Title: J. Adam, Jesus Christ
Contents
In the Old and New Testaments, two characters appear on behalf of mankind. One is Adam in the Old Testament Genesis and the other is Jesus in the New Testament. Paul calls the Old Testament Adam the first Adam and Jesus the second Adam. The meaning of the word Adam is not a proper name for an individual, but rather a human being.
Adam replaces mankind, and Jesus also replaces mankind. But the human race replaced by Adam and Jesus is not of the same kind. The human race replaced by the first Adam is the human race under the dominion of sin and death, and Jesus is the new human being who has overcome it. Adam takes the place of mankind in the old age, and Jesus replaces the man in the new age.
In modern times, movies, musicals, and novels featuring Jesus as a character have been appearing in western society. However, most of Jesus, who appears as the protagonist in this popular culture, is portrayed as the first Adam.
If there is one representative novel in which Jesus is the main character, it is "The Greatest Temptation" by the Greek author Kazantzakis. Here, the author describes Jesus as an investigator.
Near the end of the novel, Jesus briefly faints on the cross and has a dream. In his dreams, as he recalls the days that have passed, Jesus is portrayed not as the Messiah who saves mankind, but as an ordinary human being who married and had children. Finally, Jesus wakes up from the dream and denies it.
There is good reason for the church to object to and refuse to accept the statue of Jesus in popular cultural works featuring Jesus as the protagonist. Whether it is satanic or not, the image of Jesus drawn from the point of view of today's secular culture is so far from the true human image we hope for.
The human race replaced by the first Adam is a hopeless human figure under the dominion of sin and death. Such a human figure is suffering from his negative inner consciousness: hate, envy, jealousy, futileness, meaninglessness, and hostility. etc. Of course, there are people who keep human food under the control of moral conscience or the law, but they too die without solving the problem of sin and death. As a human figure that replaces these humans, the Bible speaks of the first Adam.
On the other hand, the human image of the new age that Jesus replaces with the second Adam appears as the true human image that takes the place of the new human who has overcome this dark and hopeless life. Jesus, who takes the place of the new human in the new age, completely overcomes the fallen human nature and presents a new and challenging model of life. Jesus is not a man who escaped from the life of the first Adam and cultivated the way in the depths of the mountain and was liberated. Jesus, the second Adam, completely put an end to the life of the old human form of the first Adam on the cross and showed a new human image of the resurrection.
The new human image revealed in Jesus could not be reached due to the failure of the first Adam in his life of obedience to God, but Jesus realized it through a life of complete obedience to God. From this point of view, the dark and hopeless modes of life replaced by the first Adam are human images that have given up obedience to God.
The fault of the life of the first Adam was not revealed until the second Adam, Jesus, appeared to the world. That's why the Bible says, "When man sinned, he did not know that it was sin." I knew that human beings just live and die like that for the rest of their lives. People with a little bit of insight believed that the soul was immortal, and when they died, they took the utensils they had used while they were still alive and carried them into the tomb.
However, with the advent of Jesus, the second Adam, it became clear that this was not the way man was supposed to live. He showed that man is originally a creature with a unique mode of existence with God, neighbor, and nature, which is different from other creatures, and that he is called to be a co-worker in God's work of creation. Jesus himself became the model for that new human image.
The famous biographer, Roman Roland, sees Europe paralyzed in the depraved and rotten atmosphere of the vile materialism and skepticism that prevailed in Europe. The figure presented by Roman Rolland as a spiritual great man of his time is the evil Beethoven. The hero Beethoven, presented by Roman Rolland, is a companion to all unfortunate people who are waiting for the liberation of the oppressed spirit. He does his best to become a person worthy of the name of human being, and through sincerity and greatness, the human being who lives the happiest in the agony of life. Beethoven is portrayed as a heroic human figure instead.
Through Beethoven, Roman Rolland tried to give comfort and hope to those who are suffering from misfortune. In fact, Beethoven's struggle to overcome and sublimate the misfortunes that befell him is well represented in his Symphony of Destiny, Heroes, and Joy.
If I write a biography of Jesus, the human Jesus in the biography is a model of a true human who walked the path of life worthy of the name of a human being, as a companion to all unfortunate people waiting for the liberation of their oppressed spirits, and as a liberated person. As such, life would be described as the Lamb who took it in agony and sacrificed itself on the cross.
Jesus is not a hero. He is not a Tao who has awakened in deep meditation. Jesus is the creator of faith and the perfecter of faith. Jesus is the One who aroused faith in the possibility and hope of the human image in which we humans are fully obedient to God's call, and is the fulfiller of such faith.
The new human path we have through Jesus is not the law or the moralistic path of human realization. It is the image of a human being who is freed from sin and death by God's grace, is healed and perfected in the power of the Holy Spirit, and is completely surrendered to God by denying himself. Jesus is the creator and perfecter of such human beings.
Therefore, Christians reject the Jesus statue as the first Adam in popular culture. If the people who call themselves Christians are the kind of Jesus they want to see in popular culture, that's a question to ponder.
Christians are not people who lead a religious life in the midst of sin and death to make life easier than others. They are people who are being formed into a new hopeful human image with a new mode of existence. The perfecter of that new human image is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is not only the perfectionist of such a life as a human being, but also the Son of God who has opened the way to becoming such a human image. That is what it means to say that Jesus is mankind's answer and hope. Indeed, those who are in Jesus Christ are experiencing that hopeful reality. In this secular society, the church is a community that demonstrates that new human image.
The pastor said:
"Dear brother, God did not create all of your life. Your life is being 'created' right now. Do not complain about God's work unconditionally, but understand the meaning of suffering."
Hearing this, the man repented and started his life again, and shortly thereafter he testified in front of the audience:
?쏶uffering is the will of God who constantly creates life.??
Dear saints, We are not called to be human beings whose lives end in sin or failure. We are being called to, and are being made into, new human beings who are freed from sin and death on the cross and live in the power of resurrection.
Therefore, we should not be discouraged by our shortcomings, discouraged by our sufferings, or give up our lives because of our sins. Our lives are being made in the hands of God's power.
This hope and faith in ourselves is not in our own abilities. Our hope lies in God's faithfulness and His power. God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, will surely fulfill the content of our hope.
The reason we reject the old ways of being in this world: injustice, lies, conspiracy, violence, destruction of ecosystems, and self-abuse, is because we are not being called to be. The human figure we see as the model of our life is Jesus Christ, the second Adam.
Looking back on our reality in our day today, it is not a reality in which we can truly hope. The natural environment is all being destroyed and the human way of being is truly pessimistic. Nevertheless, we must not give up our hope. Our hope is not in the first Adam, but in Jesus Christ. We saw in him how sin and death came to an end. And we see what God's new creation is in His resurrection.
God does not leave us to the fate of the first Adam, but calls us to the new man made possible through Jesus Christ. We must live by actively responding to God's call.
The author of Hebrews exhorts us to:
?쏷herefore, since we have a multitude of witnesses surrounding us like a cloud, let us put off every burden and the sins that so easily entangle us, and with patience run the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that is set before him crosses the cross. was enduring, despising shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God??(Hebrews 12:1-2).
- Amen -