Is Adam Greater than Christ?

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life (Romans 5:18).

What we do has no effect on who we are in Christ … The cross wasn’t some piece of groundwork Christ laid that now requires your belief to validate it … Everyone constituted a sinner in Adam will eventually be constituted just in Christ …

Does everyone experience this justification simultaneously? No. Just as a person cannot experience Adam’s cure until he or she is born, neither can a person experience Christ’s victory until Christ chooses to reveal it to him or her. But it will happen for every son and daughter of Adam, if not in this life, then in the next. This is the testimony of Scripture (I Timothy 2:5-6; I Corinthians 15:22-23) …

Man’s theology, however, has destroyed the parallels, placing everyone under Adam’s disobedience, but on a fraction under Christ’s obedience. Man’s theology has made the former involuntary, while the latter they have made a matter of free choice. Scripture doesn’t do this, man does. By doing so, man’s theology had made Adam greater than Christ.

This does not seem to bother anyone.

Martin Zender
How to Be Free From Sin While Smoking a Cigarette (2007), pages 30-36

The End Is Not Yet

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, Who created all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11).

Here in both places, the term is universal, all men; all men must see what is the fellowship of the mystery …

If you say, but we see not yet all men brought to the knowledge of the mystery. I answer as in another case, “the end is not yet.” … I shall answer this exception in the words of the author of Hebrews in a like case,

But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man (Hebrews 2:8-9).

Jeremiah White (1629-1707)
(Chaplin to Oliver Cromwell)
Restoration of All Things, pages 38, 39

The Salvation of ALL: Creation’s Final Destination (A Biblical Look at Universal Reconciliation)

A book by:

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is truly better “Good News” than we ever could have imagined. It is far more glorious than religion would ever have us believe. The Salvation of All is a book about a “Good News” that will reach its final goal in the salvation of all mankind.

ISBN:

9781934251010

1934251011

316 pages, PB

Expanded Edition (132 additional pages)

http://salvationofall.com

The Divine Crisis

The primary word translated “judgment” in the Greek Scriptures is Strong’s Greek Lexicon #2920, krisis. This word krisis means, “a critical period of time, decisive moment, turning point or deciding time” (see Arthur P. Adams, Judgment, 1885; Jack E. Jacobson, The Concept of Circularity, page 36) and is where we get our English word crisis. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “crisis” as “a crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point.” Thus divine judgment is the divine crisis in the creation. It is the divinely appointed “turning point.”

Arthur P. Adams (1845-1925) has well written in his 1885 work on Judgment,

Judgment is given to man as a blessing and favor, and when such time arrives for any individual, class of individuals, or the world, it is cause for great rejoicing and thanksgiving; read, for example, the 96^th Psalm, and notice how all people and even inanimate nature are called upon to exult and rejoice “Before the Lord, for He comes to judge the world. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth.” This presentation of the nature of the time of judgment as a period of great rejoicing and special blessing, is in most striking contrast with the orthodox view, which makes the judgment day a time of almost unmitigated horror and dread.

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Daily Email Goodies

Inexhaustible Grace

Millions of hells of sinners cannot come near to exhaust infinite grace.

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664)
A Letter (1646)
World of Quotes

The Gift of Life Cannot Be Refused

Sometimes it is objected that a man can always refuse a gift. He has this much freedom at least. But there is one gift which he cannot refuse: and that is the gift of life. He will not be offered it because he is dead. It can only be conferred upon him and it is not within his power to refuse it …

The initiative must always be with God. Nor can he hinder the grace of God. The dead cannot refuse resurrection any more than the dead can ask for it. Divine Election and Sovereign Grace, not human inclination, are what account for man’s salvation.

Arthur C. Custance (1910-1985)
The Sovereignty of God, Part I, Chapter 2

Gloriously Subdued

Only when Christ has subdued all things unto Himself, will the successions of time pass away, and God be “All” in all beings and things, every shadow of evil being swept out of the universe, that the everlasting blessedness of the eternal world may be without spot or stain.

Samuel Cox (1826-1893)
Salvator Mundi, chapter 5

Faith by Him

It is not even our own faith but a faith given to us from the Father, channeled through the Son, and made effective through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is “by Him” (Jesus Christ) that we believe in God (I Peter 1:21), a truth perceived by Peter from the very beginning of his ministry: “The faith which is by Him” (Acts 3:16). … Saving faith is not the human contribution of a sinner seeking salvation, but the divine contribution of the gracious God seeking a sinner (Acts 18:27). We are saved “by grace … through faith; and that not of ourselves” (Ephesians 2:8). It is through faith as a channel that we are saved and not because of a faith of our own which is taken as a kind of guarantee of our earnestness. So also in I Corinthians 3:5, where Paul speaks of himself and Apollos as those by whom the Corinthians had believed. He does not speak of either of them as the originators of their faith but as the channels of it. … As Paul said to the Philippians (1:29), it had been given them to exercise saving faith. It was a gift. …

The Lord Jesus Christ is truly the “author of faith” … Thus it is really His salvation (Psalm 8:9; Luke 2:30; 3:6); it becomes our own only after we have received it as a gift (Philippians 2:12).

Arthur C. Custance (1910-1985)
The Sovereignty of Grace, chapter 6

Christ’s Complete Victory

God is able to turn the wickedness of men into the greatest good … For, when wicked men crucified the Lord, little did they know “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (II Corinthians 5:19). Little did they know, that this event in history – the crucifixion of Christ – would bring “to nought” all this world’s wisdom. Little did they know that God had a secret eternal purpose in Christ:

Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (I Corinthians 2:8).

Study God’s Word, especially the Epistles of Paul, and discover that Christ is the great Victor over sin, death, the grave and hell. You will also be rejoicing in all that He accomplished on Calvary’s cross – “the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (II Timothy 2:10), and His “more excellent sacrifice,” to which all the types and shadows pointed.

Russell S. Miller
Two Minutes with the Bible

In His Own Order

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father (I Corinthians15:22-24).

“As in Adam … so in Christ.” It is to be noted that this little word “in” comes from the Greek word en, which has been translated quite equally by the words “in, with, by.” That it was “by” the first Adam that all were brought under the sentence of death is acknowledged by all Christendom, and verified by Romans 5:12-17. In this same passage it is equally affirmed that it is “by” Jesus Christ that life is to be ministered to all.

Whatever the coverage of sin and death, “much more” shall be the abundance of grace and righteousness and life. It is utter folly to magnify the sin of Adam and yet diminish the effect of Christ’s triumph.

He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (I John 2:2).

It is the “much more” of His super abounding grace.

“By Adam all die, even so by Christ shall all be made alive.” There is no difference in the word “all” used in both cases. To argue otherwise is to err from the truth, and leads into the delusion which has plagued Christendom for these many centuries. The final triumph does not belong to sin and evil, it belongs to the realm of righteousness, and thus the Son must reign until all enemies have been subdued under His feet, including the last enemy, which is death. When all have been subdued, it is self-evident that none remain. The coverage of His triumph is glorious, total and complete.

But the process is wrought out, “every man in his own order.” Jesus clearly taught that “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him,” giving indication that the initiative is God’s, as He causes us to come in His time, to be in that order, that rank that He determined for us. But He also made it clear, regardless of the timing of our call, that “they shall all be taught of God” (John 6:44-45).

Ray Prinzing (1927-2005)
Daily Overcoming