The same serpent that tempted the first Adam in the Garden of Eden showed up to tempt Christ, the second Adam in the wilderness. The first Adam sinned and died. The second Adam had rather die than to sin. And He died. The first Adam’s actions brought us death. The second Adam’s actions brought us life. We were begotten in the image of the first Adam and thus bear the image of the earthly. In the second Adam we are being restored to the divine likeness, the image of the heavenly. In the first Adam we are reduced back to dust; in the second Adam we are resurrected, never to die again.
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (ESV)
