So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. — 1 Cor 15:45
Are you, my friend, in the first Adam or the second? It is a vital question, and it would be a good reward if you put aside all else to give a considered answer to this question. You ask for the fundamental difference between the first Adam and the second. The Apostle states it clearly in this chapter from which our text is taken. The contrast between the two is the so... moreSo also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. — 1 Cor 15:45
Are you, my friend, in the first Adam or the second? It is a vital question, and it would be a good reward if you put aside all else to give a considered answer to this question. You ask for the fundamental difference between the first Adam and the second. The Apostle states it clearly in this chapter from which our text is taken. The contrast between the two is the soul-life of the first and the Spirit-life of the second. This is the distinction Jesus made at the beginning of His ministry, pervading the New Testament. The sphere of Christianity is the realm of the spirit. Its object is lifting man from the soul to the spirit level.
The soul is the center of our personality. It is you, or I, or any other person! From it, we look at two worlds. In the material world, we are related by the organs of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing. To the eternal world, we are related by the organs of the spirit, which are probably identical to the lower. We can descend by the spiral staircase downward to materialism or ascend upward to fellowship with God. Alas, too often, we descend to the lure of the savory pottage instead of climbing the ladder that reaches Heaven.
We must die to the self-life, to the promptings, suggestions, and solicitations of the ego entrenched in the soul. Self is the root of our alienation from the Life of God. All the evils of fallen angels and man are born in the pride of self. On the other hand, all the blessedness of the heavenly life is within our reach when the self-life is nailed to the Cross of Jesus.
How is this self-life to be brought to death? Only by our identification with the Cross on which Jesus died. We were nailed there in the purpose of God, and we must accept that position and extract its help from a living faith. It was by the Eternal Spirit that Jesus offered Himself unto God, and it is by that same Spirit that we, too, may say: “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” There must be an exchange of lives, from the self-life to the life of the Crucified and Ascended Saviour, communicated by the Holy Spirit.
Prayer
Behold, O Lord, I am Thy servant, prepared for all things; for I desire not to live unto myself, but unto Thee; and Oh, that I could do it worthily and perfectly! Amen.
GC John Kelmy
KCP, Priory of St. Michael the Archangel
#dailywalk
