Confessional Lutheran theology, hagiography, philosophy, music, culture, sports, education,
and whatever else is on the fevered mind of Orycteropus Afer
03 July 2005
Temptation: Adam and Adamant
Wherein a carbon-based life showed Himself to be a Diamond when the pressure was applied.
I sat in on Bill Schmelder's Bible study today. They'd just gotten underway in Mark and the Baptism and Temptation of Christ led us off. Jesus' baptismal identification with us sinners and the baptism to wilderness parallel with Israel got me thinking about some of the OT/NT parallels, prophecies, and completions.
If you look at Genesis, you meet Adam. Eve gave him the fruit and he ate. His resolve was every bit as firm as jello at a church picnic in July.
Then we travel forward to meet the Second Adam — the original Adamant. Immediately after his baptism, the Holy Spirit "drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. (Mark 1:12-13)"
Sometimes I think we forget the extent of the Temptation. Jesus didn't just sit around eating nothing, doing nothing for 40 days, then face a three question exam, pass it, and head home. If you only read the Matthew 4 account, you might think this. However, Luke and, especially, Mark indicate that Jesus faced temptation for the full forty days; a temptation only summed up by the three questions recorded by Matthew and Luke.
Where Adam bent, Adamant stood firm. Where Adam embraced sin, Adamant rebuffed it. Where Adam became his own God, Adamant followed the one true God.
The Father's Crown Jewel, the Adamant Second Adam, truly is our "Jesus, Priceless Treasure." ¶ 23:35 |
I sat in on Bill Schmelder's Bible study today. They'd just gotten underway in Mark and the Baptism and Temptation of Christ led us off. Jesus' baptismal identification with us sinners and the baptism to wilderness parallel with Israel got me thinking about some of the OT/NT parallels, prophecies, and completions.
If you look at Genesis, you meet Adam. Eve gave him the fruit and he ate. His resolve was every bit as firm as jello at a church picnic in July.
Then we travel forward to meet the Second Adam — the original Adamant. Immediately after his baptism, the Holy Spirit "drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. (Mark 1:12-13)"
Sometimes I think we forget the extent of the Temptation. Jesus didn't just sit around eating nothing, doing nothing for 40 days, then face a three question exam, pass it, and head home. If you only read the Matthew 4 account, you might think this. However, Luke and, especially, Mark indicate that Jesus faced temptation for the full forty days; a temptation only summed up by the three questions recorded by Matthew and Luke.
Where Adam bent, Adamant stood firm. Where Adam embraced sin, Adamant rebuffed it. Where Adam became his own God, Adamant followed the one true God.
The Father's Crown Jewel, the Adamant Second Adam, truly is our "Jesus, Priceless Treasure." ¶ 23:35 |
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If we are free to suggest a more extended temptation for Christ than the three questions (and I think we are), then does it not make sense to think that the record of Adam's temptation might also be a mere summary?
Perhaps he stood firm for 27 years and then fell. But the fall was so heinous that the 27 years were not worth mentioning.
The basic comparison you present between Adam and Christ is good. But I would only say Adam was jello compared to Christ. Compared to us, he may have been (in the words of Doc Holliday) a "veritable oak" .
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Perhaps he stood firm for 27 years and then fell. But the fall was so heinous that the 27 years were not worth mentioning.
The basic comparison you present between Adam and Christ is good. But I would only say Adam was jello compared to Christ. Compared to us, he may have been (in the words of Doc Holliday) a "veritable oak" .
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