Donna Danna (31 March 2012)
"TO:  PATTI C.  -- YOUR POST ABOUT FLESH AND BONES"


Hi Patti,
 
As you suggested, I went back and reread your post called the Temptation at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2012/pattic315.htm which also led me to closely read your post called Flesh And Bones at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2012/pattic313-2.htm in which you stated the following:
 
"Jesus is the last Adam, he is part of the human family and had flesh and blood inherited from them.When he died for us, and rose again, his body became a spiritual body just like the first Adam had before the Fall."
 
We know that the Lord Jesus Christ had a spiritual body of flesh and bones when He was resurrected from the dead which was His immortal, incorruptible body.  According to Luke 24:37 Jesus' disciples were terrified and afraid supposing that they had seen a spirit when Jesus appeared to him.  In Luke 24:39-40 Jesus says, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet." 
 
So no, I don't think that the first Adam had the spiritual body of flesh and bone that you claimed he had before his fall in the Garden of Eden since Jesus' spiritual body after He was resurrected from the dead was an immortal, spiritual body of flesh and bones; otherwise, I don't think that the Lord would have needed to say what He said in Genesis 3:22-23, "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:  therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."  This means that Adam and Eve didn't have eternal life before they left the Garden.   If Adam and Eve had spiritual bodies of flesh and bone that were immortal like Jesus had, then they would have been immortal fallen creatures after they became disobedient.  I think Adam and Eve had flesh and blood bodies, and the Lord didn't want them now to take of the fruit of the tree of life to receive eternal life which would have included immortal, spiritual bodies.
 
The apostle Paul gives us more information about the natural body and the spiritual body in the following verses:
 
1 Corinthians 15:39, "All flesh [is] not the same flesh: but [there is] one [kind of] flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, [and] another of birds."
 
1 Corinthians 15:44-50, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit. Howbeit that [was] not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man [is] of the earth, earthy: the second man [is] the Lord from heaven. As [is] the earthy, such [are] they also that are earthy: and as [is] the heavenly, such [are] they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
 
So the first man Adam had a natural body created from the dust of the earth and not an immortal, spiritual body.  It's too bad that Adam and Eve didn't eat of the tree of life while they were in the Garden of Eden before they were disobedient so that they could have had eternal life.