What does the resurrection of one man have to do with the whole world? Sure, it is a spectacular event. People who die normally stay dead, so for someone to rise from the dead is extraordinary. Good for Jesus. But what does that have to do with me and the world around me? Or, to put it more crassly, why should I care?
Good questions.
It all begins … well … in the beginning when God made a body. On the sixth day of creation, God took some of the dust of the ground (Hebrew, ‘adamah), formed it into a body, breathed into that body the breath of life, and called that body “man” or “Adam” (Hebrew, ‘adam). The body of man is distinct from but united with the non-human creation that was formed over the previous creation week because they were all made of the same “stuff.”
After this, God put the man into a death-sleep, ripped out his side, and from the man he formed woman. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. The two became one. Adam as an individual man was called “Adam,” and the woman and the man together were called “Adam” (Gen 1.27). They were one.
From these united bodies, having their source in the individual man himself, seed was given to the woman and new bodies were created through that union and in union with the man and woman.
By God’s appointment and through these unions, Adam was the head of creation, and creation—human and non-human—was his “body.” Adam embodied everything. As Adam went, so went the entire creation, human and non-human. This is why when the individual Adam sinned the entire creation entered into sin’s death grip from which there was no hope of resurrection until the penalty for that sin was completely exhausted. Adam’s “body,” individual and collective, entered into war with itself, ripping itself apart.
What creation needed was a new Adam, one who would be faithful in a way that no other human had been faithful. This Adam would have to be sinless so that his body would not be hopelessly gripped by sin’s power.
Jesus is that Adam. Jesus embodies creation by the appointment of the Father, taking on the stuff of creation in becoming a man. He is the new head and the whole creation is his body. Whatever happens to Jesus happens to the whole creation … just as with the first Adam.
A vital part of Jesus’ mission as the last Adam was to die. When he died, everything died because he embodies everything. Creation heaved as earthquakes split the earth. The daylight receded into its original darkness. Mankind died. The entirety of the old creation went to its final rest when Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb on that seventh day.
But then that same body rose from the dead. His body was transformed, but it was the same body. It wasn’t a “spirit” or an “inspirational” resurrection. His body came to life. That’s important to you and me because his body embodies everything, and everything includes you, me, and, well, everything. The old Adamic body ripped apart by sin has now been made new. We live in a new creation.
Jesus, the last Adam, rose bodily from the dead so that everything in creation–all the physical stuff of creation–is put back in right relationships. Jesus, the last Adam, rose bodily from the dead so that your body that continues to have death working in it, will be raised to new, transformed life on the last day. Jesus, the last Adam, rose bodily from the dead so that ground becomes fruitful. Jesus, the last Adam, rose bodily from the dead so that the work of your hands would not be vain (1Cor 15.58). His bodily resurrection infused his life into the creation so that it inevitably moves toward God’s intended maturation into his kingdom. Jesus, the last Adam, rose bodily from the dead so that he could be joined to his human bride, the church. She is “the body of Christ.”
In the resurrection of Jesus, everything is transformed. This world abides and lives in him and by his grace. His people belong to him in a saving way, but we are not the only things that belong to him. Even the lost belong to him. He is the last Adam and Lord of all. Jesus himself tells us that at the last day there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust (Jn 5.25-29). All will be raised at the last day, some to life and some to punishment, but all will be raised because the whole world is raised in Jesus’ resurrection. Everything belongs to him by virtue of being the faithful Adam who died and rose again.
Because Jesus is raised from the dead, you and the entire world exist because of his resurrected life. The whole creation holds together in him (Col 1.17). For this reason, you owe him your allegiance. He is your Lord.
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