1 Corinthians 15:22 – Alive in Christ

^“21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
²²For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
(1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

Paul contrasts two opposites in these verses. He starts by saying how we got into this mess. Death came by Adam. When he chose to eat of the forbidden tree, he opened the door to death. Prior to that, in the garden there was no death. There was no sickness, disease, poverty, decay, and aging. Adam lived an idyll life under the grace and protection of God. They had no needs nor did they lack.

However, God warned them if they ate of the tree. “¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17) And because Adam died, so all died with him.

We were in that mess. There was no way out. The law couldn’t do it. There was no man capable of getting us out of the mess Adam got us into. We were without hope. “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” (Ephesians 2:12)

God intervened for us. Through man—Jesus and through His death, burial, and resurrection God makes us alive. In Adam we died, and through Jesus we are alive. In Christ, we have life. We are new creations, by faith in God’s grace. God provided the gift of life to everyone who wants it. God sent Jesus as a man who would provide us a way out the mess Adam got us into. We are free from sin and death.(Romans 8:2)

Just another reason to thank Him for all we who are in Christ.