Adam, a Type of the One to Come
…mystery of the dispensation in the flesh. How, then, does he call him “the one to come” (Romans 5:14)? someone might perhaps ask. For having set before us the first man and recalled the times of the transgression, he named Christ the one who would be present after those times, and the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). He had indeed been foreordained as Saviour and Redeemer in the will and forethought of God the Father, but he appeared at his own proper times, those the Sovereign willed (1 Timothy 6:15); and these are the times at the end, at the sunset, as it were, of the present age.
So, having made the second correspond to the type of the first, he all but questions his hearer, speaking the next words with a pause, as a question: “But is it not so with the free gift as with the trespass?” (Romans 5:15). It is as if he were saying: We were condemned to death through the transgression in Adam, since the whole of human nature suffered this in him, for he was the firstfruits of the race; but in Christ we blossomed again into life. And Adam was a type of the one to come (Romans 5:14), that is, of Christ, who brings in for us a grace equal in measure to the perversity of those who went before. Have I, then, he says, missed the truth in saying this? Am I carried beyond what is reasonable? Is it not so with the free gift as with the trespass? Or did death prevail through one, while life through one will be powerless? And yet how is it not true to say this: “For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded for the many” (Romans 5:15)? For the Creator, since he loves mankind, will by no means allow death to prevail through the one, and the life that comes through one man to accomplish nothing. Grace will rise above what comes from wrath.
“And the gift is not as it was through the one who sinned” (Romans 5:16). He refers, as it were, the nature of the matter and the force of the thought to what most befits God. For if, he says, the condemnation that came from one, that is, through one, Adam, passed on to all after his likeness (for, as I said, he was the root of the race and suffered corruption), how could it not be both acceptable to faith and dear to God that many should be justified from many trespasses by one act of righteousness (Romans 5:16)? Or is saving not what God prefers to destroying? Just as, then, Adam was condemned, and the power of the curse prevailed over Moses, making those on earth subject to corruption, so, since Christ, the second Adam, has been justified, justification will surely travel to us as well along the same road as the first. We say that Christ has been justified, not as though he had once been unrighteous and then advanced to justification by progress toward better things, but because he himself, first and alone of men on earth, “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).
“For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one,” and so on (Romans 5:17). See again how he reckons the grace that justifies stronger than the curse that condemns. For no one, he says, could claim it was fitting that death through one should prevail over those on…
Greek
μετὰ σαρκὸς οἰκονομίας διαπεράναντος τὸ μυστήριον. πῶς οὖν μέλλοντα καλεῖ, φαίη τις ἂν ἴσως; παραθεὶς γὰρ ἡμῖν τὸν πρῶτον ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τῶν τῆς παραβάσεως διαμνημονεύσας καιρῶν, ὡς μετ' αὐτοὺς παρεσόμενόν τε καὶ ἔσχατον Ἀδὰμ ὠνόμασε τὸν Χριστόν· προώριστο μὲν γὰρ ὡς ἐν θελήσει τε καὶ προμηθείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς σωτήρ τε καὶ λυτρωτὴς, ἐπέφανε δὲ καιροῖς ἰδίοις καθ' οὓς ἠθέλησεν ὁ δυνάστης· οὗτοι δέ εἰσιν οἱ ἐν ἐσχάτοις καὶ οἷον ἐπὶ δυσμαῖς τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος. οὐκοῦν τεθεικὼς εἰς τύπον τοῦ πρώτου τὸν δεύτερον, μονονουχὶ καὶ διαπυνθάνεται τὸν ἀκροώμενον, ὡς ἐν ὑποστιγμῇ τε καὶ ἐρωτήσει λέγων τὰ ἑξῆς· Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα, οὕτω καὶ τὸ χάρισμα; Ὅμοιον γὰρ ὡς λέγοι Κατακεκρίμεθα τῷ θανάτῳ διὰ τῆς ἐν Ἀδὰμ παραβάσεως, ὅλης τῆς ἀνθρωπείας φύσεως τοῦτο παθούσης ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ γὰρ ἦν ἀπαρχὴ τοῦ γένους· ἀλλ' ἐν Χριστῷ πάλιν ἀνεθάλλομεν εἰς ζωήν· τύπος δὲ ἦν ὁ Ἀδὰμ τοῦ μέλλοντος, 4 τουτέστι Χριστοῦ, τῇ τῶν φθασάντων σκαιότητι τὴν ἰσομοιροῦσαν ἡμῖν εἰσκομίζοντος χάριν· ἆρα οὖν, φησὶ, τοῦτο λέγων διημάρτηκα τἀληθοῦς; ἔξω φέρομαι τοῦ εἰκότος; οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα οὕτω καὶ τὸ χάρισμα; ἀλλ' ἴσχυσε μὲν δι' ἑνὸς ὁ θάνατος, ἀτονήσει δὲ δι' ἑνὸς ἡ ζωή; καίτοι πῶς οὐκ ἀληθὲς ἐκεῖνο εἰπεῖν; εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι οἱ πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ὑπερίσσευσεν· ἀνέξεται γὰρ ἥκιστά γε, φιλάνθρωπος ὢν ὁ δημιουργὸς, κατισχῦσαι μὲν θάνατον διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς, ἀπρακτῆσαι δὲ τὴν δι' ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ζωήν· ὑπερκείσεται δὲ ἡ χάρις τὰ ἐξ ὀργῆς. 185 Καὶ οὐχ ὡς δι' ἑνὸς ἁμαρτήσαντος τὸ δώρημα. Ἀνατίθησιν ὥσπερ τὴν τοῦ πράγματος φύσιν καὶ τὴν τοῦ νοήματος δύναμιν ἐπὶ τὸ ὅτι μάλιστα πρέπον τῷ Θεῷ· εἰ γὰρ δὴ, φησὶ, τὸ ἐξ ἑνὸς, ἤτοι δι' ἑνὸς, κατάκριμα τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἀπεφοίτησεν εἰς πάντας καθ' ὁμοιότητα τὴν αὐτοῦ· ῥίζα γὰρ ἦν ὡς ἔφην τοῦ γένους παθοῦσα τὴν φθορὰν, πῶς οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο καὶ πίστει παράδεκτον καὶ ἀγαπητὸν τῷ Θεῷ τὸ δεῖν ἐξ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος ἐκ πολλῶν παραπτωμάτων δικαιοῦσθαι πολλούς; ἢ οὐχ αἱρετὸν τὸ σώζειν μᾶλλον ἢ ἀπολλύναι παρὰ Θεῷ; ὥσπερ τοίνυν καταδεδίκασται μὲν ὁ Ἀδὰμ, κατεκράτησε δὲ Μωυσέως ἡ τῆς ἀρᾶς δύναμις ὑποφέρουσα τῇ φθορᾷ τοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οὕτως ἐπειδήπερ δεδικαίωται Χριστὸς ὁ δεύτερος Ἀδὰμ, ὁδῷ τῇ πρώτῃ βαδιεῖταί που πάντως καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς ἡ δικαίωσις. δεδικαιῶσθαι δέ φαμεν τὸν Χριστὸν, οὐχ ὡς ἄδικον μὲν γεγονότα ποτὲ, προήκοντα γεμὴν ἐξ ἐπιδόσεως τῆς εἰς τὰ ἀμείνω εἰς δικαίωσιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι πρῶτός τε καὶ μόνος ἄνθρωπος αὐτὸς ἐπὶ γῆς "οὐκ ἐποίησεν ἁμαρτίαν οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στό"ματι αὐτοῦ." Εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι ὁ θάνατος ἐβασίλευσε διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς κ.τ.λ. Ἄθρει δὴ πάλιν ὡς ἀλκιμωτέραν τῆς κατακρινούσης ἀρᾶς καταλογίζεται τὴν δικαιοῦσαν χάριν· οὐ γὰρ δὴ, φησὶ, φαίη τις ἂν ὡς ἦν εἰκὸς κατισχῦσαι μὲν τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς