The Last Adam is Our Representative

 The following is from Arthur T. Pierson's excellent book Shall We Continue in Sin:

"Christ is therefore, as the Last Adam, what the first Adam was, the representative of the race.

"By blood and birth we were all identified with Adam; by the faith in the blood that atones and by the new birth of the Spirit, we become identified with the Last Adam. We exchange the standing of sinners for the standing of saints, the bankruptcy of sin for the riches of holiness, and the forfeited right to the Tree of Life for the full and eternal enjoyment of all sacramental privilege. Rev. 22:1-14, R.V.

"The most precious names applied to Christ are more or less a commentary on this most comprehensive title, the Last Adam.

"He is the Good Shepherd, so identified with the sheep that by His death he purchases their salvation from death.

"He is the Vine, so identified with the branches that by His life they receive life, strength, growth and power to bear fruit.

"He is the Foundation, the very basis, so identified with the building that every believer as a living stone both rests upon Him and is cemented to Him and built up with Him into one building or Temple of God and habitation of God through the Spirit.

"He is the Bridegroom, so one with the bride that she is reckoned part of Him, they twain being one flesh.

"He is the Head and we are members of His body and cannot be separated from Him, so identified with Him that all life, growth, sustenance, increase, depend on the union.

"Hence we can understand how God reckons us to have died and been buried when He died and was buried."