Daniel Tossanus Disputation on Adam and Christ (Part 1)
Disputatio Theologica: De illo loco d. Pauli 1 Cor 15:22. Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur: Ita et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur: Et de hac quaestione: An Christus pro omnibus sit mortuus?
1. For the apostle [Paul], a member of [God’s] household is a combination of both Adam, the first man who fell in paradise, and through whom sin and death spread into the world, and of the second man, who is simultaneously the Lord of heaven and, in the appointed fullness of time, he who became man from a woman.1
2. For each is as it were a root and head of those who propagate on their own, and in that combination, we see at the same time, as if [we were looking] in the clearest mirror, both our misery and freedom.
3. But just as the person of the second Adam is more illustrious, so his effects are more illustrious and grace is more astonishing and more powerful than the offense and death [which flows from the first Adam].
4. But we ought to look diligently into what that excellency and eminency of grace consists of, lest we persuade ourselves with the Origenists, in assigning and extending it to the whole world of the fallen—to all humans without exception, even those who have lived most disgracefully—that after a long time they will be cleansed and freed.2
5. And indeed, the apostle especially wants us to teach that the efficacy of Christ for the propagation and diffusion of grace and life among his own people is not inferior, but greater than the efficacy of Adam in the sin spread among his own offspring.
6. For even as nobler effects are accustomed to exist from nobler causes, so this our God-man surpasses the first Adam in all ways in dignity, power, and efficacy.
7. Then, the first Adam was only some type of the second; it was necessary that the latter be much more excellent, given that the former was of the earth, the latter of heavenly generation; the former was a propagator and author of sin and death, the latter of justice and life.3
8. Therefore, the gifts are much more excellent, which are effected through the Messiah, than those which have been lost in Adam inasmuch as Christ himself “was made by God our wisdom, justice, sanctification, redemption” [1 Cor 1:30] and through him not only has the image of God been repaired, but also our adoption in the Son of God is given, and our inheritance of eternal life.4
9. But as we undertake that which is now especially related to our purpose, we shall see how ALL ARE SAID TO HAVE BEEN MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST.
10. But although it is universally true that all are guilty of death in Adam and have died, nevertheless, the logic of the comparison requires that we compare and consider not only the event, but also the mode and condition of each.
Rom. 5; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45; Gal. 4.
Augustin. Cap. 43. de Haeresibus.
Rom. 5:14.
Rom. 8.