Representation: God’s Wisdom for Salvation from Sin

You know, it doesn’t really matter how many times people say it, it’s still not true, when they say that a man cannot represent a woman’s interests. 

And how thankful I am that two men did!

Scripture is clear about such representation: 

 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

.

The simple truth is Representation is God’s Wisdom for Salvation from Sin.  Only God could have seen the wisdom in it from the very beginning.  Even before He picked up some dust of the Earth and made the decision to create Adam.  Before God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).  Man would rule as God’s representative (in His Image, in His likeness) and implement God’s reign over the rest of creation.  Representation was there.  Intentionally.

Had representation not been there in Adam, salvation would not be possible by representation in Christ.

Let that sink in.  The genius of it all, on many levels.

When we deny we’re created by God, we are excluding ourselves from being redeemed in Him also.  We’d miss out on representation completely.  We’re only represented because we were created.

When we deny we sin and have a sin nature inherited through Adam’s first sin, we are denying also our representation in Christ’s finished work on the Cross, defeating sin for us.  We are represented as the human race with Adam’s having sin’s self-inflicted brokenness and Christ being the healer by defeating it.

Moreover, when I—as a woman—deny my relationship to man and Eve’s being formed from Adam, I’m excluding myself from being represented by Christ.  When I view every man as the product of “toxic masculinity” I deny that Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  Jesus was a biological male and not toxic whatsoever.  For women to paint all men with a “broad-brush” is wrong and I need to accept, with gratitude, that I can be—and was—represented by a man who died on a Cross in my place.

What do you think about representation now?  Why do surface characteristics only go so far?  Do you see the danger in demanding a woman’s savior, an Asian savior, a black savior, and a gay savior, etc?  Such identity-representation requirements are skin-deep and ineffective.  I’m thankful for God’s way.  It’s genius, really, that Representation is God’s Wisdom for Salvation from Sin.