v class="hft-lines">

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 provides a clear statement of the representative nature of biblical governance, "by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection" (1 Corinthians 15:21). Death and resurrection are dispensed to the whole of humanity through a covenantal head who serves as a representative, who represents the people to God and who represents God to the people. The Greek "dia" is a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act, and literally means "through." So a man,Jordan 4, a covenantal head or representative -- Adam,Foamposite Galaxy, then Christ -- is the channel through which either death or resurrection has come to ... who? Verse 22 tells us that "in Adam all die,Foamposites, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."



"All" (Greek: pas) here means all as in everyone and suggests a whole or undivided measure. The question is, all of what? All of who? All of some portion, or all of a whole? Calvinists understand the issues surrounding the word "all." And yet we know that God does not stutter or misspeak His mind.



There is no problem with understanding that all have died in Adam, that use of the word "all" means every single person who has been or ever will be born this side of Christ's return in glory (Christ excepted, of course). But we must be careful not to fall into the apostasy of Universalism as we try to understand what is meant by "in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). We must be careful to read Scripture, particularly sections like this one,Foamposites 2012, in the light of the whole of Scripture.



We must keep in mind the Westminster Confession 1:7, "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." Understanding all of the riches of Scripture is not easy because some ideas are balanced and nuanced by others. And yet, all of God's people can attain a sufficient understanding of Scripture. Sufficient for what? Sufficient to continue in faithfulness and to grow in sanctification.



Many of the issues that are dealt with in this section of First Corinthians are deep and complex, and we need to take care to not close our minds before we consider everything that Scripture says about a particular concern. However, my purpose here is not to be comprehensive, but to be suggestive, to sketch some of the broad outlines of God's concerns and invite you to further consideration under the guidance of the power and presence