The
Federal Headship of Adam and Christ by
Jack
Kettler
In this study, we
will look at Adam, the first man and head of
the fallen race of mankind. Then we
will consider Christ Jesus, the head of the
redeemed race of mankind. In
theology, this is known as covenantal or
specifically, federal headship. What
exactly did Adam do by sinning? How did it
influence mankind? What did Christ
in His redemptive work accomplish as the
head of His redeemed people?
As in previous
studies, we will look at definitions,
scriptures, commentary evidence and
confessional support for the purpose of
glorifying God in how we live.
“Shew me thy ways, O
LORD; teach me thy paths.” (Psalm 25:4)
Definitions from two sources:
Federal Headship:
The position of Adam
and Christ as heads of a people whom they
represent, with Adam representing the
whole human race in the fall, and Christ
representing those who are united to
him through faith, so that God judges the
whole human race to be guilty sinners
in Adam, and judges all believers to be
righteous in Christ.. *
Federal Headship, in a broad sense,
is the position that the male represents his
descendants. In the case of Adam,
he was the federal head of mankind in that
he represented mankind in the fall.
We were “in him,” in his seed. When he fell,
we fell “in him.” Likewise, Jesus
is our federal head in salvation. He
represented his people on the cross. 1
Cor. 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ all shall be made
alive.” **
Scriptural passages that
support the
doctrine of federal headship:
The primary text is
found in Romans 5:12-19. What does this
passage say? This passage speaks about
the fall, and of man's guilt, caused by Adam
for his descendants. Then in a
striking parallel, the passage speaks of
Christ’s redemption for His people.
Christ and Adam are both federal heads.
“Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. (For until
the law sin was in the world: but sin
is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's
transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come. But not as the
offense, so also is the free gift. For if
through the offense of one many be
dead, much more the grace of God, and the
gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And
not as it was by one that sinned, so
is the gift: for the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is
of many offenses unto justification. For if
by one man's offense death reigned
by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one,
Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the
righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.” (Romans 5:12-19)
General Introductory
Comments:
These passages teach
the connection between Adam's sin and the
human race. Adam as the covenantal or
federal head of the human family brought sin
to his descendants. This is proved
by the fact that death now reigns in the
world. The apostle teaches that “all
sinned,”
or all were made or constituted sinners
because of their real shared guilt in
Adam's sin. Bringing sin and death to the
human race in which Adam was the
first man is known as “original sin.”
As a result of Adam's
sin, we all come into the world with a
fallen nature. Because of our sinful
natures, we make sinful choices. This
original sin, with which we are all born,
manifests itself throughout our lives in
actual sins which violate God's law,
both in sins of commission (active
transgression of God's law) and omission
(lack of conformity to God's law). In other
words, we can say, in Adam, all
have sinned and as a result, in Adam, all
have died.
These passages also
speak of Christ’s work for the many who will
be made righteous. The parallels
between Adam as a covenantal head and Christ
as a covenantal or federal head
are remarkable.
It will be helpful to
get some additional commentary information
on several key passages in regards
to the doctrine of federal headship from the
Romans selection in chapter five.
The commentary entries will explore what
Christ has done for the head of His
people in contrast to Adam.
Romans 5:12 from Matthew Poole's Commentary:
“From this verse to
the end of the chapter, the apostle makes a
large comparison between the first
and Second Adam, which he joins to what he
had said by the causal particle
wherefore: q.d. Seeing things are as I have
already said, it is evident, that
what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ.
This verse seems to be lame and
imperfect; the reddition is wanting in the
comparison; for unto this, as by one
man sin entered into the world, there should
be added, so by Christ, &c.
But the reddition, or second part of the
comparison, is suspended, by reason of
a long parenthesis intervening to Romans
5:18, 19, where the apostle sets down
both parts of the comparison.
By one man: viz.
Adam.
Objection. Eve first
sinned, 1 Timothy 2:14.
Answer. He is not
showing the order how sin first entered into
the world, but how it was
propagated to mankind. Therefore he mentions
the man, because he is the head of
the woman, and the covenant was made with
him: or, man may be used
collectively, both for man and woman; as
when God said: Let us make man, &
c.
Sin; it is to be
understood of our first parents’ actual sin,
in eating the forbidden fruit;
this alone was it that affected their
posterity, and made them sinners, Romans
5:19.
Entered into the
world; understand the inhabitants of the
world; the thing containing, by a
usual metonomy, is put for the thing
contained.
And death by sin; as
the due reward thereof.
Death here may be
taken in its full latitude, for temporal,
spiritual, and eternal death.
And so death passed
upon all men; seized upon all, of all sorts,
infants as well as others.
For that all have
sinned; others read it thus, in which all
have sinned, i.e. in which one man;
and so it is a full proof that Adam was a
public person, and that in him all
his posterity sinned and fell. He was our
representative, and we were all in
him, as a town or county in a parliament
man; and although we chose him not,
yet God chose for us.
The words ef’
w are rendered in which, in other
places, and the preposition epi is put for en;
see Mark 2:4 Hebrews 9:10: and if our
translation be retained, it is much to
the same sense; for if such die as never
committed any actual sin themselves,
(as infants do), then it will follow that
they sinned in this one man, in whose
loins they were: as Levi is said to have
paid tithes in Abraham’s loins,
Hebrews 7:9.” (1)
Romans 5:15 fromEllicott's
Commentary for English
Readers:
(15) “Now comes the
statement of the contrast which extends over
the next five verses. The points
of difference are thrown into relief by the
points of resemblance. These may
be, perhaps, best presented by the subjoined
scheme:—
Persons of the
action.
One man, Adam.
One Man, Christ.
The action.
One act of trespass.
One act of obedience.
Character of the
action viewed in its relation to the Fall
and Salvation of man.
The great initial
trespass or breach of the law of God.
The great
accomplished work of grace, or the gift of
righteousness.
Persons affected by
the action.
All mankind.
All mankind.
Proximate effect of
the action.
Influx of many
transgressions.
Clearing away of many
transgressions.
Ulterior effect of
the action.
Death.
Life.
The offence.—Perhaps
rather, trespass, to bring out the latent
antithesis to the obedience of
Christ. (Ellicott.)
One . . .
many.—Substitute throughout this passage,
“the one,” “the many.” By “the many,”
is meant “mankind generally,” “all men.” Dr.
Lightfoot quotes Bentley on the
importance of this change: “By this accurate
version some hurtful mistakes
about partial redemption and absolute
reprobation had been happily prevented.
Our English readers had then seen what
several of the Fathers saw and
testified, that the many, in an antithesis
to the one, are equivalent to all in
Romans 5:12, and comprehend the whole
multitude, the entire species of mankind,
exclusive only of the one.” “In other
words,” Dr. Lightfoot adds, “the benefits
of Christ’s obedience extend to all men
potentially. It is only human self-will
which places limits to its operation.”
Much more.—Because
God is much more ready to exercise mercy and
love than severity, to pardon than
to punish.
The grace of God, and
the gift by grace.—The grace of God is the
moving cause, its result is the gift
(of righteousness, Romans 5:17) imputed by
His gracious act to the many.” (2)
Romans 5:15-19 from Matthew
Henry's Concise Commentary:
5:15-19 “Through one
man's offence, all mankind are exposed to
eternal condemnation. But the grace
and mercy of God, and the free gift of
righteousness and salvation, are through
Jesus Christ, as man: yet the Lord from
heaven has brought the multitude of
believers
into a more safe and exalted state than that
from which they fell in Adam. This
free gift did not place them anew in a state
of trial, but fixed them in a
state of justification, as Adam would have
been placed, had he stood.
Notwithstanding the differences, there is a
striking similarity. As by the
offence of one, sin and death prevailed to
the condemnation of all men, so by
the righteousness of one, grace prevailed to
the justification of all related
to Christ by faith. Through the grace of
God, the gift by grace has abounded to
many through Christ; yet multitudes choose
to remain under the dominion of sin
and death, rather than to apply for the
blessings of the reign of grace. But
Christ will in nowise cast out any who are
willing to come to him.” (3)
Another biblical text
that provides important information about
federal headship is in Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 15:22: “For as
in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. “ From thePulpit Commentary:
Verse 22. – “As in
Adam all die. All of us partake of Adam's
nature, and are therefore liable to
the death which that nature incurred as the
law and condition of its humanity.
In Christ shall all be made alive? It is St.
Paul's invariable habit to isolate
his immediate subject; to think and to treat
of one topic at a time. He is not
here thinking directly and immediately of
the resurrection in general. In this
verse, writing to Christians who are "in
Christ," he is only thinking
and speaking of the resurrection of those
who are "in Christ." That
any can be nominally "in Christ," yet not
really so, is a fact which
is not at present under his cognizance;
still less is he thinking of the world
in general. In other words, he is here
dealing with "the resurrection of life"
alone, and not also with the "resurrection
of judgment" (John
5:26-29). Still, as far as his words alone
are concerned, it is so impossible
to understand the phrase, "shall all be made
alive," of a
resurrection to endless torments, that his
language at least suggests the conclusion
that "the principle which has come to
actuality in Christ is of sufficient
energy to quicken all men for the
resurrection to the blessed life" (Baur,
'Life
of St. Paul,' 2:219).” (4)
This headship principle is
illustrated
in the book of Numbers and book of Acts:
Achan’s sin was exposed
in Numbers 32:23. God commanded that Achan
and his entire family and all his belongings
be destroyed for this sin that is Achan’s
sin. In this example, Achan was
acting as the covenantal or federal head of
his posterity. Korah’s rebellion in
Numbers 16 is another example of this
principle. Possibly, another instance in
the New Testament is the case of Ananias and
Sapphira in Acts chapter 5 lying
and stealing from God’s representatives, the
apostles.
John Gill, one of the
great Puritan divines, provided an excellent
overview of the federal headship
of both Adam and Christ.
Selections from Of Christ as the Covenant Head
of the Elect by John Gill:
5. “Christ, in the
everlasting covenant, engaged in the name of
his people, to obey and suffer in
their stead; and accordingly he did both in
time, as their Head and
Representative. He obeyed the law, and
fulfilled all righteousness, not as a
single individual of human nature, and for
himself, but as the federal Head of
his people, as representing them; “That so
the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us”, says the apostle, (Rom.
8:4) that is, in the elect of God,
they being considered in Christ their Head,
when he became the fulfilling End
of the law for righteousness unto them; and
so they were made, or accounted,
the righteousness of God “in him” their
Head, (Rom. 10:4; 2 Cor. 5:21) in like
manner as he in their name engaged to suffer
for them; so in time he suffered
in their room and stead, as their head and
representative; insomuch that they
may be truly said to suffer with him; they
were all gathered together,
recollected in one Head, “in Christ”, and
sustained and represented by him when
he hung upon the cross, and are said to be
“crucified with” him (Eph. 1:10;
Col. 2:12).
6. In consequence of
Christ’s covenant engagements and
performances, when he rose from the dead, he
rose not as a private Person, but as a
public Person, as the head and
representative of all those for whom he
obeyed and suffered; and therefore they
are said to be quickened and raised together
with him, as they were then also
justified in him, when he himself, as their
Head and Surety was (Eph. 2:5, 6;
Col. 3:1; 1 Tim. 3:16). Yea, Christ is also
gone to heaven, not only as the
Forerunner of his people, but as their Head
and Representative; he has taken
possession of heaven in their name, appears
in the presence of God for them,
and represents them, as the high priest did
the children of Israel, in the holy
of holies; and hence they are said to be
made to sit together in heavenly
places “in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
7. The federal
headship of Christ, may be argued and
concluded from Adam being a federal head
and representative of all his natural
offspring; in which he was “the figure of
him that was to come”, that is, Christ; for
it was in that chiefly, if not
solely, that he was a figure of Christ; at
least, that is the chief, if not the
only thing the apostle has in view, (Rom.
5:14) as appears by his running the
parallel between them, as heads and
representatives of their respective
offspring: Adam, through his fall, conveying
sin and death to all his natural
descendants; and Christ, through the free
gift of himself, communicating grace,
righteousness, and life to all his spiritual
seed, the elect, the children his
Father gave him: and hence these two are
spoken of as the first and last Adam,
and the first and second man; as if they
were the only two men in the world,
being the representatives of each of their
seeds, which are included in them (1
Cor. 15:45, 47).
Now, as Christ stands
in the relation of an Head to the elect, he
has all things delivered into his
hands; in honour to him, and in love both to
him and them, and for their good;
God has given him to be “Head over all
things” to the church, (Matthew 11:27;
John 3:35; Eph. 1:22) all persons and things
are under his command, and at his
dispose, to subserve his interest as Head of
the church; even angels and men,
good and bad, and all things in heaven and
in earth; all power therein to
protect and defend his people, and to
provide for them; all fulness of grace,
and the blessings of it to supply them; the
government of the church, and of
the world, is on his shoulders, who
represents them; and therefore their
persons, grace, and glory, must be safe in
him; the covenant, and all its
blessings and promises, are sure in him, the
Head and Representative of his
people in it.” (5)
Some additional information
on federal
headship from the respected Evangelical
Dictionary
of Theology:
“…In the latter half
of Romans 5, Paul teaches that the entire
human race is summarized in the two
Adams. The first Adam was the federal head
of the race under the covenant of
works; the second Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the federal head of all
believers under the covenant of grace. Thus,
as the sin of Adam was legally and
effectively our sin, so the obedience of
Christ is legally and effectively the
righteousness of all believers. The federal
relationship in which Adam stood to
the race was the ground of the imputation of
his guilt to them and the judicial
cause of their condemnation. And the law
that condemned them could not justify
them unless an adequate reparation should be
made for the wrong done, a
reparation they were incapable of making
because of the corruption they
inherited from Adam as their natural and
federal head. To provide their
salvation, the needed reparation had to be
made by another who was not of
federal connection with Adam and therefore
was free from the imputation of his
guilt. Federal theology represents these
requirements as being met in Christ,
the second Adam, in whom a new race begins.
God had entered into covenant with
him, promising him the salvation of all
believers as the reward of his
obedience. But the obedience required of him
as the federal head of his people
was more than the mere equivalent of that
required of Adam. His representative
obedience must include a penal death. And
thus his resurrection victory is also
the victory of the new humanity that has its
source in him….” (6)
The Westminster
Confession of Faith is in harmony with other
reformed confessions on the topic
of headship. For example, see The
London
Baptist Confession 1689: - Chapter 6:
Of
the Fall of Man, Of Sin, And of the
Punishment Thereof.
Westminster Confession of
Faith Chapter
VII on the federal headship of Adam and
Christ:
Section I.—The
distance between God and the creature is so
great, that although reasonable
creatures do owe obedience unto him as their
Creator, yet they could never have
any fruition of him, as their blessedness
and reward, but by some voluntary
condescension on God's part, which he hath
been pleased to express by way of
covenant.
Section II.—The first
covenant made with man was a covenant of
works, wherein life was promised to
Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon
condition of perfect and personal
obedience.
I. That God entered
into a covenant with Adam in his state of
innocence, appears from Gen. ii. 16,
17: "The Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die." Here, indeed, there is no express
mention of a covenant; but we find
all the essential requisites of a proper
covenant. In this transaction there
are two parties; the Lord God on the one
hand, and man on the other. There is a
condition expressly stated, in the positive
precept respecting the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, which God was
pleased to make the test of man's
obedience. There is a penalty subjoined: "In
the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die." There is also a
promise, not distinctly expressed,
but implied in the threatening; for, if
death was to be the consequence of
disobedience, it clearly follows that life
was to be the reward of obedience.
That a promise of life was annexed to man's
obedience, may also be inferred
from the description which Moses gives of
the righteousness of the law:
"The man that doeth these things shall live
by them," - Rom. x. 5;
from our Lord's answer to the young man who
inquired what he should do to
inherit eternal life: "It thou wilt enter
into life, keep the
commandments,"—Matt. xix. 17; and from the
declaration of the apostle,
that "the commandment was ordained to
life."—Rom. vii. to. We are,
therefore, warranted to call the transaction
between God and Adam a covenant.
We may even allege, for the use of this
term, the language of Scripture. In
Hos. vi. 7 (margin), we read, "They, like
Adam, have transgressed the
covenant." This necessarily implies that a
covenant was made with Adam,
and that he violated it.
II. That this
covenant was made with Adam, not only for
himself, but also for all his natural
posterity, is a doctrine which has met with
much opposition. It is denied by
Pelagians and Socinians, who maintain that
he acted for himself alone, and that
the effects of his fall terminated upon
himself. Arminians admit that the whole
human race is injured by the first sin, but
at the same time controvert the
proposition, that Adam was their proper
representative. This truth, however,
may be easily established. The Scripture
represents Adam as a figure or type of
Christ,—Rom. v. 14; and wherein does the
resemblance between them consist?
Simply in this, that as Christ was a federal
head, representing all his
spiritual seed in the covenant of grace, so
Adam was a federal head
representing all his natural seed in the
covenant of works. In 1 Cor. xv. 45,
47, the one is called the first Adam, the
other, the last Adam; the one the
first man, the other the second man. Now,
Christ was not the second man in any
other sense, but as being the federal head
or representative of his seed; and,
therefore, the first man must have sustained
a similar character, as being the
federal head or representative of all his
natural posterity. The extension of
the effects of Adam's first sin to all his
descendants, is another strong proof
of his having represented them in the
covenant made with him. That he has
transmitted sin and death to all his
posterity, is clearly taught in the 5th
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans; and
unless his public character, as a
representative in the covenant, be admitted,
no satisfactory reason can be
assigned why we are affected by his first
sin in a way that we are not affected
by his subsequent transgressions, or the
transgressions of our more immediate
progenitors. We know that "the son shall not
bear the iniquity of the
father" (Ezek. xviii. 20); and had Adam been
merely a private person, his
sin could have affected us no more than that
of our immediate parents. The
conclusion is inevitable,—that in the
covenant of works, our first parent not
only acted for himself, but represented all
his natural posterity.
In closing:
For those who may be
struggling with this teaching about federal
headship. Consider the following
question.
If you deny original
sin and the federal headship of Adam, how
can you maintain, Christ’s headship
over His people? The parallels in Romans
chapter five between Adam and Christ
although opposites are inescapable.
“Blessed art thou, O LORD:
teach me thy
statutes.” (Psalm 119:12)
“Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy
2:15)
Notes:
1.Matthew Poole, Matthew
Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible,
Vol. 3, (Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985), p. 494.
2.Charles John
Ellicott, Bible
Commentary for English
Readers, Romans, Vol.2, (London,
England, Cassell and Company), p. 225.
3.Matthew Henry, Matthew
Henry's Concise Commentary,
(Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson), p.
1791.
4.H.
D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, 1 Corinthians, Vol.
9, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans
Publishing Company reprint 1978), p. 487.
5.John Gill, A Body
of Doctrinal Divinity, (New York,
New York, Andesite Press), pp. 343-344.
6.Walter A. Elwell,
Editor, Evangelical
Dictionary of
Theology, “Federal
Theology”
(Grand Rapids Michigan, Baker Book House,
1984), p. 413.
“To God, only wise,
be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs
according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28,
29)
Mr. Kettler has
previously published articles in the Chalcedon
Report and Contra
Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend
the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr.
Kettler is the author of the book defending
the Reformed Faith against attacks,
titled: The Religion That Started in
a Hat. Available at:
www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com
For more study:
*
For
a great source of theological definitions go
to Rebecca writes at Rebecca
Writes:
http://www.rebecca-writes.com/theological-terms-in-ao/