(1 Corinthians 15:49) …And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Why the need for all this “being reformed into God’s likeness??

I. The First Man: Man was created in :

A) The Image of God: …outward characteristics of authority and personality

B) The Likeness of God: .. inner moral qualities of righteousness and truth

a) glory: the primary importance of the spiritual

b) honor: man’s elevated position over all creation

In order for the “Likeness of God to take root

All Adam had do to pass the moral test was to trust what God had ask of him rather than experimenting with his own reason: it’s still the same choice each of us have today…

B) Gone was the crown of honor; "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” …

Instead of being supreme over the elements of the physical world, fallen man was sentenced to a ceaseless struggle against the world he had one time ruled. Grasping selfishly for more than he was giving he lost what he had!

A) The Reign of Death God had told them….

1) Outcome#1: Spiritual Death; Separates man from the immediate presence of God in his life.

When man became dead to God he became alive to the “flesh” and it’s control. Suddenly the pull of sin becomes so strong and the pull of God to righteous living fades into the background.

2) Outcome #2: Physical Death; Adam’s physical life did not end but immediately his body began a pattern of decay, aging, sickness, disease, that would one day lead to the separation of his soul and his body.

Adam and Eve were given an extension to life in that they were able to invest a part of them selves into new life which would continue until God brought through the descendants the solution to the problem.

3) Eternal Death; Separates man forever from the presence of God!

This is the end of moral choice and the final result of wrong choices.

(Genesis 5:3) When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. (NIV)

1) Guilt; State of one who has violated God’s law and deserves punishment; This cannot be passed from parent to child. The guilt of Adam’s sin did not pass on to his son.

2) Consequences; Adam passed on to his descendants the natural inclination to act on the same principles as he did.

So what is going to fix all this mess; what will it take to right Adams world shaking disobedience? If all mankind are born in Adam’s image then all of them will have this tendency to fall into sin. No human will qualify to pull man out of the mess he is in. Only God himself could be above sin and God could not take man’s sin’s on himself unless…

When we celebrate Christmas and talk about God, himself, coming to earth as a little baby in a manger we are all caught up in the cuteness of the story and often completely miss the fact that the reality of it all was had nothing to do with creating a cute story, it was the only possible way your salvation could have been reached. If God did not restore what Adam had lost, there would be absolutely no moral hope for anyone in this room!

Adam was the first official representative of the human race; his action would be carried by all who followed him… Jesus was to be the second official representative of the human race; his action could then be followed by all who would follow him.

In case we miss this point; satan did not: The first time we find record of the evil one personally tempting mankind soon after his arrival on earth is with Adam. The very next time we find satan personally tempting another human soon after his arrival on earth is this second Adam, the second man, the second representative sent directly from heaven.

The evil one was so intent on tripping up the first one, he was even more intent on tripping up the second representative; somehow he knew this second one was sent to correct the wrongs of the first.

A) The image of God; the first man was made in the image of God; what about this one???

(Hebrews 1:3a) The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

(Colossians 2:9) For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Jesus wasn’t created in the image of God in a mold God made for Adam…. The mold for Jesus came first! When Adam was created he was made in the mold of Jesus, the first born over all created. Jesus was the original pattern for the creation of mankind!

The first man was made just under the glory of God; he grasped at becoming like God and fell from the glory altogether… the second man was equal with God; he wasn’t interested in grasping upwards…. In fact he had another direction of grasping in mind:

(Philippians 2:5-7) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (NIV)

The first man was made to serve God but reached up for equality with God. Instead of rising higher he fell lower.. The second man was already in the likeness of God but he reached down to take on the likeness of mankind.

The first man was made in the likeness of God; the second man was made in the likeness of man.

He had the image of man; the outward characteristics that we all have along with all the weaknesses we experience… Inwardly, morally, he was different in that he had never sinned and did not have the pull toward sin that is inside each one of us.

However he was willing to face off with the same evil one Adam had faced. And, in his likeness to mankind, I fully believe, he was just as tempted to give in the satan as Adam was….If he didn’t have the possibility to truly be tempted to disobey then he couldn’t have fully taken our place.

(Hebrews 2:17) For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

In order for Jesus to conquer the power of sin in our lives he had to, step by step, walk over the ground Adam had walked and that all of us have followed him in walking, and substitute his moral actions for the disobedient actions of mankind.

Then; He would have to take the penalty that man-kinds sins had earned, (death) and bear every persons penalty on himself in order for the curse of sin to be broken for all mankind.

After the fall of Adam and Eve God pronounced a curse on sinful mankind that would affect every area of their lives. I want you to see the awesomeness of what Jesus did on your behalf… Jesus didn’t just bear effects of the curse of sin alongside us…

(Galatians 3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

Jesus didn’t just bear the possibility of temptation and resist sin to overcome the tempter:

He certainly did that:

(Romans 8:3) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.

But he did so much more with the sin we face every day…

(2 Corinthians 5:21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You remember those three aspects of death that came on mankind after the fall? Jesus bore them all in your place!!

He began to experience spiritual death in the garden. One who had always lived in the very presence of God, had never known the wall that sin brings in our communion with our Creator now hit’s the same wall:

(Matthew 26:38) Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."

As Jesus took your sins on himself; God who does not dwell in the presence of sin faded into the background:

(1 Peter 2:24) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

At last the separation was complete:

(Matthew 27:46) About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, My God my God, why have you forsaken me?"

With that cry he gave up his physical life; taking the curse of physical death on himself.

But he went one more step beyond physical death We can‘t be exactly sure what happened those days Jesus body spent in the tomb, but were sure he wasn‘t rally there. He took on the forces of hell, without the presence of the father, he tasted everything that eternal death would be for any of us, and he won that battle too.