Greetings!
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous”
(Romans 5:19).
Aren’t you glad that God plans ahead? Before the problem occurred, the solution was in place. God immediately set the plan in motion that would reverse the first Adam’s actions and restore the original design. The eternal Son wrapped Himself in flesh and Mary’s womb became the portal by which heaven entered earth. The Last Adam — Jesus — was born into the chaos and rubble death’s reign had produced and began the walk that would win back what Adam lost.
In Romans 5:14,
Adam is called “a pattern of the one to come.” In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Jesus is called “the last Adam.” For the first time since the first Adam, there stood a man as God intended humans to be: in a body suited for earth, but filled and animated by the life of heaven. Like the first Adam, He would reproduce after His kind, opening the way to Spirit birth. People born in the line of the first Adam could be born again in the line of Jesus.
The last Adam would retrace the steps of the original Adam and, at each step, win the battle Adam lost. He would regain the ground Adam forfeited.
Let’s look at the temptation
accounts of the original Adam and the last Adam. The first Adam was tempted at each level of his humanity — body, soul, and spirit.
From Genesis 3:1–6. What three things did Eve, the female human, see about the fruit of the forbidden tree? “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took and ate it” (Genesis 3:6).
I believe she saw
that it was good for food: an appeal to her body. She saw that it was pleasing to the eye: an appeal to her soul or personality. She saw that it was desirable for gaining wisdom: an appeal to her spirit. The tempter had said that if she were wise she would be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). This was the same desire that had been Lucifer’s downfall: “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). This third attraction, then, was an appeal to her spiritual nature, by which she knew to worship and obey only God. She could be her own source — her own life force.
The forbidden tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. You might think, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to say that the fruit of the tree would cause them to know evil? After all, they already knew good.” Did they know good? Some things you can only know by their opposites. You can only know light if you know dark. You can only know up if you know down. Unless they knew evil, they would not know good. They just knew what was. They did not recognize it as “good” until they came to know evil. So even though the fruit of the only tree forbidden her appealed to perfectly legitimate desires — the desire for food and the delight in beauty — it ultimately led to spiritual downfall. Her good desires were the openings through which temptation entered and brought sin. Ultimately the temptation to which the first Adam fell was this: You can be your own source. You can be like God.
The last Adam was tempted at each level of his humanity — body, soul, and spirit.
Matthew 4:3–11 records
three temptations. The last Adam, Jesus, in His earth body, had the same openings the first Adam had. He had a human soul or personality (mind, will, and emotions). He had a human body. Satan’s most direct assault on Him, in the desert following His baptism, took the same path as the tempter’s assault on the first Adam. I would argue each level of His humanity was tested — body, soul, and spirit. Satan was looking for an opening.
- Tell these stones to become bread — an appeal to His body.
- Throw Yourself off the highest point of the temple and let the angels rescue you in the sight of everyone. Prove Yourself to them the easy way — an appeal to His soul. It made a certain kind of sense and was an appeal to His mind. “What a good way to gather the people to Myself!” It was an appeal to His emotions. He could save both Himself and the people He loved great pain by short-circuiting the process. It appealed to His will. He desired for the people He came to save to see the truth and turn to Him.
- I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will just bow down and worship me — an appeal to His spirit. It is His destiny that He will possess all the kingdoms of the world. All He had to do was worship one other than the Father and that which was rightfully His would be in His possession now.
In each case, the tempter appealed to Jesus’ legitimate and right desires and needs. Each thing that the enemy dangled before Jesus was in line with God’s desires for Him. God desired to meet Jesus’ physical needs. He lived in a body that required food and it was God’s desire that Jesus’ body would be nourished. God desired that people would recognize Jesus as the Messiah and would come to Him. It was God’s desire — had always been the plan — that Jesus would rule over the kingdoms of the world. The tempter wanted to convince Jesus to use His own independent resources to get His needs met . He wanted Jesus to take over and “do God’s will” in His own power. He wanted Jesus to be His own source.
Jesus kept His flesh
uncorrupted and won the victory. He overcame the enemy. When He comes to take up residence in us, He brings the victory with Him. His overcoming life flows through us like the vine’s life flows through the branch. Everything about the DNA of the vine is communicated into, then through, the branch.
Question.
Can you identify the arena of your person where the tempter is enticing you to step out into flesh and be your own self-dependent source?
Be present to the Presence and let His overcoming life flow there. Lean into the Overcomer - for He has power over your flesh.
Jennifer Kennedy Dean
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Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2019
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