by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Yet he was still but a creature. [Adam] was certainly lord of creation, but at his height and in his perfection he was never more than that. But in Christ we are in a different position. As the Apostle [Paul] tells us in chapter 15 of his First Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is the Lord from heaven.’ Adam was perfect, Adam was innocent, Adam was made in the image and likeness of God, but he was never made a ‘partaker of the divine nature.’ As we have seen already [earlier in this commentary], that privilege does not make us gods; but it does make a real difference to us. It puts us into a new relationship to God that even Adam did not enjoy.
Christians are ‘in Christ’. As such we have been raised to a higher level than Adam. Though he was perfect Adam was subject to fall and failure; but – and I say it with reverence and to the glory of God – those who are ‘in Christ’ cannot finally fall away; they cannot become lost. . . .
In Christ not only are the blessings which Adam lost restored to us, but we are given even more; in this new relationship to God which we enjoy in Christ we stand in a higher position than Adam. . . . Though you may have fallen grievously into sin in your past life, now, as a believer in Christ, you are a child of God, a son of God adopted into this new relationship, given new rank and status and position, raised to a level that is even higher than that of Adam before the Fall. And while it is true that in this life, and in this world we only enjoy some of the privileges and the honors and the blessings attached to it, we know that all these are but the ‘first fruits’, they are but the ‘foretaste’. ‘The crowning day is coming by and by’ when we shall ‘see him as he is’ and, being ‘like him’ we shall enter into all the prerogatives and privileges of our heavenly sonship. This is, and will ever be true of all Christians, all who belong to Christ, all who are ‘in him’.”
----
From Exposition of Ephesians 1 in his book, God’s Ultimate Purpose. In his commentary on Ephesians 1:5-6,