In our quest to determine the exact nature of Jesus’ incarnation, we must examine His conception.
Three times, the word ‘conceived’ was used when referring to Jesus’ incarnation, when the writers could have used some other word, such as “placed” or “created” or “manifested” if a fully formed embryo was simply placed there. (Matt. 1:20, Lk. 1:31, 2:21) But they used the word “conceived”. And conception requires two parts being joined together to form one embryo.
One of the two parts is easy to identify because each of these three references to Jesus’ conception states that it was “of the Holy Spirit”. So, one of the two parts was the Holy Spirit.
So, what was the other part? Paul answered this question in the following passage. Let’s see what Paul wrote:
“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.”
1 Cor. 15:45-47
In this one passage, Paul compares and contrasts Adam and Jesus.
“The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.”
The Last Adam
Paul identifies Jesus as “the last Adam”. In order to be “the last Adam”, Jesus had to be one of the Adams. There was the “first man Adam” and “the last Adam”. Therefore, they were two of a kind. There is no other way to interpret Jesus as “the last Adam”. We know that Adam was a man and we know that before Adam’s fall[2], he was sinless. We also have established that Jesus was sinless from birth, so Jesus could be the last Adam and remain sinless if He was a pre-fall Adam.
Paul expounded upon this revelation by saying,
“The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.”
It is easy to understand that the first Adam was a living being, but what did Paul mean when he said that the last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit? Paul explained this in his next sentence, “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” Paul wrote that Jesus was a ”life-giving spirit” and that His incarnation as the last Adam was “spiritual”.
Similarly in Paul’s letter to the Romans:
“Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Rom. 5:14
Remember the words of the angel when he spoke to Mary about the conception:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God…For with God, nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:35, 37
This means that the introduction of Adam into Jesus’ person was “spiritual”, or supernatural. The sinless Adam was contributed to Jesus’ person supernaturally by the Spirit. That does not make the contribution any less Adam, it just explains how the sinless Adam was added to Jesus’ being.
This may be difficult to mentally process, but the angel said, “the power of the Highest will overshadow you” and “For with God, nothing will be impossible.” This statement by the angel should be applied equally to both parts of the conception: to both the Holy Spirit’s part and to the Adamic part. God did it, and with God, nothing is impossible.
The second Man
Paul also describes and identifies Jesus as “the second Man”. There were millions of men born between Adam and Jesus, so what does it mean that Jesus was “the second Man”? It means that out of all the men born after Adam, Jesus was the only one that was like Adam, sinless and a direct Son of God. In this regard, He was the second Man. It matches perfectly with Jesus being the second Adam. As the last Adam, He was also the second Man. Jesus was a man, but only in the way that Adam was a man.
Summary
Adam was the first Adam. Jesus was the last Adam.
Adam was the first man. Jesus was the second man.
Adam was natural. Jesus was spiritual.
Adam was from the earth. Jesus was from heaven.
Adam was sinless for a time. Jesus was sinless for all the time.
So, the man Adam that was spiritually contributed to Jesus’ conception and incarnation was from the sinless man Adam before his fall, not from Mary.
One may wonder why God would beget His Son this way, with a part from Adam. Well, Jesus was going to provide for every need of man. In order to do that, Jesus needed to suffer for every need of man. In order to do that, Jesus needed to be able to experience every need of man. So, the body that Jesus sacrificed needed to feel and experience all things human and suffer to the full extent of human suffering.
“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me’.”
Heb. 10:5
For example: How could Jesus genuinely bare our griefs and carry our sorrows if He was not genuinely human enough to feel those emotions?
“He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:3-5
This part of Jesus’ perfect and complete redemptive work clearly illustrates the need for Jesus to be a man. God wanted Jesus to redeem mankind from every result of the fall and provide for every need of man. In order to do this, Jesus needed to experience every wound that men suffer and every need that men would have in order to redeem us from them.
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Phil. 4:19
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Rom. 8:32
“For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Rom. 5:17
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
2 Cor. 8:9
Therefore, Jesus’ body was a combination of the Lord God from heaven and the man Adam before he sinned. “Jesus Christ, the Son of God”[3] and “Adam, the son of God”[4].
[1] Gen. 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.”
[2] Gen. 1:31
[3] Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
[4] Luke 3:38