Romans 5:14 - Adam a Type of Christ

ADAM WHO IS THE FIGURE:
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

BUT FIRST A LITTLE REVIEW:

Without Excuse, The Law Condemns, None Righteous (Romans Chapters 1, 2, and 3)
Rom 1:20, Rom 2:13, Rom 3:10

Which leads us to realize and look for righteousness somewhere else besides within ourself. Where can I find righteousness? What does the Scriptures say? Rom 4:3

In Roman's chapter four we discovered that by Faith we are counted righteous. Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness - we also, if we believe will be counted righteous.

So the Perfect Righteousness which we need if ever we hope to get to heaven is ours by Faith, the righteousness of our Perfect Lord Jesus Christ counted to us as our own. He is the Lord our Righteousness. IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

But again,we might ask: "How does that work? How can the righteousness of someone else be imputed to me as my own in the mind of God?"

The answer, as we find in Romans Chapter Five, is HEADSHIP/REPRESENTATION.

And that brings us to Romans 5:14 where we learn that Adam is a figure of him that was to come. Last week we walked through Genesis, refreshing ourselves in the account of Adam as the HEAD of all that were in Him.

FIRST: Gen 1:31 - we saw that everything God made was good. VERY GOOD.

SECOND: Gen 2:16-17 we saw the terms God set down for Adam. He could eat freely of every tree in the garden but one. He was NOT to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that he would eat of that tree he would SURELY DIE. Conversely if he DID NOT eat of that tree he would LIVE.

THIRD: But Adam ate. Gen 3:6

FOURTH: And Adam having eaten, MAN FELL and judgment came. Gen 3:17-19

FIFTH: And in dying he would die. Death passed upon all men, and all men became sinners, IN ADAM ALL DIE. 1Cor 15:22 and Rom 5:19 (We see the evidence of this all around us, and in us, and every day.)

Romans Chapter Five contrasts and compares the First Adam with the Last Adam. 1Cor 15:45, 1Cor 15:47 And teaches us in Verse 14 that Adam is a figure of Him that was to come, that is, Adam is a type or figure of Jesus Christ. Rom 5:14.

So I commend some devotional commentary from Matthew Henry for he writes:
The parallel that the apostle runs between the communication of sin and death by the first Adam and of righteousness and life by the second Adam (Rom 5:12, to the end), which not only illustrates the truth he is discoursing of, but tends very much to the commending of the love of God and the comforting of the hearts of true believers, in showing a correspondence between our fall and our recovery, and not only a like, but a much greater power in the second Adam to make us happy, than there was in the first to make us miserable.

And then Matthew Henry explains to us what is meant by Adam a figure of him that was to come:
1. A general truth laid down as the foundation of his discourse - that Adam was a type of Christ (Rom_5:14): Who is the figure of him that was to come. Christ is therefore called the last Adam, 1Co_15:45. Compare 1Co_15:22. In this Adam was a type of Christ, that in the covenant-transactions that were between God and him, and in the consequent events of those transactions, Adam was a public person. God dealt with Adam and Adam acted as such a one, as a common father and factor, root and representative, of and for all his posterity; so that what he did in that station, as agent for us, we may be said to have done in him, and what was done to him may be said to have been done to us in him. Thus Jesus Christ, the Mediator, acted as a public person, the head of all the elect, dealt with God for them, as their father, factor, root, and representative - died for them, rose for them, entered within the veil for them, did all for them. When Adam failed, we failed with him; when Christ performed, he performed for us. Thus was Adam tupos tou mellontos - the figure of him that was to come, to come to repair that breach which Adam had made.