“He restores to us what we lost in Adam” by John Calvin

“1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” (Hebrews 1:1-4)

“The word ‘heir‘ (1:2) is ascribed to Christ as manifested in the flesh; for being made man, He put on our nature, and as such received this heirship, and that for this purpose, that He might restore to us what we had lost in Adam.

For God had at the beginning constituted man, as His son, the heir of all good things; but through sin the first man became alienated from God, and deprived himself and his posterity of all good things, as well as of the favour of God.

We hence only then begin to enjoy by right the good things of God, when Christ, the universal heir, admits us into an union with Himself. For He is an heir that He may endow us with His riches. But the Apostle now adorns Him with this title, that we may know that without Him we are destitute of all good things.”

–John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 34. Calvin is commenting on Hebrews 1:1-4.