Steve Stanley’s Reviews > Handbook on the Gospels: (An Accessible Bible Study Resource with Summaries of Each Major Section of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) > Status Update

He [Jesus] pays the price for the first Adam's transgression and offers life to his followers. To stand before God, it is not enough to be innocent of sin; one must also possess perfect righteousness—the righteousness that the first Adam was to earn in the garden and the righteousness that the last Adam did earn in his faithful life. Believers enjoy both benefits by . . . trusting in Jesus.

Now the narrator describes him as a 'gardener.' . . . John presents Jesus as the inaugurator of the new eternal cosmos—the new and better garden. Genesis 1–2 presents Adam as a king, priest, and prophet who is responsible for extending the cultic boundaries of Eden, eliminating all unclean things . . . In his death and resurrection, Jesus has emerged victorious as a greater Adam in a glorified existence.

What is true of Jesus will be true of the disciples. Just as he suffers, they too will suffer. Just as he is lifted up, they too will be lifted up. . . . Jesus, as Isaiah's Suffering Servant, creates and purifies a group of faithful servants who constitute true and faithful Israel. And since they are cleansed [John 13], they are now prepared for the Spirit's descent so that they may be the end-time temple of God.

In a word, the road to Emmaus tangibly demonstrates how Jesus's life, death, and resurrection fulfills the entire sweep of redemptive history—the very thing Luke promised to do at the beginning of his Gospel (1:1–4).