Since much is spoken in our time about Jesus being like Adam before the Fall, we will go through various Scripture verses that point out that Jesus was highly exalted above Adam before the Fall, even though He humbled Himself and took a human form. See Genesis 2:7. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” We must go back to the beginning in order to clearly understand the difference between the first and the last Adam. The first Adam originated in the dust of the ground. Of Jesus it is written in Proverbs 8:

“I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. . . . Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. . . . Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” Adam was created from the dust of the earth, while the second Adam lived before the earth existed. Note the difference.

In Hebrews 2:17 it says, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Nowhere in the Scriptures do we read that Adam before the Fall was to make propitiation for the sins of the people, nor that he was to become a High Priest. Obviously it was after the Fall that we needed a Savior. Jesus had to partake of flesh and blood like us (Hebrews 2:14), and all of us live after the Fall. However, this is a great mystery: that we as the bride of Christ are to become one flesh with Him—not only one spirit, but also one flesh. Eph. 5:31-32. Not one flesh prior to the Fall, but one flesh with Him after the Fall. Let those understand who are able to understand it. “There is one kind of flesh of men.” 1 Cor. 15:39. So there are not two different kinds of flesh in man. In this one flesh sin was condemned. Rom. 8:3. Sin was not condemned in Adam before the Fall, was it? Adam was not made to be sin for us! According to the flesh, Jesus was born of the seed of David; He descended from Adam after the Fall. Rom. 1:3. For the same reason we, too, can be reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. Col. 1:21-22. No one has ever heard that we can be reconciled through death in the body of Adam’s flesh before the Fall. Death came after the Fall. When Jesus partook of flesh and blood like us, how could He then be so triumphantly victorious over sin? He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so He was the first one that came with the kingdom of heaven within Him. Therefore, through the eternal Spirit that was in Him, He was able to offer His body without spot. He suffered death in the flesh and was made alive by the Spirit. It is not correct to say that Adam before the Fall suffered death in the flesh. It appears to me that a comparison between the first and last Adam is absolutely absurd, and it only demeans the person of Jesus and His precious work. In their human reasoning, people believe they are making Jesus great, but they actually make Him very small, because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Anyone who is baptized with the Spirit, but goes beyond the measure that the Spirit has revealed to him, continues to be a natural man.

Then some people say that Jesus only came in the likeness of sinful flesh. So sin was condemned in this likeness? A conclusion of this doctrine must be that Jesus was not a man, He only resembled a man. However, we believe that Jesus was a man. Phil. 2:8. That is why the Master loves calling Himself “The Son of Man,” however, I am afraid He is not well known by this name.