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CHRIST and ADAM
Man and Humanity in Romans 5
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This formal parallel is, however, not Paul’s only concern. Taken by itself, it leaves the material relationship between Christ and Adam still undefined. We still do not know whether, on one side or the other, there is an essential priority and an inner superiority that would make Christ the master of Adam or Adam the master of Christ. Perhaps sin and death are as strong as grace and life. Perhaps they will ultimately prove stronger. It remains still an open question whether Adam or Christ tells us more about the true nature of man. Perhaps it is Adam who embodies basic human nature as it appears in all its many possible forms whereas Christ only embodies it in the one form in which it appears in Christian or religious men: perhaps Christ only tells us the truth about Christians, whereas Adam tells us the truth about all men. But when we look again at Rom. 5, we find that Paul does not deal with the formal parallel between the two sides in isolation, but in a context where their material relationship is made unambiguously clear. Even in vv. 18–19, 21, Paul does not leave it an open question whether Adam is prior to Christ or Christ is superior to Adam. He does not leave the two side by side in a merely formal relationship. It is not enough for him to show that life in Christ helps to explain life in Adam. He is also concerned to make quite clear the material relationship of these two formally parallel sides, so that no uncertainty can remain.
We have already seen that on both sides there is the formal identity of the one human nature which is not annulled or transformed even by sin. But in reaching that conclusion we are bound to recognize that the formal identity itself depends upon the greatest possible material disparity between the two sides. For what we have said about Adam and the rest of us is only valid because it corresponds with what we already know about Christ and the rest of us so that it is Christ who vouches for the authenticity of Adam and not Adam who vouches for the authenticity of Christ.
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