"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22).
Verses 21 and 22 support, like their parallel verses in Romans 5, the doctrine of federal headship. In describing the connection believers have with Christ as the first-fruits of the resurrection, Paul draws the analogy between the relationship all people have with Adam and that which all believers have with Christ. He calls Christ the first-fruits because just as the first of the harvest was dedicated to God as a representation of the whole of harvest in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, as the first-fruits of the resurrection, represents the resurrection, or harvest, of all who are in Him. Because He was raised to new life, so all who are vitally connected to Him and represented by Him will be raised to new life. Just as there is a “causal relation between the death of Adam and the death of his descendants, so there is a causal relation between the resurrection of Christ and that of His people,” Hodge wrote.
Federal headship is that doctrine which describes the relation Adam has to all humanity and the relation Christ has to His church. God selected Adam to be a representative of all his descendants. As human beings, we are by nature and by the declaration of God bound to Adam and the consequences of his actions. This is often difficult for independently-minded Americans to swallow. Many people ask, “Why couldn’t I choose my own representative?” Without knowing it, when people ask such a question they are foolishly challenging the wisdom of God. But who are we to question God? We must simply accept that God wisely chose Adam to represent us. Adam acted in our place, and had we been in the same position we would have acted no differently. When Adam sinned, he acted in our place as our head; therefore, we received the same condemnation and penalty of death that Adam received.
In the same way, Christ serves as the federal head of the church. lust as the condemnation and death of Adam fall on all who are in him (all humanity), justification and life, which comes through Christ, fall on all who are in Him (the church). “Christ is the cause of life because His righteousness is the judicial ground of our justification,” Hodge wrote, “and because we derive from Him the Holy Ghost, which is the source of life both to the soul and body.”
Reread 1 Corinthians 15:20–23 and then read Romans 5:12–21. Don’t think that because all died in Adam, all will be justified in Christ. This would teach universalism. The key is all in Adam die, and all in Christ live. Who, then, is in Christ? How are you in Christ? Why does this guarantee your resurrection?
