First and Last Adam

A Muslim may ask:

The only way back to paradise is to be righteous by doing good deeds and avoiding sins. What does your faith mean by “we are saved by grace”? What is grace?

First, let me suggest that you read my answer to the previous question, “Adam’s Sin“, before you continue.

Because of Adam’s transgression of God’s commandment, we inherited from him the nature of sin, and therefore we inherited the punishment for that sin, which is death.

It is because of Adam’s sin that we are all stuck here on earth with no way back to paradise. God had a plan to restore us to eternal life in paradise, and that is through a last, righteous Adam: Jesus Christ.

It is no secret that Islam teaches that Jesus is like Adam, and that he is the only one who is like Adam (Quran 3:59). Islam also teaches that Jesus was sinless. In the hadith of intercession in Sahih Muslim, on the Day of Judgment mankind goes from prophet to prophet asking for help, and each one names the sin that disqualifies him – Adam his tree, Noah his prayer, Abraham his three lies, Moses the man he killed – and sends them on to the next. Jesus names nothing; he alone has no sin to mention (Sahih Muslim 194; Bukhari 4712).

Maybe it makes sense now why Jesus was not born from a father like the rest of us: so that he would not inherit Adam’s ability to sin.

His birth from a woman alone was foretold at the very beginning: it is the offspring of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent that deceived Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15).

The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ as the last Adam, who came to reconcile us with God through his righteousness and obedience. He came to fix what the first Adam failed in. Jesus came to give us life in place of the death that reigned over us because of Adam’s transgression.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:21–22

Now, we agree that we were not in paradise with Adam and Eve when they sinned, and yet we have seen how their transgression caused their offspring – us – to experience death like them as a result of their sin.

Could we not also agree that God will reconcile us to himself and restore us to paradise through the righteousness of the last Adam, whom He sent to redeem us?

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:18–19

Do we really need to do much to go back to our original place in paradise? Did the righteousness of the last Adam, Jesus, not already fix the problem of transgression caused by the first Adam? And if it did, what need is there for another prophet after him?

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

We are already justified through the righteousness of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. But not automatically: you have to believe in him and follow him in order to receive this free gift of grace and restoration to eternity in paradise after death. That is what grace means – it is not earned; it is received.

… as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21