The first and the last Adam

God forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes the breath of life into his nostrils; so man becomes a living being. In the garden, man chooses against God's word, and death comes into the world.

Paul sets Adam and Christ over against each other: by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; by one man, Jesus Christ, grace and life come. The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit. For Paul, Adam is 'the figure of him that was to come' (Romans 5:14); the Greek word is typos, where our word typology comes from. Luke traces Jesus' genealogy back to 'Adam, which was the son of God'. Straight after comes the temptation in the wilderness: where the first Adam fell in the garden, the second stands firm in the desert.