So many children today have experienced the crisis of fatherhood. They either do not know who their father is; or they do not know where he is. Most tragically, some wish they did not know who and where he is because of his abuse and destruction in their lives. And yet nearly all of these still have a special unchangeable place in their hearts for their father. It is because father is so important to all we are and do. There is no one who can take our father's place. This human metaphor can be very helpful in teaching us the truth of salvation. We all have two fathers: one who brought us into sin and one who brings us out.

Fatherhood and Salvation

    If we are to understand the truth of justification we must grasp the essential teaching of the Bible about Sin. It is because we have sinned that we need grace. Take note: I do not believe that a person can embrace the Gospel unless they have a basic acceptance of the holiness of God and the depth of the sinfulness of Humanity as is presented in Scripture. This brings us to another crucial question: "How did we become sinners before God?"⁽¹⁾ When we understand how we became sinners, we will be better equipped to know how we become righteous. Paul teaches in Romans 5:19, "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." (KJV).

    How is this possible? How can one man's - Adam's - disobedience affect us all? It may not seem fair, but this is what Paul claims for the origin of our sins and the cause of our need for salvation:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . . Rom. 5:12 ESV

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. Rom 12:14 ESV

. . . many died through one man's trespass, . . . (Rom. 5:15 ESV)

. . . the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, . . . (Rom. 5:16 ESV)

. . . because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, . . . (Rom. 5:17 ESV)

. . . one trespass led to condemnation for all men, . . . (Rom. 5:18 ESV)

. . . by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, . . . (Rom. 5:19 ESV)

    Paul teaches, what we may call, a principle of fatherhood or what some refer to as the federal headship of Christ. Paul predicates the need for salvation upon the problem of sin in our first father. He presents the problem of sin in these terms: Adam sinned through disobedience. All who descend from Adam -- Adam's children -- are under the judgment, condemnation of death. All are guilty of sin because their father Adam sinned. This may not seem "fair" to us, but it is a common principle that we can see in many ways in life.

    Medical science continues to make us more familiar with the nature of communicable diseases. One person can be responsible for the sickness of many people. At the turn of the 20^th century an Irish immigrant cook named Mary Mellon:

infected twenty-two New Yorkers with typhoid fever through her puddings and cakes; one of them died. Tracked down through epidemiological detective work, she was finally apprehended as she hid behind a barricade of trashcans. To protect the public's health, authorities isolated her on Manhattan's North Brother Island, where she died some thirty years later.⁽²⁾

    My grandmother told the story many times of how she we quarantined as a young woman with tuberculosis. Because of the communicable influence she could have on those around her, she was placed into a sanatorium to die. (She did not die, because of the communicable healing powers of God's mercy.) Adam and Eve were our "typhoid Marys." From them, sin was communicated to the whole race. Now each of us pass it down. It is sobering to realize that I have passed down to my children, not just my 'good' traits, but the falleness that I received from my "father" Adam. As I passed to them the treasure of life, I have communicated to them the seed of death as well.

    Our political system can teach us something about the significance of representation. We live in a republic, not a democracy. This shocks some when they hear it. But, it is true. A pure democracy only occurs when each person under it makes a direct contribution to every single decision of that government. Ours is a republic. We elect representatives, send them to Washington, D.C. to vote and make decisions in our place. We live with the consequences of our representative's choices every day. As our representative, Adam made enormous choices that profoundly affect us today.

    In society, a family can suffer financial ruin for many generations because of the financial ineptitude or criminality of their father. So also, the Human race can suffer from the actions or crimes of its forebear Adam, who is the father of all Humankind. Every human being that has ever lived was in Adam genetically at one time. Therefore, we are organically - genetically - as well as spiritually, the result of Adam's procreation. Even more, God considers all of us in Adam at the time of the Fall. Therefore, in one sense, the effects of the Fall placed upon him, come directly upon all those who descend from him.

We Need a New Father

    What the fallen, sinful Human family needed (and still needs) was a new "father." That is what God gave us. In Christ, God gave us a new "father."

God reversed the fall of Adam by giving the human race another Father, as it is written: For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isa. 9:6⁽³⁾

    Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be called "Everlasting Father." Paul called Jesus the "last Adam" and the "second man." (1 Cor. 15:45,47) As Adam was our first father, now Jesus, through salvation, has become our last and greatest father. He has begotten us again to a living hope through His resurrection. In Jesus God began a new race of people. They are a people who are born-again by the Word of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus is their Head and they are His body, the ecclesia (Church) of God. (Eph. 4:15) "Head" means "source" as much as it means authority. He is the head or source of our new life - our eternal life. It is another way of saying that He is our Father. As our New Adam, he did what the first Adam failed to do:

When Jesus became our new Father, He undertook the responsibility of keeping the law of God perfectly for us. As our Head and Representative, He rendered to the law an obedience that measured with its infinite claims in every way.⁽⁴⁾

Jesus Became Our Substitute

    Jesus became our Substitute in two ways. First, He took all the sins of Humanity. Every sinner was constituted in Christ on the Cross. Just like my father paid for my car accident when I was a teenager, because I could not pay myself, so too, Christ as our "Father" paid our overwhelming debt of sin. Jesus paid it all:

He sent His Son into the world, heaped all the sins of all men upon Him, and said to Him: "Be Peter the denier; Paul the persecutor, blasphemer, and the assaulter; David the adulterer; the sinner who ate the apple in Paradise; the thief on the cross. In short, be the person of all men, the one who has committed the sins of all men. And see to it that You pay and make satisfaction for them."⁽⁵⁾

    Second, Jesus obeyed where we did not. He was willingly and lovingly obedient in His life, and unto his death (Phil 2:8), keeping all the Law, was without sin (Heb. 4:15) and thus, fully pleased the Father (John 8:29; Matthew 17:5). By His obedience Jesus "obtained" the righteousness of God and thereby enables those who trust in Him to be righteous through Him. "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." (Rom. 5:19 ESV)

God wrought out our complete salvation in our great Head. He placed our sins upon Christ, punished them in Christ and put them away by Christ.⁽⁶⁾

We Identify with Christ by Faith

    As believers in Jesus we identify with Him in the most remarkable way. We are told to consider Christ's death as our own. "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;" (2 Corinthians 5:14 NAS) With this, we are to count ourselves as also raised from the dead because of Jesus' resurrection: "He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (Romans 4:25 NAS) I believe that Paul is saying Jesus' rose again, not only for his own vindication, but also for our justification. Jesus' resurrection is proof that He made a complete and perfect atonement for our sins. He could not have been raised unless every single particle of sin had been dealt with. The resurrection of Christ is God's testimony - His declaration - that we are effectively forgiven and accepted in of Christ.

    Here is a powerful truth: If we confess that we are sinners by Adam's sin and disobedience, then it makes sense that we can be righteous by confessing the last Adam - Jesus Christ's - obedience: "through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." (Rom. 5:18 NAS) How do we know that we are accepted by God? Let me ask another question: Did God receive or accept Jesus into Heaven? The angels said such: "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." ( Acts 1:11 KJV) If Jesus is in Heaven, then that means you are accepted by God by trusting in Jesus:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1 NKJ)

    Jesus as our Head or last Adam was raised and received into Heaven, placed on the throne of God, with great glory and honor. This great truth is rarely understood by many Christians. It does not come automatically to us without God's illumination. That is why Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians:

. . . the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:18-23 NKJ)

    Paul prayed that the Ephesian Christians would better understand the meaning of Christ's work for them in His resurrection and ascension. What He did as their Head was as their representative in Heaven. He was justified by His resurrection, received by God into Heaven and then given all glory because of His work on Earth. As we trust in Him for who He is and what He has done, we are His body. We are connected to Him by faith through His Spirit. As part of His body we share in His redemption. His death is our atonement. His resurrection is our justification. His righteousness is ours. We look to His coming when we will fully share in His glorification. This is ours, who trust in Him:

It was the same as if God had already done this for all of us. In Christ humanity is not only pardoned but promoted, not only justified but glorified. This is the good news of the gospel. It is good news for poor, struggling sinners. They need no longer look within their own experience for anything on which to base their hope of acceptance with God.⁽⁷⁾

    The resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof that we are justified. How? Because the resurrection says that God accepted Jesus into Heaven because He was worthy. He made it into Heaven on His own merit. No other human beings has ever or will ever do that. This also means that those who trust in Jesus can be confident of Heaven. Trusting in Jesus as our righteousness we have a perfect righteousness to bring to God. We can be assured that if we come to God through faith in Jesus He will accept us - because He has already accepted Jesus. This is the true and measureless grace of God.

^{"Two Views of Grace" Part Three}

FOOTNOTES

1. Ibid., p. 21.

2. From a review of Judith Walzer Leavitt's Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health, Beacon Press.