Adam, the Second Adam, and the Scarlet Thread of Grace

In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we keep exploring salvation by returning to Genesis 1–3 as an “overture” that sets a repeating biblical pattern: human failure intertwined with God’s grace and promise.

We revisit Adam and Eve’s sin as more than rule-breaking—it's rejecting God’s authority and grasping autonomy—and we see grace immediately in Genesis 3:15 through the promised “seed of the woman” who will crush the serpent. We also note how God replaces their fig-leaf coverings by clothing them with animal skins, pointing ahead to sacrifice and ultimately the cross. Then we connect this to Jesus as the “second Adam” in Romans 5:12–21: where Adam’s disobedience brings condemnation and death, Christ’s obedience brings justification, life, and a new humanity defined by his righteousness. We close by reflecting on how sin dehumanizes us and thanking God for the scarlet thread of grace, ending with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Salvation Pattern Preview

01:11 Guided Pause and Presence

01:51 Adam and Eve Failure

02:51 First Gospel Promise

03:47 Garments of Grace

04:29 Jesus the Second Adam

06:18 Romans Five Reading

08:14 New Humanity in Christ

10:03 Pattern Through Scripture

11:10 Reflection and Application

12:40 The Lord's Prayer

Welcome back to In Light of the Cross.

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Today we are continuing exploring

salvation in light of the cross.

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And the way that we're going to do this

is by diving back into the story of

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Adam and Eve and looking at this pattern

that gets set up for us in scripture.

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Genesis one through three is kind of like.

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An overture.

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If you've ever been to a symphony or if

you've ever heard the score of Star Wars

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or Pirates of the Caribbean or something

like that, where at the beginning of the

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soundtrack you hear all of the movements

condensed into one short, track, one short

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encapsulation, one short encapsulation.

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you get a taste of the whole thing in

advance, and then as the production

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goes on and continues, you hear those

brought back up again and again.

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So we are gonna follow this

pattern that we see in Genesis one

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through three with Adam and Eve.

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And then throughout the rest of the week

we're going to see how this pattern takes

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place in Noah and in Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob, and in Moses and Israel, and in the

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period of the judges and so on and so on.

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So, as we get started with that in

mind, let's begin as we've begun and.

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Past episodes with a pause, and as we

pause, want to invite you to tune in and

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recognize the presence of God with you.

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Pause, take some deep breaths

and prepare your heart to receive

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the reflection, application and

yielding of today's episode.

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So.

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Yesterday we talked about the great

pattern throughout the scripture of

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human failure, but in the midst of

that, that tapestry of human failure,

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there is a scarlet thread of God's

grace and mercy running through that.

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We're gonna look at that beginning

with the story of Adam and Eve.

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Now, we talked about this a little

bit last week, but we're gonna dive

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just a little bit deeper into that

because they really set the pattern.

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Uh, not only for the meaning of sin and

all that, all that sin does, as we talked

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about, but also for the meaning of Christ.

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He is called the second Adam in

the New Testament, and so we'll

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talk about what that means.

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First, just a reminder

of the great failure.

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Their failure was not primarily about

breaking a rule, it was rejecting

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God's authority, refusing to trust

God, and instead to reach for.

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Their own autonomy, reach for

their own desire, apart from and in

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resistance to God or rebellion to God.

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Now we know that story, but

what happens after this?

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Well, God tells them, these are the things

that are gonna happen because of your sin.

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but also along with that, he says in

Genesis three 15 that there will be

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one who will be a seed of the woman.

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A seed in this context means an offspring.

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So a descendant of the woman and

he will crush the serpent's head

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Sert, representing Satan here.

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Even though he himself, the seed of

the woman will be bruised in his heel.

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So right from the very beginning,

as soon as you see sin, you

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see grace and you see promise.

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A promise of the one to come.

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That's the pattern.

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Human sin.

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Human failure, and the results of that.

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But in the midst of that, at the same

time, God continues to bring forth this

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promise that he will make things right.

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And then we also talked about how Adam

and Eve tried to cover up their sin

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and the resulting shame over their own

nakedness with, some sort of vegetation.

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Ken James Bible puts it as fig leaves.

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I'm not sure if that's exactly

what it was, but some sort of,

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uh, vegetation and God instead.

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kills two animals and covers Adam

and Eve with their sin again,

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pointing ahead to the sacrificial

system of the Old Testament.

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And ultimately through that to the cross.

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The, innocent one has their

life shed or their, their

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blood shed to cover their sin.

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So right there at the beginning,

you see God's promise.

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God covers them with garments of grace.

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Now, what's interesting then

is when you see salvation.

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it's framed partly as a contrast and a

counterpart and an answer to Adam and Eve.

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So when Jesus comes, he's described in

the book of Romans as the second Adam.

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How does that work?

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Well, right from the beginning you

see Jesus being brought forth with

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promise, and then he goes into the

wilderness to be tempted by the evil one.

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Just as Adam and Eve were tempted.

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He faces temptation before he begins

his ministry as the, as the Messiah.

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Now there's a little bit

of a contrast here too.

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They had everything.

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Christ had nothing in the wilderness,

but that shows all the more deeply

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the depth of his, commitment to trust

God unlike their commitment to trust

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only themselves in rebel against God.

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And just like somehow, we

all inherited Adam's sin.

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So it says that those in Christ

somehow inherit his righteousness.

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Now, I put that as somehow because

I'm not exactly sure how it works.

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There are many people who think they

have a very definitive answer about this.

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Um, but the idea that we share in Adam's

and Eve's sin that we all have that

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sin nature is indisputable teaching of

the New Testament, but it's also pretty

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obvious to anyone with eyes, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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We're not concerned here about

the mechanism of how that sin is

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passed on just the fact of it.

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But we're told that now

there's a new humanity.

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Adam is the head of the first humanity,

but Christ has come to become head

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of a new humanity and those who are

in Christ, just as those in Adam's

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humanity received unrighteousness and

sin as part of their nature, now we are.

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Blessed now we have the righteousness

of Christ defining us instead.

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you wanna read part of the scripture?

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Sure.

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Which one?

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Romans chapter five verses 12 through 21.

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Paul writes, therefore, just as sin

entered the world through one man

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and death through sin, and in this

way death came to all people because

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all sinned to be sure sin was in

the world before the law was given.

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But sin is not charged against

anyone's account where there is no law.

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Nonetheless, death reigned from the

time of Adam to the time of Moses, even

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over those who did not sin by breaking

a command as Adam as did Adam, who is

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the pattern of the one to come, but the

gift is not like the trespass for if

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many died by the trespass of one man.

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How much more did God's grace and the

gift that came by the grace of the one

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man Jesus Christ, overflow to the many?

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Nor can the gift of God be compared

with the result of one man's sin.

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The judgment followed one sin and brought

condemnation, but the gift followed many

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trespasses and brought justification

for if by the trespass of one man

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death reigned through that one man.

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How much more will those who receive

God's abundant provision of grace

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and of the gift of righteousness?

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Reign in life through

the one man Jesus Christ.

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Consequently, just as one trespass

resulted in condemnation for all people.

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So also, one righteous act

resulted in justification.

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and life for all people, for just as

through the disobedience of the one man.

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The many were made sinners.

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So also through the obedience of the one

man, the many will be made righteous.

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Yeah.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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There is so much here we could talk about.

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but the point I think we just want to

make is, is this, that there is a parallel

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and there's a contrast between Adam and

Christ, and the parallel is that he is

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the second Adam starting a new humanity.

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The contrast is that Adam's disobedience

and sin brought death in condemnation.

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Where an alienation from God, they

were expelled from the garden.

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But Christ one act of obedience brings

justification and it brings, life

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through the resurrection and through all

that, it brings a renewed relationship

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with God, so that Jesus could say,

in my father's house are many rooms.

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I'm going there to prepare a

place that where I am you may

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be Also, we are dwelling with

Christ in the father's house.

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That's the promise.

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So he's undoing all that

Adam and Eve have done.

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That's what the cross does.

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So this is a beautiful,

beautiful contrast.

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Adam and Eve were created by God

for this good life, but they failed

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and brought in sin after temptation.

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Jesus came to us, was tempted, didn't

fail, and therefore has begun a new

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humanity that's not marked by natural.

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Human markers as much as

the spiritual reality.

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Like that passage that you read last

week, that we were dead in our sin.

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So Jesus has brought a spiritual

renewal, spiritual life.

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Right?

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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So again, the goal here is not just to

forgive us, but to create a new humanity.

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With Christ instead of Adam as

the head and those who are in

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Christ, share in all that he is.

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Paul even says the Apostle Paul

that we are heirs with Christ

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because of what he has done.

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You mentioned that the two.

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Descriptions of the Old Testament are a

tapestry of human failure, but also mixed

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into that, this scarlet thread of grace.

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So what is the pattern that

we're gonna continue to see?

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Well, the pattern is human failure,

human failures to be what we should be.

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So again and again, there's gonna

be someone who looks like, oh,

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this person is a new beginning.

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They, they will be able to do

what Adam and Eve could not do.

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And they start out well many

times and then they fail.

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But through that, God always stays

faithful to his promise, and he gives

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words and ideas and symbols of the grace

that will be fulfilled at the cross, just

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like God gave the symbol of them at a

meaning of cupboard by the skin of a, of

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a substitute and the words of the promise.

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He will do that again and again.

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Great.

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So I thought we might get into how

Noah and the Tower of Babel fit into

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this and see how the cross gives

light to what they mean as well.

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But I think we'll save that for next

time, just because we're already a

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good ways into this and that will

give us a little bit more space.

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So let's talk about how we can apply

this, how we can reflect upon this.

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I would encourage us to just spend a

few minutes thinking about two thoughts.

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One is how sin is not just

a breaking of the rule.

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It's actually.

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Dehumanizing who we are.

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We are created to be in God's image, in

God's likeness and in fellowship with God.

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And sin works against all of that.

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So ask God to show you any ways that

your own sin of the past day, the past

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month, works to dehumanize who you are.

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And then the second thing,

the second word there.

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is just a word of thanks to thank

God that it doesn't depend on upon

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our goodness, but amidst the tapestry

of our own failures, God's grace,

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that scarlet cord runs through

it from the beginning to the end.

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So take a minute to think

about this right now.

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And let's end with the Lord's Prayer.

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Jesus taught us to pray this way.

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Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliberate from the evil one.

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Amen.