"Was Adam the First Man?"

Steven J. Wallace

"And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:45-47).

Was Adam the first man or did a race of other human-like beings exist before Adam for two million years? If so, were these soulless humans? Apart from the revelation of God, man's speculation runs wild about the origins. Yet the Bible is the proven record of not only creation but also redemption! The Bible calls Adam the first man. It also spells out that the gospel is given to save Adam's race. Note that last statement carefully. The gospel is given to save Adam's race.

Paul affirmed, "For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:21, 22). Christ and the gospel are given to "right" the "wrong" in Adam. Death began its reign from Adam's offense (Rom. 5:15, 16). Serious theological problems exist when evolutionary thought is sowed into human history. The idea of less evolved, soulless human-like beings who are capable of reproducing with Adam's descendants is pure fiction. This dim view would assert some as being unfit for the gospel! Yet the gospel is given for all (Mk. 16:15). From 1 Corinthians 15, we can readily understand these truths:

1. The first man is Adam.

2. The first man became a living being.

3. There is the "last Adam" who is a life-giving spirit.

4. The first man (Adam) was made of dust. He did not evolve but was created from the dust of the earth and formed into a man (Gen. 2:7).

5. The second Man is the Lord from heaven. He was not made but simply is the Lord and Christ from heaven.

6. All die in Adam, viz., all die physically in Adam. Physical death is something that came through Adam's sin.

7. All shall be made alive in Christ. Jesus will resurrect every man and woman who has ever died (Jn. 5:28, 29).

It should stand readily apparent from these passages that Adam is tied to Jesus, and Jesus to Adam. If one is real, the other is also. If one is fiction, then the other one is. If the death in Adam is real, then the life in Christ is real also! Divorcing these two beings from each other only creates problems and sows inconsistencies in the gospel record.

Some insist that believing or not believing in the Genesis record is not a salvation issue. They insist that we should not throw stones at those who embrace millions of years and that the major point that we should all arrive at is that salvation is all about Jesus.
Yet the New Testament Scripture pairs Adam with Jesus. The two stand and fall together. Just as sure as all die in Adam is the truth that all will be raised through Christ. These two significant realities cannot be dismissed without utterly destroying the gospel message!

Why do all die in Adam? It is not because Adam's sin is passed all of us. Rather, we die because through Adam man was separated from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24). Without divine intervention, Adam's transgression brought cemeteries for all his descendants (Gen. 5). When Eden was lost, death became a common appointment for all. Jesus came as a man to suffer the same and to present Himself as an offering for us (Heb. 9:25-27).

Why did my savior come to earth? He came to die for our sins, to bear them or carry them away (Heb. 9:28; cf. 1 Jn. 3:5). His death is so powerful as an atoning agent for sin, that He did not have to die often for each generation (Heb. 9:25). If He did, He would have had to die "since the foundation of the world" (Heb. 9:26). Jesus died for man's sin. Man sinned from the foundation of the world. Therefore man must have existed since the foundation of the world. If not, why not? Since the Lord's sacrifice for man was needed since the foundation of the world, how can there be billions of years of world history without the existence of man? Jesus' blood was needed at the foundation of the world! Who did Christ die for? He died for Adam and Eve and all their descendants.

Adam brought condemnation. Jesus brought justification (Rom. 5:12-18). It is all about Christ! But we must also know that Christ came to fix all that was broken in Adam. Question? What Adam can I ignore? The one who ate from the tree or the One who died on the tree?

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