LORD FROM HEAVEN

The first man, Adam, was described as of the earth, earthy. The second man, Christ, is from heaven. These two adjectives describe not only the origin of the two, but also their orientation. Earthy implies earthly, fleshly, natural; heavenly implies spiritual. Therefore Christ is the complete contrast to Adam.

The title ‘Lord from heaven’, as we have it in the King James Version, reminds us that Christ has come from heaven. (J. N. Darby and others omit the words ‘the Lord’.) Unlike every other human being, He did not begin His existence at conception; He existed in heaven as the Son of God before ever His human body was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, Luke 1.31. We are born into this world; the Son of God ‘came’. The Lord was sent by the Father. ‘When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son’, Gal. 4. 4. He said Himself, He ‘came down from heaven,’ John. 3. 13. All of these passages clearly teach the preexistence of Christ.

Yet that is not all this phrase ‘from heaven’ implies. Though it does remind us of the pre-existence of Christ and His incarnation, it is chiefly intended to remind us of the resurrection of Christ. The whole point of this passage is to encourage us to hold on to the fact that death, for the believer, is not the end. Christ died for our sins, He was buried and He rose again. In that He is risen from the dead, He has become the firstfruits of them that sleep in Him. The Lord who came from heaven is the Lord who has returned to heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He now has a resurrection body.

Without doubt, as sinners we bore the image of the earthy, v. 49. We were characterized by all that characterized Adam. In the same way we shall bear the image of the heavenly. The word ‘image’ implies both likeness and representation. When at last we stand in glory, in resurrected and heavenly bodies, we shall be fully like Him, ‘for we shall see him as he is’, 1 John 3. 2, and we shall be a representation of Him.

The Lord from heaven came into this fallen world that He might take to heaven members of a fallen race. He will yet ‘bring many sons to glory’. What a prospect this is for His own!