Adam is “first” (πρωτος) as the ancestor of all other
human beings, who will exist “in his likeness, according to his image” (Gen.
5:3). Christ is “last” (εσχατος), not in the sense of
being the last human being who will ever exist, but as the proto-ancestor of a
new human lineage who will live with the life of the new creation. Paul does
not at this point name him “Christ” because he wants to bring out his Adamic function.
As the first Adam was determinative for all his descendants in regard to a
legacy of sin leading to death (Rom. 5:12a-c), though not without their ratification
of him (Rom. 5:12d), so Christ, as last Adam, is determinative for a new human
lineage, brought about through faith and baptism, where, again, not without
their cooperation, righteousness will lead to (eternal) life (Rom. 5:17-19,
21). The first Adam, formed from the dust of the ground, became a living being
when God breathed into him the breath of ordinary human life (ψυχη [LXX
Gen. 2:7])—a form of life that was not immune to physical mortality when that
was imposed as a penalty for sin (Gen. 3:19, 22-23). The last Adam, raised from
the dead “according to the Spirit of holiness” (Rom. 1:4), because, as πνευμα
ζωοποιουν, an active agent of life—the eternal life that will transcend
the bonds of death.
Few interpreters of Paul explore further the
significance of this description (πνευμα ζωοποιουν) of the ongoing Adamic
role of Christ or, more precisely, ask how Christ, as agent of the
Spirit, imparts life. The taut participial phrase is best seen as summing up
what Paul writes concerning the life-giving role of the Spirit (“Christ in you”)
in Romans 8:9-13 (9:4). As Paul’s similarly taut phrase “The Spirit means life
because of righteousness” (το δε πνευμα
ζωη δια δικαιοσυνην [8:10c]) makes clear, the
risen Lord functions as life-giving Spirit in that, in contrast to the legacy
of sin leading to death stemming from the first Adam (Rom. 5:12), he
inaugurates and preserves a legacy of “righteousness leading to life” (Rom.
5:18b). As I have already argued, the highly “ethical” tone of the warning in
Romans 8:12-13 ensures that the giving of resurrection life to the mortal
bodies of believers (v. 11) will be on the basis of their participation in the
justification (Rom 4:25) and righteousness of Christ, preserved and lived out
up to the judgment.
Paul rounds off his argument for the risen
existence by drawing to the creation story in Genesis 2:7 the earlier account
in Genesis 1:26=28 that tells of human creation in the image and likeness of
God. This enables him to assert (v. 49) that, as we have borne “the image of
the man of dust” (την εικονα του
χοικου), we will also bear “the image of the man of heaven” (την
εικονα του επουρανιου). As we have inherited
and so bear the moral (“dust-like” [χοικος]) likeness (εικων) of
the first Adam, so, inserted through faith and baptism “into” the last Adam, we
will bear the likeness (εικων) of his glorious heavenly
existence.
It is likely, however that Paul’s use of εικων here, particularly with reference to the risen state
of Christ, has something more than mere “likeness” in view. We have noted with
references to 2 Corinthians 3:18 the sense of Christian life involving a
continual transformation through the power of the Spirit “into” the image of
God that Christ, as risen Lord, is (2 Cor. 4:4, 6). We further noted the
expression of this in Romans 8:29b as the destiny intended by God for human beings
from the start. These parallels suggest that, beyond mere likeness, “bearing
the image of the heavenly” here in 1 Corinthians 15:49b has a similarly strong
sense of participation. As “image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4, 6; see 3:18), the risen
Lord is replying successfully the role that Adam muffed—that is, the role of
bearing the divine image and likeness before the remainder of creation (Gen.
1:26-28; Ps. 8:5-8). Through faith and baptism believers enter into the image
of God that Christ as risen Lord is. Thereby, through the power of the
Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18), they regain n the new creation the glory lost by sin
(Rom. 3:23) and come to fulfill eschatologically the role God intended for
human beings from the start. (Brendan Byrne, Paul and the Economy of Salvation: Reading
from the Perspective of the Last Judgment [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker
Academic, 2021], 220-22)