2nd August: Original Sin

Speaker: Chris Laws

Only the Bible provides an explanation for the universality of sin. The Fall of man has resulted in all being “born in sin”. But why are we condemned because Adam fell? This study traces the impact of Adam’s disobedience.

“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners...” (Rom 5.19 ).

Ever since the Fall of Adam, the whole human race has been sinful, fallen.
“There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3.10).
A river of poison has flowed through the whole human race from that event.
Sin universal – nothing more obviously true. Beyond dispute.
The awareness of sin is universal; but there is no explanation outside Scripture.
     People just say, “nobody's perfect”, but have no explanation.
There is always war in the world.
     Some people commit atrocities, genocide, murder.
     The nicest worldings turn out to be not so nice after all. Eg Sir Humphrey Davy.
Philosophers have never come up with an explanation.
Jonathan Edwards – if the Bible were silent here, we would be left asking, “Why does everybody sin?”
There was a superficial idea in the 18th C that man was inherently good.
     Some still think so today. You have to be blindfold to imagine that.
The hatred of divine things today, scorn for God is widespread.

HOW HAS ADAM INFLUENCED THE WHOLE RACE?
The effects of his fall were rapid. It was downhill all the way from then on.
Corruption spread in the world like wildfire.
Gen 3 the Fall; Gen 4 Cain murdered Abel; by Gen 6 “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The result was a worldwide judgement. So what happened?
Over the centuries theologians have identified three streams. Each is important.

1 – IMITATION

People influence one another, “Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor 15.33).
Sinful Adam influenced his children.
     Parents worry about children getting in with the wrong set.
Dysfunctional families breed swearing, theft, criminals.

We see sinful national traits.
The Canaanite tribes became so profane that God determined to utterly destroy them.
“Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies (idle gluttons). This witness is true.” (Titus 1.12).
Some today nations are known for their dishonesty, theft, corruption.
     Theft becomes accepted behaviour because everybody steals.
     A kind of relativism sets in – what everybody else does must be alright.

There are international traits; acceptance of same-sex marriage has gone from nation to nation.
Corruption has moved over the globe like a torrent.
     Twitter and Facebook have exposed a festering world-wide community.
Today relativism rules. What everyone else does is right.
     LGBT, indoctrination of children with gender change.
So imitation of bad example is one poisonous stream we may trace back to Adam.
But it isn’t the whole story because Scripture says we are sinful before we are born.
“Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51.5).
     The problem is built into them as all parents discover.

2 – PROPAGATION
Because Adam and Eve were sinful, we might think that their children were inevitably sinful, because like begets like.

Man is made up of body and soul.
A – The body must now age and die. 
     Cain’s body inherits the fallen characteristics of Adam's body – it is susceptible to disease, decay and death.
     God warned Adam that he would surely die if he disobeyed.
     Ever since, every human being has had to die. “As in Adam all die...” (1 Cor 15.22). Another poisonous stream.
B – The soul. Some reformed theologians think the soul is also produced by ordinary generation.
    As it is derived from sinful parents it is hence also sinful, it is thought.
That is just speculation, and there are problems with this idea.
First, if Adam's sin passes to us by a parent-to-child route, then so will Cain’s, and all our forebears’ sins.
     The Bible says only Adam's sin: “by one man's disobedience many were made sinners...”
Second, to be contaminated by my parents’ sins, and so rendered guilty, contradicts the Bible’s teaching that nobody will be held to account for their parents' sins:
     “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father...” (Ezekiel 18.20).

The more common reformed position is that the soul of man is created by God.
     Gen 2.7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
     God is described as “the Father of spirits” (Heb 12.9).
     Ecc 12.7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.”
So his soul is direct from God, and cannot directly inherit Adam’s sinfulness.

So the question still isn’t fully answered. Deep within we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2.3).

3 – IMPUTATION
Clue: our starting text mentions only Adam’s first sin, “by one man's disobedience many were made sinners”.
How could only Adam's first sin pass down to me, but not his subsequent sins?
There was something unique about Adam's first sin – and that's the key to the problem.

Adam and Eve were the start of the human race (BCF 6:3: “they being the root…of all mankind.”) He and Eve the only people on Earth. Charged with starting the human race. “Be fruitful and multiply...” (Gen 1.28).
     Solemn realisation not lost on them. Welfare of a new race/human race in their hands.
     Magnificent intellects, unspoilt by sin and ageing. They were not primitive!
Original righteousness was bestowed on Adam; he was sinless, part of God’s “very good” creation.
     'Original' – given to Adam as the origin of the human race.
     Intended for all his posterity. He had a great responsibility.

ADAM THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HUMAN RACE      
“God ordained that Adam should stand not for himself only, but as the representative of all his descendants” (Berkhof).
Just as Christ was made head of a people, and took responsibility for them and their sins...
     Adam was made head of the human family, and was given responsibility for it.
On probation not only for himself but also for all his posterity.
Test given to Adam, and a warning. “Thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2.17).
‘Disobedience means catastrophe for the human race. Death will enter the world. You will be profoundly changed and the whole race after you.’
He sinned, and sin entered the world for first time, followed by death, and engulfed the whole world, irreversibly.
Human destiny had been placed in his hands, and he failed.
     A sinless human 'test case' in a perfect environment, in close communion with God, fell.     We would have done the same.

In Romans 5 a parallel is drawn between Christ and Adam.
Rom 5.19 “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
We all know that righteousness is given by imputation, instantaneously by Christ's work at conversion.
     In the same way Adam’s guilt is imputed to us.
Rom 5.15 “If through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by    one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”
Adam's guilt was imputed to us all immediately – as a result, infected with corrupted nature, image of God fractured, alienated from God, environment cursed, sentenced to die.

BCF 6:3: “Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them... They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the place of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and their corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.”

WHY THEN DID GOD CREATE THE HUMAN RACE?
God looks for genuine love and obedience – not a inevitable, robotic response.
So He had to give Adam and Eve free will – hence possibility of a fall.
     Constant possibility of sinning
1. Once saved by Christ, no possibility of a fall. We can freely love Him, and be eternally safe.
     New paradise in which a Fall will be eternally impossible.
2. God's immense love has been revealed. The subject of eternal wonder.
     The plan of redemption will be for all eternity the greatest subject for praise and marvel.
     It is even now in Heaven. 
3. For eternity we will never doubt the horror of rebellion and sin.

APPLICATION
1. Imitation: be careful to set a godly example in the church. Evil manners (eg gossip) spread quickly.
2. Propagation: a Christian family will not produce Christian children. Your godly example is paramount. Remember “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.
3. Imputation: marvel at Calvary and the Saviour. Made righteous in God’s sight.
4. Look at what one man's disobedience did to the whole world. Tremble at sin.
5. How deep is our sinfulness who are “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2.3).

     Nothing but the Gospel can deal with such a terrible situation.