SOME make the mistake of supposing the Scriptures to teach that when Adam sinned and God's condemnation passed upon him and all of his race, it was necessary for Jesus to become "the second Adam" as a perfect man that as the Second Adam he might give his life a ransom-price for the first Adam, thus redeeming him and incidentally all of his posterity.
On this foundation, which we will show to be thoroughly unscriptural, they proceed to say: THE WATCH TOWER and DAWN STUDIES must therefore be in error in claiming that our Lord applied the value of his sacrifice first to the Church and that afterward he will apply it to all the people. They argue that the application of the atoning blood must first have been for Adam and that the Church and all others merely share Adam's redemption.
The trouble with their position is that the foundation of it is wholly wrong and hence all built thereon is proportionately wrong and misleading.
Adam truly was the first man, but our Lord, as "the man Christ Jesus," was not the Second Adam, and did not do the work of the Second Adam. The first Adam was the father or life-giver to his race, Eve being associated in the generating; but the result was a dying race. The plan of God proposes that the Second Adam shall in relation to Adam take his place as the father or life-giver to a race of human beings who shall possess the earth and enjoy it. Not as Redeemer, but as father or life-giver to our race does our Lord correspond to Adam—as the Second Adam.
Our Lord is Scripturally referred to as already the Second Adam, not because he has already given life to Adam's race, but because he will do so in due time;—just as he was called the Savior when a babe—prophetically foretelling his future work.
Our Lord will be the Second Adam or second father or life-giver to Adam's race during the Millennium. He waits until the Church, his Bride, as the Second Eve, shall be with him in glory and honor and power in the Kingdom. Adam the first generated no children until first Eve had been taken from his side. The Second Adam will generate no children until the Church, the Second Eve, shall have been perfected and presented to him as his joint-heir and help-mate in the Kingdom and its work of regeneration.
Note our Lord's words on this point: The Apostles asked him What shall we have as a reward for leaving all and taking up our cross and following thee? (Matt. 19:27,28.) "Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration [time] when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Who can doubt from these plain words that the times of regeneration are the same which St. Peter styles the "times of restitution," the times or years of the Millennium, the times of "resurrection by judgment."—Acts 3:19-21; John 5:29. R.V.
Why does our Redeemer wait before beginning the regeneration of Adam's race, before assuming the office of father to Adam's children—the world in general?
I. It is in the Divine order that he wait for the Bride promised by the Father, drawn by the Father, called by the Father and justified by the Father through the blood of Jesus. Not a single member of Adam's race (aside from the household of faith of this Gospel Age) will be regenerated or given perfect human life until after the "Bride of Christ" has been united to him at his second coming. Even of the Ancient Worthies it was written, "They without us shall not be made perfect."—Heb. 11:39,40.
II. The world could not be regenerated until the Redeemer first applies his merit, his ransom-price, "for all the people." And that cannot be done until the Church's deliverance; because that merit or ransom-price is now in use justifying by faith the specially "called" ones of this Gospel Age.
These words of the Apostle amply explain the case: "The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. Like the earthy one [Adam] are [will be in the resurrection] the earthy ones. Like the heavenly One [Christ] are [will be in the resurrection] the heavenly ones"—the New Creation. "As we [the Church] have borne the image of the earthy one [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly One" [Christ]. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit."—I Cor. 15:45-49.
That our Redeemer is not our father or the giver of our spiritual life is evident both from reason and Scripture. Our Lord left his pre-human spirit-nature and its glory and all when he became a man; he did not give that spirit nature to us or to others, but merely was transferred or transformed to a lower nature (human) for the suffering of death. His earthly life rights, guaranteed by his obedience to God's Law, he gave to the Father without appropriating the merit to any until he applied them "on our behalf."
It was our Lord's human life and restitution rights which he applied "for us," giving us by faith those rights, as a loan, as it were; because he gave them to us only on condition that we would not keep those earthly rights, but would follow his example and sacrifice them, that God, under the same promise, might deal with us as with him—rewarding the sacrifice with the new, the spirit nature. Only by sacrificing can any now obtain eternal life. As our Lord said: He that saveth his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it—eternally.—Luke 9:24.
We lose our lives for Christ's sake in the sense that we sacrifice present interests and life itself in order that we may be members of the Christ—the world's Prophet, Priest, King, Mediator—his member, his Bride and joint-heir as the Seed of Abraham, the Second Adam through whom the world will soon have opportunity for regeneration on the earthly plane.
Thus our Lord as the giver of restitution life to the world by virtue of his own merit, the merit of his ransom sacrifice, will become "The Everlasting Father." Of even the Patriarchs it is written, "Instead of thy fathers [they] shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes over all the earth."—Isa. 9:6; Psa. 45:16.