#two adams

[icarusflyingtoclose]

Watched way to much jet lag and now the new Spatort, and i have to say leo is giving me adam chase vibes

[9047km]

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[puzzledshrimp-blog]

[beastie-baes]

[areformation]

The obedience Christ rendered fulfilled the obedience in which Adam failed. It would not be correct to say, however, that Christ's obedience was the same in content or demand. Christ was called on to obey in radically different conditions, and required to fulfill radically different demands. Christ was sin-bearer and the climactic demand was to die. This was not true of Adam. Christ came to redeem, not so Adam. So Christ rendered the whole-souled totality obedience in which Adam failed, but under totally different conditions and with incomparably greater demands.

-- John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol. 2, p. 58

Quick reflection: this flies directly in the face of the claim that Jesus's suffering on the cross amounted to squat compared to ours, or that the difference between his suffering and ours is merely one of degree and not one of kind. In Spike Lee's 25th Hour (one of my favorite flicks!), Ed Norton's character Monty goes on a famed monologue his hatred for New York City. (Ironically, it's also a tribute to New York City.) In his monologue, he lambasts the Catholic church and moves on to Jesus. "F* the church that protects [pedophilic priests], delivering us into evil. And while you're at it, f* JC! He got off easy! A day on the cross, a weekend in hell, and all the hallelujahs of the legioned angels for eternity! Try seven years in f*in' Otisville, Jay!" Like the rest of the monologue, it's difficult to say whether he really means it.

In any case, my point is, the suffering of Christ isn't what it seems on the surface. One meaning of his suffering and its profundity is that it was absolutely undeserved. He was the one truly innocent victim who ever lived, earning and therefore deserving absolute bliss and approval by God. He succeeded where we all fail, where Adam failed. But instead of finding this bliss, this approval, a reward, he found condemnation, rejection, and wrath. One with nothing to mar his record, he was yet numbered with the transgressors.