the son of God. Now this is just a very simple word, sometimes we just bypass the fact that Adam was the son of God. Brothers and sisters, there's something very important here. because Adam is the only one who can call God the Father in the sense of being not begotten of another man. Every other man was begotten of a man, of a woman, of flesh.

But Adam was formed by the divine decree and by the divine intervention of God himself. And in that sense, the sonship of Adam is unique. So the sonship of Adam, as he was created, is completely different to the sonship of any other son of God. And this speaks of a particular and very interesting origin, that is, that Adam comes from God. But the glorious thing is that Adam is not the only one that, in a sense, comes from God, because there was a time in which Adam was not and then he died.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. But Christ, the Sonship of Christ's birth, it goes beyond time. Christ was always the son of God. The begottenness or the eternality of the relationship between the son of the father was always there.

Christ or Jesus, he was always the son of the father. He was always the son of God. So if you think about it, then the sonship of Adam, it does not happen before the sonship of Jesus Christ. But rather, the Sonship of Adam happens after the Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that sense, the relationship of Adam to God, it is a reflection of an already existing relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know the Incarnate Person, the Son of God, who was eternal.

Now, brothers, this is glorious because in a sense, everything that God created, it happens after the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this fact that Adam was also the son of God does not come by itself. If you go back to Genesis chapter one, when Adam was created and was made the son of God, The creation of Adam, brothers and sisters, comes with something very important. It is not only a relationship of origin that Adam comes from God, but the fact that Adam was made the son of God comes with something else. If you go to Genesis 1, in verse 26, When Delores is speaking of making men, of course, Adam and Eve, he says, Then God said, Let us make men in our own image after likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Think about it. God had already created all things, right? And now when he creates man on the sixth day, after his image and his likeness, now he becomes the son of God. The sonship of Adam does not come only with a relational thing, that is, that he is the father and he is the son, but it comes with authority. The Son of God, Adam, receives authority over everything that has been created.

Everything that God has created prior to Adam, now is under submission to the Son of God. Adam has the authority of God to rule and to have dominion. But brothers and sisters, The role of Adam, it's only happening after Christ had already been the Son of God. Because if you go to Hebrews chapter 1, if you go to Hebrews chapter 1, You can see in Hebrews chapter one, a verse that we've quoted many times and that we've referred many times in other Bible studies. In Hebrews chapter one, you can see the combination of those two things, brothers and sisters, the sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ and the authority that he has to everything that it is created.

It says, Hebrews 1, verse 1, Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, And He, listen to this, He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. Everything was created through Him and for Him and by Him.

But not only that, everything that has been created, it is upheld by the power of the Word of the Son. So the authority that Adam, as the Son of God, received was only a shadow. It was only a minute shadow of the authority of the Son of God, who is eternally begotten of the Father, who does not have time, who does not have the beginning of existence. He has been eternally begotten of the Father. They are in this eternal relationship from eternity past.

And He is the one that holds everything in His hands. So just think about the majesty of creation. When you go outside and when you see the majesty of the oceans and the trees and the sky and the animals and all the majesty of all of those things. Those things were put under the authority of men. Man was set as the pinnacle of creation, and he, because of his sonship, was given authority over all the majesty that you see.

But that is just a minute shadow, a small shadow of the might and the power that the Son of God, the true Son of God, through whom all of those things were created, has in and of himself and the one who upholds everything in his hands, even the life of Adam himself and all his posterity. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, Do not think only in these abstract thoughts. Think about this man going or inserting himself by the will of God into creation and living lives like yours and mine, being under temptation and having no sin. And beyond that, submitting himself to the hands of sinful men.

That is mind-blowing. He was the one that because he was the eternal son of God and had all of this power, he decided because of the love that he had to the church to give himself and died upon the cross. This is the son of God. But here in Hebrews is something very interesting. He says that Jesus Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and says, and the exact imprint of his nature, that is the exact character that the son, the incarnate son or the son of God, it is the perfect reflection, if you want, of God.

And this is any other. This is not other than another correlation between Adam and Jesus. Because when we read Genesis 126, brothers and sisters, Adam and Eve were made after the image and the likeness of God. It says in Genesis 1.26 that God made Adam and Eve, his son who will have authority over everything that is created, they were made in the image and in the likeness of God.

That is, that man was going to reflect who God is. Then we know from the New Testament that these aspects of the image of God that Adam will reflect is the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and the knowledge of God. But Adam will reflect, will be a mirror, if you want, of who God is. But what the Bible speaks of Christ is greater of being made in the image of God. If you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Brothers, if you go in Corinthians chapter 4, in the beginning of the chapter, the apostle is speaking about the ministry of Paul and the progress of God's Word being preached through them.

And then in verse 4, Chapter four, verse four, it says, In their case, the God of this world, the ones that reject the gospel, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, the ones that reject the gospel, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now, brothers, Adam and Eve, they were made after the image and after the likeness of God. That is that they were made to portray or to reflect, to shadow who God is in His holiness and His righteousness and in His knowledge. So that when people would go and see men, they will see a special creation that was made after the likeness and after the image of God himself. But when Jesus Christ himself came to this world, in him being made, all the divinity dwelled perfectly because Christ Jesus was the image of God.

He was not made after the image of God, but in Christ, you could see God Himself, as the author of Hebrews says, that He's the exact imprint of the nature of God. That's why when Philip is asking, how can we see God? Then the Lord Jesus Christ answer in John 14, I think it is. He answers and says to Philip that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, because in Christ, The Father is one with Him and the exact imprint of the nature of God, the glory and the radiance of God Himself is in the person of Jesus Christ. So if someone asks, are we going to see God the Father in heaven?

The answer is yes. But we're going to see Him in Christ, because in Christ, the radiance of the glory of the divinity dwells perfectly. We see God in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, brothers, when you are producing copies of something, you can see the copy and you can see characteristics of the original one when you're producing money and then you create a copy of a bill or a copy of a coin you can see certain properties but you cannot make the conclusion that the copy of whatever you're making represents exactly the original and that you are holding the original in your hands But by beholding Christ as the image of God, we are beholding the one that is unapproachable. The Bible speaks of God as someone who is impossible to approach, that if we are in the presence of God, that we are destroyed because of the holiness of God.

But yet through Christ and in Christ, we can behold the glory and the complete radiance of who God really is. And this is just a reflection, or this is the substance of a small reflection, which is the image of God in the person of Adam. So Adam, brothers and sisters, was not only made the Son of God and given authority over all the things that were created because he was the Son of God, but also he was made after the image and after the likeness of God himself, and there's a very important component of this image of God that reflects or that speaks of the uniqueness of Adam. And that is that because Adam and Eve were made after the image of God, They received the great commission from God to be fruitful and to multiply, but also they received a commandment. They received a special instruction from the mouth of God Himself.

The authority of God was revealed to them. Not to the animals, not to any other creature that was created, but the authority of God from the mouth of God was revealed to Adam and Eve by virtue of who they were. The Son, in this case, Adam, the Son of God, the law of God was made manifest to Adam. The same thing happened with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not only the exact imprint and the radiance of the glory of God himself, but he is the standard of righteousness of the law.

And Adam was submitted to the standard of righteousness that God had given him, and he was supposed to obey. And Christ was not only submitted to the law of men, but he was himself the law of God and the standard of righteousness. And this, brothers, takes us to the other step, because it's not only the sonship of Adam, and it's not only the image of God in Adam, but it's that Adam becomes, because of this uniqueness of who he is, a headship and this we can see it in Romans 5 if we go back to Romans 5 if you go back to Romans 5 here you can see the comparison of the headship of Adam brothers and sisters compared with the Lord Jesus Christ when I say the headship I'm talking about a covenantal relationship And that is that when man was made after the image of God, then all men would have been made after that same image had they remained in the state in which they were made. Everyone would have held and kept and been made in the same way that Adam was made. because there is a covenantal headship of Adam and Christ.

Now, see in verse 12. This is in verse 12, we see this concept of the headship of Adam. It says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, that man is Adam and death through sin. And so death is spread to all men because all sin Read it again, it says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death is spread to all men, brothers and sisters, the disobedience of Adam was imputed or the guilt and the penalty of the disobedience of Adam was imputed and was spread to all people. So then that everyone who was in the offspring of Adam now would be made after the image of Adam, but after Adam who has fallen.

Because what we read in Genesis 1 is the moment in which Adam and Eve were created. But we know that in Genesis chapter 3 comes the fall. And when they fall, when they sin, the apostle Paul says here that death entered into the world. So Adam and Eve were now spiritually dead. Now the likeness and the image of God that they had is no more, is corrupted.

They were made holy. They are not holy anymore. They were made righteous. They are unrighteous. And they had a pure and perfect knowledge of God.

They were with Him in the garden. Now the knowledge that they have is suppressed, according to Romans 1. So now, brothers and sisters, All sin has entered into the world because of one man, and that man has been the door through which sin and death had entered because he has a headship relationship to the rest of the world. That's why when you go to Genesis chapter five and then you're seeing the offspring of Adam, Then when you go to Genesis chapter 5, and then you remember that Adam and Eve, after the fall, Eve conceived and she had two sons. One of them was Cain and the other one was Abel.

And then Cain will kill his brother and Cain then will be removed from the presence of God. Abel is dead because Cain has killed him. And Cain now is removed from the presence of God. He was filled with anger. His countenance fell and he killed his brother.

And as consequence, he's removed from the presence of God. So now Adam and Eve are childless and the Lord is going to bless them with another child. And then in chapter five, in verse one, it says, This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created men, he made him in the likeness of God. That is, when God created Adam, God made him in the likeness of God.

Male and female, he created them and he blessed them and made them men. when they were created. Then, verse 3, when Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son, but now he says, in his own likeness, after his image, unnamed being Seth. Seth was now begotten in the fallen image of Adam. Adam had originally been made in the image of God, but now Adam is...

Adam begets his son Seth, and Seth is made a father, as he says here, in his own likeness and after his image. Why? Because of the headship that now Adam had, not only over Seth, but over all humanity. So humanity was now under the curse of unholiness and righteousness and a depraved knowledge of God. We were alienated from God.

We were foreigners to holiness, foreigners to righteousness. Death was present now into the world. And it's Romans 5, Romans 5 says that now this death is spread to all people and all people sin. But if you go back to Romans 5, then you can see the glory of the headship of the covenantal relationship back to Romans 5 in chapter in verse 12 It says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted when there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses. Speaking of the Mosaic law, the Mosaic law was given in chapter 20 of Exodus, as we're going to study this coming Sunday. This is when the law is given in Exodus chapter 20. Before Exodus 20, at that time, there was no Mosaic law, but people were still sinning and people were still dying because they were sinning not against the Mosaic law, but they were sinning against the work of the law that was written in their hearts. And this is given in Romans chapter two.

Verse 14, 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. Now, verse 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many die and now pay attention to the comparison of one man and the other man, for if many die through one's men's trespass, Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. Verse 17, For if, because of one man's trespass, that is Adam's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life, through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation, Adam's, for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men, for as by the one man's disobedience, Adams, the many were made sinners. So by the ones men's obedience, Christ's, the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but we're seeing increased grace abundant all the more so that as seen reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, brothers and sisters. Legally speaking, it is impossible to attribute the benefit of a person unto the other. That is, that the good that I do, legally speaking, is impossible to be transferred to you as if you had done it.

So in a sense, why are we saved for something that took place 2,000 years ago when we did not even exist? Why were we saved for something that some other person accomplished 2,000 years ago? We should be held accountable for our sins. We should be held accountable for our inequities. We should be punished for the sins that we have committed against God.

But how come we receive the benefits of someone who accomplished those benefits 2,000 years ago? That is by the glory, brothers and sisters, of headship, of a covenant that is eternally in the person of Jesus Christ. So you see, just as death was given to us upon conception, just as we were conceived in sin, we had not even positively seen with our mouths, we were not even in the world, but we had receive the imputed death of Adam, when the baby is conceived, when the soul is conceived, then the imputation of the death or unrighteousness of Adam is given immediately to that person. And then that soul is disconnected from God. So one would say, wow, it is not fair because that person has not committed any sin, has not made any unrighteousness yet.

Yet that person is already subject to the powers of death. The same thing can be said of the saint, because we have not done anything in order to balance the scale of justice. The person who lived lived 2000 years ago. It is by the glorious power of transferring or imputing from the head of the covenant to those who are under the covenant, the benefits that are accomplished by that person that we are saved. And praise God, brothers and sisters, that the Bible says that the requirement for us to be saved is faith in the one who accomplished everything.

That is, by grace, through faith, that which Christ accomplished 2,000 years ago, it is imputed in a similar way that the unrighteousness of Adam is imputed to all mankind. Everyone is under death penalty because they are born under the headship of Adam. Adam was the son of God. He was made after the image and after the likeness of God. But he fell.

He was corrupted. Now he's unholy. He's unrighteous. He does not know God. His image is now being corrupted.

He's still in submission of obedience to God. but he is not in the upright state that he was created and therefore his offspring is conceived and is begotten in the same unrighteousness and in the same death because he is the federal head. And this is the fourth point, brothers and sisters, that those who are under the headship of the covenant head become like the head. This is the principle of conformity of those who are under Adam and those who are under Christ. Brothers and sisters, there are only two types of people in this world.

It does not matter the background that we have, or the vocabulary that we have, or the language that we have, or the things that we hold, or the possessions that we have, or the country that we come from, the language that we speak, or the things that we may have or may not have. There are only two types of people in this world, and those are those who are in Adam. and the ones that are in the person of Jesus Christ. Adam is the first man, but Christ is the second man. Christ or Adam was made alive by the divine breath of God.

But Jesus Christ, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, he is not only the image of God and the radiance of the glory of God, but he is a life given spirit. Adam was made alive, but Christ makes people alive. Adam received life from the divine. Christ is the divine that gives life to those who have faith in him. Adam died and had to be resurrected or will be resurrected.

Christ is the resurrection for those who are in the person of Jesus Christ. Adam took Eve as his wife. Jesus Christ takes the church as his bride. The side of Adam was open to make Eve. the side of Christ was pierced, so that he will say, it is finished, and by finishing the atonement, his bride will be made clean for him.

This is the glory of Jesus Christ, brothers. That is not only a historical event that took place 2000 years ago, but this Jesus Christ, it is alive. And because He is alive, because He is risen, He makes those who are in Him alive. He resurrects them from the dead. He gives them power to live in the same way that He lives.

You see, brothers, every time that we're walking through the street, every time that we're working, every time that we're speaking to another person, we're speaking to a person who is either in Adam or to a person who is in Christ. And if that person is in Adam, it does not matter how good reputation they have or how good manners they have and how much money they have, they are dead. They are dead in their trespasses. They are dead. They have been made after the image and after the likeness of Adam.

But when we speak to a brother and a sister, we're not only speaking to a person, we're speaking to a person who has been bought by the price that the Lord Jesus Christ paid upon the cross, And it's just as Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 say, that person is being created or recreated after the image of the creator, or how Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 15, that we have bore the image of Adam, but we shall bear the image of Jesus Christ. Speaking of Christians, we once made in the image or we were in the image of Adam, but we shall bear with the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul will say in Romans chapter 8 that we are being conformed to the image of the Son who is the first fruits among many brothers. That we are being conformed to the image who is the image of God. Now, the sons of Adam would have inherited certain particular aspects of his father.

But those who are in Christ, brothers and sisters, become like Christ. Peter says in 2 Peter 1 that we are partakers of the divine nature. Not that we become gods, but that we are being conformed to the image of the One who is the fullness of the divinity. The One who has given His life to save the one who was unsavable. Because remember, that those who are in Christ, made alive in Him, were completely dead in Adam.

The only thing that it is required for this glorious transformation to take place is the grace of God. So that just as Christ is the Son of God, and is the image of God, and is the head of the covenant, who is the authority of everything, we also may become the children of God and heirs with Christ of all the heavenly blessings who have been attained already achieved by Christ himself and reserved and kept for those who are indeed the heirs. and the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1 that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, that that inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus, namely His image and indwelling of being with Him, is reserved and is sealed, is already preserved and kept for us. So brothers, we do not need to go through a road to Emmaus with the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us to see Him. We do not need to have any type of vision or any type of particular encounter, a supranational encounter, to say that the Christian has behold the beauty of Christ.

Just as Peter says to the Gentile churches, the one that we have not seen, we love. The one that we have not seen, we believe in. Because the same Spirit that gave us life is the Spirit that makes the written Word that we have here, alive within our hearts, so that we will become more like the Son of God, who is the image of God, and that we will become more and more like the Savior. Amen?