From one perspective, we have very little to do with our transfer from Adam into Christ. Yet, we derive all of the benefits. Now we begin to see the identification truths.

"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30, NASB)

"For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Col. 1:13, NASB)

God delivered us from the fallen Adamic race through Christ. The first step of this deliverance was for Christ to become a man, to be united with mankind. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us . . ." (Jn. 1:14, KJV) Christ joined the human race as the "last Adam" (1 Cor. 15:45), the final federal head of man. He did this so that He could more than undo the damage done to man through the fall.

We should note that when Christ became flesh, He was not identified with man in man’s sinful condition. Christ knew no sin in His human living (Heb.4:15). As we shall see, it was only on the cross that Christ became identified with man’s sinfulness.

In His death on the cross, Christ dealt with a number of man’s problems, but for our study purposes here, we will speak of only two of the these problems. Firstly, He dealt with man’s sins, man’s record of unrighteous actions before God.

"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . . He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God." (Heb. 10:10-12, NASB)

But, as we have seen, we have a deeper problem than our sins. We ourselves are sinners. Our very constitution is wrong! So, Christ also came to deal a death blow to the sin principle that reigns within man.

"For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8:3, KJV)

In this verse we see the mind and intention of God. Christ was identified with the fallen Adamic race by being "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (not the reality of sinful flesh) in order to deal with sin itself (the sin principle and nature within man). God judged the sin within man at the cross. He condemned it to the death it deserved in the eyes of a holy and righteous God. On the cross, Christ not only took upon Himself the sins of the world (1 Pet. 2:24), but He also became sin itself in the eyes of God, so that God could fully judge sinful man.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21, NASB)

Thus, at the cross, in Christ, God judged not only what we have done, but also who we were – sinners.

Praise the Lord that we did not have to bear this punishment! Christ bore it for us!

This matter is also reflected in another verse – Romans 6:6. Romans 6:6 is a key verse in experiencing the victorious Christian life. Here we bring into focus our transfer from Adam into Christ.

"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be made powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Rom. 6:6, NASB, marginal rendering)

In the Amplified Version this important verse reads:

"We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body, [which is the instrument] of sin, might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin" (Rom. 6:6, AMP)

What exactly is the "old man" that was crucified with Christ?

Christ, as the Last Adam, took all that we were to the cross and we were crucified with Him there. William Newell, in his classic commentary on Romans, describes the significance of this act in God’s eyes: "The old man was crucified with Christ, and all that belonged to ‘man in the flesh’ was ended before God there on Christ’s cross."³ As the rest of the verse (Romans 6:6) and context state, the practical result in our experience of our being crucified with Christ is not that indwelling sin is eliminated (the presence of the sin nature of the old man is not taken away), but its power and dominion can now be broken in our lives, if we truly live by faith. More will be said about this in a future lesson.

Christ’s first step to deliver fallen mankind was to become flesh. His second step was to be a sacrifice for sins, and to condemn sin in the flesh, thus putting to death what we were in Adam. His third step was to raise us up as a new creation in Christ.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus . . ." (Eph. 2:4-6, NASB)

We were there in Christ at the cross, and we were there being made alive with Christ (as a new creation) and being raised with Him. The secret of our transfer from Adam to Christ is that we, as believers, are joined with Christ in His death and His resurrection. He ended His relationship with the fallen race and sin at the cross. He died to His identification with sin after He was judged at the cross in our place. "For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all." (Rom. 6:10, NASB). Then, "Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father" (Rom. 6:4, NASB), in order to live in resurrection to God (Rom. 6:10)

His experience can be our experience because we were there with Him. We too can now be dead to sin and alive to God. In this resurrection we have a new life, not like the old life in Adam. Thus, the result of the transfer is this: "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Cor. 5:17, NASB)

Here is an illustration. Let’s say that I buy an airplane ticket to go from Charlotte to Seattle. Once I get on board, I do nothing to get to Seattle. I just sit in the plane. The powerful jet does all the work as it revs up, takes off and climbs into the sky. Then it flies 600 mile per hour into head winds and lands in Seattle. How did I get to Seattle? I just was there in the plane. Wherever it went, I went. It did all of the work. Once we receive Christ it is like boarding the plane. He has done all of the work to transfer us from our old place in Adam to our new place in Christ. Even when we receive Him now, in the 21^st century, we receive His history of almost 2,000 years ago when He was crucified and resurrected.

The transfer we have talked about relates to our position, where we are in God’s eyes. From His eternal perspective, we have been transferred from our place, or position, in Adam to our new position in Christ. Yet, we must go on to see that our experience is a different matter than our position. According to our position, we have died to sin and we are living in resurrection to God, but according to our experience this surely is not always the case! We must have great confidence that Christ has done all of the work to get us out of Adam into Christ, yet a life of faith is needed in order to have this fact become evident in our living. We will explore this matter of faith in future lessons.  In our Christian life, we will see again and again that the theme of our having been crucified with Him and raised with Him is essential to our being able to actually live in Christ. Therefore, it is very important that we meditate on these verses and their spiritual truths.

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