The Youth’s Instructor

June 2, 1898

The Second Adam

EGW

Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, he began where the first Adam began. Willingly he passed over the ground where Adam fell, and redeemed Adam's failure. YI June 2, 1898, par. 1

But the first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than was Christ. The wonderful provision made for man in Eden was made by a God who loved him. Everything in nature was pure and undefiled. Fruits, flowers, and beautiful, lofty trees flourished in the garden of Eden. With every needed blessing, Adam and Eve were abundantly supplied. Not a shadow interposed between them and their Creator. They knew God as their beneficent Father, and in all things their will was conformed to the will of God. And God's character was reflected in the character of Adam. His glory was revealed in every object of nature. The invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things that were made, even his eternal power and Godhead. YI June 2, 1898, par. 2

But Satan came to the dwellers in Eden, and insinuated doubts of God's wisdom. He accused him, their Heavenly Father and Sovereign, of selfishness, because, to test their loyalty, he had prohibited them from eating of the tree of knowledge. “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” he said to Eve. “And the woman said, ... We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” YI June 2, 1898, par. 3

This was the smallest test that God could devise to prove the obedience of our first parents; but Eve fell under the temptation. Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from the hand of his wife; and by this act the flood-gates of woe were opened upon our world. Adam was endowed with a nature pure and sinless, but he fell because he listened to the suggestions of the enemy. His posterity became depraved; by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. YI June 2, 1898, par. 4

When Christ came, it was to a world disloyal to God—a world all seared and marred by the curse of rebellion. Since the fall, the arch-deceiver had carried on his work with intense vigor, until the curse of transgression had fallen heavily upon the earth. Men were corrupted by Satan's inventions. He had been leading them astray by his false representations of God's character. Claiming for himself the attributes of mercy, goodness, and truth, he had attributed his own character to God. These misrepresentations Christ knew he must meet in human nature, and prove to be false. YI June 2, 1898, par. 5

For this, he, the Commander of all heaven, one with God, clothed his divinity with humanity. He humbled himself, taking up his abode on the earth, that he might become acquainted with the temptations and trials wherewith man is beset. Before the heavenly universe he unfolded to men the great salvation that his righteousness would bring to all who accept it,—an inheritance among the saints and angels in the presence of God. YI June 2, 1898, par. 6

Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold severer manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying. The deceiver presented himself as an angel of light, but Christ withstood his temptations. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world. YI June 2, 1898, par. 7

With his human arm, Christ encircled the race, while with his divine arm, he grasped the throne of the Infinite, uniting finite man with the infinite God. He bridged the gulf that sin had made, and connected earth with heaven. In his human nature he maintained the purity of his divine character. He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of transgression, revealing to the heavenly universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, that through his grace, humanity can keep the law of God. He came to impart his own divine nature, his own image, to the repentant, believing soul. YI June 2, 1898, par. 8

There is hope for all who will come to Christ and receive him as their personal Saviour. The faith that lays hold upon Christ will work by love and purify the soul. “If our gospel be hid,” Paul declares, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.... For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” YI June 2, 1898, par. 9

Mrs. E. G. White