THE FIRST MAN AND THE SECOND MAN

D. M. Welch

John 6: 64–67; Revelation 3: 20; 1 Chronicles 29: 22 (to “second time”) I suppose we can say that the scriptures are about two men—the first man Adam, and the second Man, out of heaven. The first man has been tested and tried in every conceivable way to determine if there be anything for God. He has been tested in innocency; in government and under law; the final test came when God’s beloved Son was here on the earth. Every conceivable way has been set forth in the history of the first man in God’s loving patience to see if there was anything from His creature that could be for Himself.

We know the history of the first man, and we would do well to understand our part and place in the history of that race. Sin came in when God sought to bring man into responsibility. Sin came in when man was tested in obedience, and as we refer to it, the fall of man resulted

and judgment was pronounced. It was recorded prophetically that One would crush the head of the enemy of our souls, by whom sin was introduced into the human race. Also the judgment of death was pronounced concerning the man who sinned, “dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return”, Genesis 3: 19. It was never God’s thought that man should be in death or live in a scene of death; nevertheless. God is righteous and He is fair. So sin has come in, and it has become a principle by which man in the flesh lives, man in the world, without Christ and without God; self-will has become a principle by which man lives and operates—it is sin. None of us can blame Adam, because God would bring us to the thought of responsibility, whatever age that might be, and thus we understand something of our own histories; consequently we have to line up with Adam as sinners. We have our own sins to account for before God.

However, God has introduced another Man into the world. He did not live, move or operate on the basis of selfishness; in Him sin was not. There was nothing in Him to respond to what was without. This Man is out of heaven. It says in Luke’s gospel, “the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God” (Luke 1: 35). He was also to be called, “Son of the Highest” (Luke 1: 32), evil could not touch such an One. He came in on God’s side.

Everything that man could ever desire of God was seen in Him. Yet He also came in on our side; everything that God ever desired in man was found in Him. They could say when He stilled the winds, and the waves, “Who then is this ...?” (Mark 4: 41), or as another account has put it, “What sort of man is this?”, Matthew 8: 27. He is the kind of Man that is for the delight of God. He could say when asked who He was, “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. Do you know a Man like that, who you could trust implicitly? Everything He said, He was. He went about doing good, healing those who were oppressed of the devil.

(Acts 10: 38); never doing anything for Himself, always here for the will of Another. There was no man like that Man, nor will there ever be a man like Him in flesh and blood conditions; never a man like that Man, He is a holy Man. This Man has real feelings, and you see here in John 6 those feelings coming out. Unbelief is seen too and it is a terrible thing, but it is a wonderful thing to believe in a Man like this. It says,

“Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe”. The beginning of our blessing is when we come to the point that whatever God does, we accept. Whatever God will do in His ways with the human race, we will accept it and submit to it. I think faith is in activity when we reach that point. I trust that every one in this room this evening will lay hold of the fact that the Father is drawing you to this blessed Man. (That is what God is doing in the glad tidings). I would appeal to you on the basis of the love of God that you simply submit to that and lay hold of it in your own soul, for it will be very, very affecting to such an One as we are speaking of, if we were to go away back. Shall I say, it would break His heart.

This Man was the only Man who could fully answer to God’s claims for you. He has gone into death willingly, offering Himself up for you and for me, sinners of the gentiles, plagued by unbelief and self-will (sin). Perhaps you have been thinking that religion would be the answer, so that with it you can still go on in self-will. That will not do! This Man, Jesus, gave His back to the smiters. There was no hope for man when this kind of Man was rejected and turned out of the world; there was no need for God to bring in further tests or to keep man in responsibility on any account based on human standards or codes. Not only did He turn His back to the smiters and suffer the ridicule and the hatred that is in the heart of every one of us as after the first man, but He went into judgment for us. The judgment was necessary if sins were to be atoned for, if sins were to be covered, and it was judgment at the hands of God.

This Man willingly gave Himself over, not only to suffer from wicked hands, but then to bear the wrath of God against sin for three hours of darkness.

Unbelievers will be shown something of it when the transaction of coming judgment occurs between God as God and man as man. We read this morning in the household about their worm dying not. For those who turn away from this blessed Man in the preaching of the glad tidings there is no hope, no answer, and eternity for them will be very real, “their worm dies not”, Mark 9: 44. When God breathed into Adam the breath of life he became a living soul (Genesis 2: 7), but now this world is plagued by sin and death. As Christians, we sorrow, not as others, but, we sorrow for our loved ones who pass through the article of death. There is going to be a resurrection of the dead. Man has become a living soul through the breath of God, and it is at the present time that man is rescued from an eternity of judgment, rescued by love, shall we say. So things do not end. We should not be deceived by sight nor sense, these matters are awaiting and they are serious, but God has prolonged the day of grace to this present time.

However feebly the proclamation of the glad tidings might go forth, He is able to bring you and me to a state of repentance, for we may confess that we have been all wrong about everything, especially about God, about who He is, and what He has done in the giving up of His beloved Son. It says, “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. The scriptures in these verses refer to the Old Testament writings, and thus God was dealing with the first man all through the history until the rejection of His beloved Son. Now His dealings with that man are terminated. The Lord Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19: 30), and delivered up His spirit. There is no more work to be done for sinners. There is nothing you can do, there is nothing I can do to improve the order of man that came in at the beginning, with which we are identified according to the flesh. That man, and all that characterises him, has been terminated morally in the sight of God, so it says, “he was buried”. Now, you and I need to be justified before God, and the only way that is possible is through “believing on him who has raised from among the dead Jesus our Lord”, Romans 4: 24. It will be accounted to us for righteousness. I say to you again, I say it as feelingly and as appealingly as I can, do not go away back. In John 6, these were referred to as disciples, followers, but I say to you as frankly and as straightforwardly as I can, they were not true believers. We live in a dispensation which is in faith; faith is imperative. We live in that day and I believe we are at the end of it.

In Revelation 3 we find ourselves in the midst of the Christian profession. The way it is put in Revelation 3: 20, I say this very carefully, is as a lifeless profession. But the same blessed Man who is now out of death, victorious over every foe, and seated in the glory, on the Father’s throne, waiting to take His own throne, this same blessed Man is standing at the door of the lifeless profession and knocking. He is still affected in the same way, He is the Same. In John 6 He said, “Will ye also go away?”. Think of the depth of feelings of such a Man.

Then He says here, “if any one hear my voice”. It is not assumed there is anyone who will open the door, but He says, if there is any one. I would say to you that soon this day is going to be closed. Faith and prayer carry the believer through in nearness to this blessed Man, and while there are many hindrances, He will never give up this knocking as long as this day of grace continues.

I referred to 1 Chronicles 29 because I believe it is a blessed day in which we are living. The glad tidings are still going out, the Lord Jesus is waiting, affectionately pleading that if you have made a profession that you do not go away back, or ignore His knocking, but that you crown Him, as the people did with Solomon, the second time. I believe this has to do with what this blessed Man is seeking at the end, and it is open to every one of us. How positive this is! Laying hold of the glad tidings would relieve us from our burden of sin. What a blessed Man He is. He stood in our stead and opened the channels of grace for God to forgive us, for all are sinners, and sin as a principle of living has been condemned in the flesh. Man in the flesh has been terminated in the burial of Christ, and now God is working on an entirely different platform.

There are those who are associated with His beloved Son on the ground of resurrection, morally out of death. It is a moral system of things now, a faith system of things that God is working in, and He would have that for all of us. In that blessed Man, we are brought into it, and relieved from any kind of effort that we might undertake in order to gain justification or favour with God. I think in 2 Timothy where Paul says, “do the work of an evangelist” (2

Timothy 4: 5), it is in the midst of the profession that has grown up in this world and is turning away from the blessed voice, (being spoken in connection with the knocking of Revelation 3: 20). It is an opportunity for each one of us to open the door, to receive that blessed One, to sup with Him and He with us, and to crown Him as the true Solomon a second time. Maybe we have got away from the Lord, maybe we have been disappointed, but we could never go wrong, I could never go wrong, if we lean upon His breast and be found in His bosom; be near enough to hear His voice. If so we will not be going away back as those did in John 6.

The apostasy is on us in principle. Persons are giving up precious light. We have to check ourselves as to how much we are in the will of God as it relates to this blessed Man. How much do we know of this blessed Man? Are we in keeping with Him? Are we down on our knees to that blessed Man every day, owning Him, crowning Him in our souls as the one Man before God, who is the beginning of that order of manhood which shall go on through eternity? So I say to you. Have you lined up with the first Adam? Then come to repentance.

If you have, and if I have, then we can line ourselves up with the last Adam and know that we have a bright future ahead. Whatever might happen in the profession He is not going to give up any of His own, He loves us, He is pleading with each one of us, and it is for us to crown Him as the true Solomon the second time; to take things up in nearness to Himself; and consequently to see to this that we are going through in faithfulness to Him in the midst of a lifeless profession. Let us be true to that blessed Man, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Buckie
20 March 1994