Adam: God's Elect Man
By John Gavazzoni

It is easy to miss the fullness of the apostle Paul's thought in that verse, for we could unthinkingly read it as if he was saying that, on one hand, we have Adam, and all who are in him, and on the other hand...that is, quite separately... we have Christ, and all who are in Him, i.e., two different, contra-distinctive spheres of inclusion. This is clearly not the case, especially if we connect this statement of Paul's with his dictum that "...in Him (Christ) all things were created." (Col. 1:16 NIV)

Did God remove an elect minority of people out of Adam, and put them into Christ, and therefore we have the "in Adam" folks and the "in Christ" folks, as it were, alongside one another instead of the former (Adam) being within the latter (Christ)? To clarify Paul's thought, allow me to, in a way of speaking, flesh out Paul's meaning in an interpretive translation: "For as in Adam all die, even so [given that Christ includes Adam] in Christ shall all [of Adam's progeny] be made alive." This issue is at the heart of the terrible doctrine that God covenanted only to save an elect few out from the whole of humanity. Reform theology insists upon this theory of election.

But if, instead, we proceed from the truth that Adam, seminally, and collectively is God's elect (chosen) man, whose election, within, and by Jesus Christ, was brought to its intended goal, the wonderful expansiveness of the heart of God is opened to us. It locks the door against the intrusion of any notion that God could choose some for salvation and some for damnation (Calvin's unhinged, darkness-filled conclusion). Moreover, election is first about the divine purpose that "God might become all in all," and only secondly about salvation, for salvation restores the elect to their God-designed, in-Christ purpose and destiny.

Actually, in Adam, in Christ, all humanity is predestined, by election, to be conformed to the image of God's Son. Adam, we might say, is stuck within Christ, and can't get out of that elect destiny. Do you want to experience the ultimate in futility? Just try to escape from your destiny within Adam within Christ. The wrath (intrinsic fervor) of God is against such insanity. You will be saved, and you will be restored to what God had in mind for you before the foundation of the world.

Everyman's election is secure objectively by Christ being inclusive of Adam, and that objectively-secured election is outworked in us subjectively by the Spirit of Christ sent into our hearts.

Each individual's experience of election traces to all of mankind being the elect of God in union with Adam, who in turn, is in union with Christ. According to Paul, there is the first man and the second Man; the first Adam, and the Last Adam. God elected to begin something in and by the first man, and continued the same forward in and by the second Man, but the second Man is also the Last Adam. What was continued forward as the Second Man, was finalized as the Last Adam. That is, the second Man is also the Last (as in Final) Adam, for all that God began in and by the first Adam was consummated in and by Last Adam. No other Adam follows Him. But few understand the mystery of how the first man/second Man/first Adam/Last Adam are both of One Humanity.

He who is the Second Man, the Last Adam, was already, from the moment of creation, within the first waiting to be revealed in the fullness of time. The Son of God is Adam's Reality, and the One who returns him to that Reality. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw (drag) all men unto Me." It is conventionally thought that in the incarnation of Christ, God added humanity to Deity in perfect union. The perfect union part is absolutely correct, but it was not a matter of addition, but of a coming-forth from within. To study that complex of being is to come to understand the nature of, and who is, the glory of God.