After Adam and Eve lost their first two sons, to murder and to exile respectively, they had another. Seth was born "in the image and likeness" of his father Adam (Genesis 5:3). Noah was a descendant of Seth, and everyone on earth today is a descendant of Noah. It follows that each man on earth is an image of an image of ... an image of Noah.
After humans had attempted and failed, for about 4000 years, to live the way our Creator had intended, Jesus was sent into the world. Eve had been promised that someone of her "seed" would come to crush the head of the snake who had deceived her (Genesis 3:15). The images of Adam in all the men had become too corrupt to produce a new kind of human. Therefore Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the "Most High" (Luke 1:35). Paul called Jesus the "second Adam" which is also the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).
Jesus is therefore both human and divine. Most of the non-Jewish Christians of the first few centuries came from a Hellenistic (Greek) culture. They struggled with the idea that a divine being could live in a material body, since they regarded matter as inherently evil and spirit as good. The early church debated the issue for centuries and drafted creeds to differentiate between catholic (general/orthodox) faith and heresy. If Jesus was not divine, it would be idolatry to worship him. That is why today Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims and Jews accuse Christians of idolatry. To make sure the flock understood the official position of the Church, the Nicene Creed (AD 325) states among others that Jesus was "begotten, not made, of the same essence as the Father". The Creed of Chalcedon (AD 451) went further and officially declared the Virgin Mary to be "Theotokos", the Greek word for "God-bearer" which some translate as Mother of God. Not all modern day followers of Jesus approve of this designation.
Because "all have sinned", we all deserve to die (Romans 3:23). This is according to the announcement of the Lord (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4). Jesus never sinned but he identified with sinners, even to the extent that he was baptised. John baptised people who confessed that they were sinners (Mark 1:4). Jesus was baptised by John "to fulfil all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). This means that he was going to die like a sinner and make it possible for those who believed in him to be regarded as righteous (Galatians 2:16). By faith in Jesus we become new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are the new humanity of which Jesus, the second Adam, was the first. His claim to this title was confirmed by his resurrection from the dead.
