The First Adam, The Last Adam (and all the rest of us)

The Believer

Now in regard to believers, we have people in 3 different categories:

1. Believers who only have the witness of the creation around them.

2. Believers who only had the witness of the Old Testament.

3. Believers who live post Pentecost. 

Witness of Creation: These people would have been any believer who lived before Pentecost and had not the witness of Scripture. Men are only held accountable to the revelation that they've been given. No one will be condemned for not having heard of Jesus Christ. Romans tells us that truth about God (including His eternal Godhead and power) can be seen and understood by the creation around us. 

Now the disadvantage for one who has not the witness of Scripture, is that they have no way of externally verifying that what they think is true of God actually is. Now they will probably come to recognition that the religious practices of their tribe or culture are not the total truth (at least); although they may make connections of attributes of God in things around them. (I.E. God is strong like a bear. Wise like a fox. Industrious like bees.) They may recognize spring as a type of resurrection. They may recognize one monotheistic Spirit over all other "spirits" of created things in this world. They may have in their cultures messianic figures who've 'delivered their nation'; brought peace and harmony or great wisdom to heal the sick. All these are examples of "witness of the creation". 

Believers who only had the Old Testament: This obviously applies to anyone who was born and died before the New Testament was written. These folks are a lot like "witness of creation" believes in that their revelation is incomplete. These believers though do have an advantage over "witness of creation" folks simply because they are now told the Redeemer is coming. 

Even people outside of Old Testament Israel who had limited knowledge of a Redeemer promised to the Hebrews may have still believed in a "universal concept" of a Redeemer. Oh, I've heard people say that the Hebrews have a promised Messiah, well so does our culture. I hope this is true and GOD sends one. Again, their knowledge is limited, yet this may constitute genuine faith? 

Now the major thing both of these groups are missing is security. Knowledge in and of itself offers no security of actually being redeemed. Security only comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which works itself out as evidence based on obedience. The indwelling Spirit gives people power to obey God and without that arrangement; those who were claimed and sealed to redemption prior to Pentecost had a much harder time obeying. This was because they didn't have any internal help. 

Post Pentecost: Now anyone who lives from the point the Holy Spirit was poured out and beyond has a distinct advantage. Because of the atonement, the Holy Ghost now cleaves Himself to the personhood of the believer. This makes revelation of truth a lot easier to attain to regardless of how much written revelation you may be lacking. There are plenty of stories of missionaries coming to tribes who don't have Scripture and encountering people who convert right away stating: "This is what I sensed was true." or "This is what I've been looking for my entire life."   

Mode of Revelation:

Now because Jesus was incarnated in the likeness of the first Adam with the intent that he/He would be the sacrifice for sin; he bore no obvious advantage over Adam and this is why his Divinity was veiled by his humanity. 

Although the Divine nature still bore the attributes of God (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence and eternal) the limitations of his mortal body veiled these things from both the rest of humanity as well as Jesus's own awareness; until the rightful appointed time. As the first Adam received revelation (direct communication) - so did Jesus.