03. The Results Of Adam's Original Sin...
CHAPTER III The Result Of Adam’s Original Sin Upon The Whole Race
Every member of the human family entering the world through natural generation is, through Adam’s original sin, constituted a sinner.
Here we must briefly consider what sin is, and get the correct understanding of the sin question. Every heresy can be traced to a wrong conception of sin. The fall of the human race into a state of sin is the basis and foundation of the scriptural plan of redemption and of all sound gospel preaching and teaching.
"Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). "Sin is lawlessness" is the literal rendering of this sentence. This reveals the awful character of sin. It is spiritual anarchy. Sin is any lack of conformity to the infinitely holy and righteous character of God, as revealed in the Law. We read, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Here we must distinguish between Adam as the natural head of the race and his federal headship. As the federal head of the race, he was our representative. Therefore, his original act of disobedience may justly be reckoned as ours. This brings us up to the full consideration of the various aspects or classifications of sin.
Imputed Sin
Man is a sinner by imputation. We read, "Wherefore, as through one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).
According to the original, Paul does not say that "all have sinned." It is not true that all have sinned personally. The innocent babe does not die because of any personal sins he has committed. But "all sinned" in Adam, the federal head of the race. Paul uses the Greek aorist tense that expresses a definite act at a definite time in the past. To impute means to reckon over to. It is expressed in the words of Paul when he says, "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account" (Philemon 1:18).
Imputed sin is the primary reason why man is lost. He is born dead in sin, a child of wrath, a son of disobedience (Ephesians 2:1-3). He is born into a lost estate, a condemned race. He is therefore lost because of what he is, rather than because of what he does. But remember, he does what he does because of what he is.
Teaching on this aspect of sin has been sadly neglected. Many know nothing about it, and not a few boldly deny the fact of imputed sin. Socinians and Pelagians, and their present day successors, deny that Adam was the federal head of his posterity, and thereby deny the fact of imputed sin. Arminians admit that the whole race was injured by the first sin of the first man, but at the same time refute the proposition that Adam was their proper representative. It is the one aspect of sin that needs to be emphasized again and again.
Many seem to think that while they are not quite good enough to go to heaven, they most certainly are not bad enough to go to hell. But there is no such person. Man is either good enough to go to heaven, or else bad enough to go to hell. The Bible does not recognize any intermediate ground.
Some years ago a friend asked me to pray for her unsaved relatives, and then she added, "It is impossible to reach them with the Gospel." Was it because they were so bad, that she said this? No, they were so good, humanly speaking, that they could not see that they were lost and in need of a Saviour. Such people need to know the truth under consideration. But some one asks, "How can it be possible that we sinned in Adam?" Look at the Scripture parallel, "Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met him" (Hebrews 7:9-10). Levi was the great-grandson of Abraham and was not born until about a hundred and fifty or a hundred and sixty years after the incident referred to in this Scripture. In the same sense, we were in Adam when he sinned, and so we all sinned in him. The Apostle Paul evidently anticipated objections to what he says in Romans 5:12 "that all sinned," for six times in the remaining verses of the chapter he repeats what he has already declared in verse twelve.
"For if through the offence of one many be dead."
"For the judgment was by one to condemnation."
"For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one."
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation."
"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners."
"That as sin has reigned unto death." This naturally raises the question of infant salvation. If all of the race are constituted sinners in Adam, how can children who are incapable of believing the Gospel be saved?
Dr. Chas. Hodge, in his commentary on Romans, says on this question, "If without personal participation in the sin of Adam, all men are subject to death, may we not hope that without personal acceptance of the righteousness of Christ, all who die in infancy are saved?" This question will come before us again, when the finished work of Christ on the Cross will be considered.
Sin In Nature
Man partakes by inheritance of Adam’s fallen nature. We read, "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth" (Genesis 5:3). Paul says, "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). This is a sinful constitution, a disposition to sin. It is a common belief that man becomes a sinner when he commits his first personal sin. This is not absolutely true, for man is a sinner from the moment he is born. David said, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5).
However, he does, at the time that he commits his first personal sin, become a sinner in another aspect--in action.
It is because he is already a sinner by nature that he sins in action. A man lies because he is a liar. He steals because he is a thief. Just so, a man sins because he is a sinner.
Many years ago while doing gospel work in the mountain districts of Southern California, I asked a group of children if it was ever necessary for their parents to tell them to be good. They all answered in the affirmative. Then I asked them if it was necessary for their parents to tell them to be naughty, and the answer was a loud "NO." Then when I asked why this was so, a ten-year-old boy answered, "We are all born crooked." He was right. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:17; Jeremiah 17:9). This evil principle we inherit from Adam mediately through our parents, who have themselves received it from the succeeding generations from Adam. It is in the Scriptures called: The Flesh--"That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). This does not refer to the tissues of the body, but all that the unregenerate man is--body, soul, and spirit.
Concerning the flesh we are definitely told that "the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8; Romans 8:8). "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18). The Natural Man--This refers to all that are unchanged or dead spiritually. Literally it reads, "the psychical man." The soul is Satan’s objective and sphere of activity. Too often psychic manifestations are mistaken for manifestations of the Holy Spirit. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The natural man may be refined, cultured, kind, a model citizen, sweet, eloquent, and even severely religious, but he "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Our Old Man--We read that "he is corrupt according to deceitful lusts" (Ephesians 4:22), and that "our old man is (was) crucified with him" (Romans 6:6). The Heart--We are told that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19).
Many talk about a change of heart, but this is not scriptural. The old heart (the power to reason) is not changed or made over in salvation. Man is created anew in Christ Jesus when he becomes a Christian.
We have often heard evangelists urge their unsaved hearers to give their hearts to God. As if a lost sinner could do such a thing! And if he could what would God want with the evil thing? No, God is the bestower of a new heart--the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The Outward Man--Of him we are told that "he perishes" (2 Corinthians 4:16). Since the outward man is in this verse placed over against and compared with the inward man, it evidently refers to all that man is in his unregenerate state. It is one of the designations of the sinful nature with which man is burdened as long as he is on earth. The Carnal Mind--"The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). In Romans 5:10, the unregenerate man is said to be an enemy of God. However, an enemy may be conquered and become the best friend of his conqueror; such is the blessed experience of the saved. But here is something that goes deeper. "The carnal mind is enmity against God"; it has always been so, and it never will be anything else. The sin nature can not be changed. Therefore the old sin nature, that the believer still possesses, is and will ever continue to be just as evil as it was before he was saved, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Thus we see how deep-rooted this evil principle is. It is incurably evil. Since the old sin nature was crucified with Christ, and is therefore judicially dead, the Holy Spirit is free to come in and take control of it. It is through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit that the believer has the victory over sin. Paul writes, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:1-2). For the child of God is provided a means whereby he may have the victory over every enemy.
Sin--We must distinguish between "sin" and "sins." "Sin" is the tree; "sins" are the fruit. In Romans 1:16 to 5:11 it is "sins," the fruit of the sin nature, that are dealt with. The precious blood of Christ is the only cure and remedy for this aspect of sin.
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Paul does not say "the punishment of sin is death." Too often these two words are considered to be identical. A man may be hired to commit a crime. He commits it, and he receives his pay for his evil deed; that is his wages. Then he is arrested, tried, convicted of his crime, and sentenced to pay a fine or serve time in prison; that is his punishment. The wages of sin is death; the punishment is over and above that. The sin nature is personified by the Apostle Paul. He likens it to a cruel master, a merciless tyrant, and such it is. The unsaved are the bondslaves of sin. Paul writes, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants (bondslaves) of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Romans 6:16-17). A comparison of Romans 3:21-26 with Romans 6:6-10, will definitely reveal that the blood answers to "sins," and the Cross to "Sin." This disposition to sin is the possession of all who have come into the world through natural generation--the one exception being our Lord Jesus Christ. Many have attempted to improve the sin nature by patching it up in one way or another, even to the extent of making it religious. Religious flesh is one of the greatest curses of the church today, if not the greatest. This aspect of sin is responsible for all the terrible crimes that men are guilty of. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19). "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). "A man’s heart deviseth his way" (Proverbs 16:9). "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).
One is not responsible for possessing a sin nature, but one is responsible for the outworking of that nature when the age of accountability is reached. In the light of this faithful testimony of Scripture concerning the sin nature inherited from Adam, it is difficult to understand how men, who say they believe the Bible to be the Word of God, can then believe that man is born into this world with what they term a "divine spark." God’s testimony regarding man is one hundred per cent against such teaching. When a person claims to have gotten rid of the sin nature, he thereby claims equality with the Lord Jesus Christ, and is according to the Word, deceived, for we read, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
Note that John writes his epistle to "my little children" and not to the unsaved, as many, if not all eradicationists contend. He does not say the believer must sin, but since he possesses a sin nature, he is liable to sin. The source of sin in the believer is the fallen nature inherited from Adam. In another section of the book we shall see what God has done with the sin nature.
Sin In Action
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). This is sin of commission and omission. It is against the revealed will of God--a failure to act in accordance with His infinitely holy and righteous character. This aspect of sin renders man a sinner in thought, word, and deed, when he reaches the age of accountability. It is in the Scriptures described by the following terms:
Transgression--This means a breaking over or the overstepping of the Law, which is God’s boundary between good and evil. "According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Psalms 51:1); "Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment" (Luke 15:29). "For where no law is, there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15); "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" (Matthew 15:3).
Man is a rebel by nature and that nature breaks out in open rebellion against God and His holy Law. Iniquity--This is an act inherently wrong whether definitely forbidden or not. It gathers into itself the thought of perverseness, crookedness and that which is warped and bent out of shape. "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments" (Daniel 9:5). "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities: Who healeth all thy diseases" (Psalms 103:3). "And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged" (Isaiah 6:7).
Error--This is a departure from that which is right in deed or in doctrine. "Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6). "Who can understand his errors" (Psalms 19:12).
Missing the Mark--This is a failure to measure up to the divine standard--God’s character. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Trespass--This is against the infinitely holy and righteous character of God. It is an intrusion of self-will into the sphere of divine authority. God is outraged by every sin, whether it be that of a sinner, or a saint. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).
Lawlessness--"Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). Personal sins persisted in become lawlessness. It is spiritual anarchy.
Unbelief--"Of sin because they believe not on me" (John 16:9). "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).
Unbelief is an insult to the divine veracity. No wonder we are told that "without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6). It is the easily besetting sin (Hebrews 12:1), and the one all condemning sin (John 16:9; John 3:18).
Sin As a Judicial Reckoning This is a dispensational aspect of sin, and is the result of the divine reckoning against the whole race.
Before the Cross there was a positional difference between the Jew and the Gentile. Morally there was no difference, because they both sprang from the same common stock and were sinners by imputation, in nature, and in practice. By the judicial reckoning all were brought down to the same level and all differences between them were done away. This truth is summed up in the words of the Apostle Paul when he writes, "What then? Are we better? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin" (Romans 3:9); "But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe" (Galatians 3:22). When Paul says, "All are under sin," he does not mean that all have sinned in the same degree, or that all are guilty of the same crimes, for we know they are not. But he does mean that the best moralist is as much lost and undone as the one that is guilty of the worst of sins.
We do not say their punishment will be the same if they go out of this world in their lost condition, because the lost will be judged according to their works as we read, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (hades) delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works" (Revelation 20:12-13).
We repeat that death in its every aspect is the "wages of sin," and the punishment is over and above that. The judicial reckoning of sin also means that God absolutely refuses to credit man with any good works done before he is saved. We are saved by grace, and grace does not recognize any works as meritorious in salvation. The positional difference, which obtained between the Circumcision and the Uncircumcision before the Cross, will be seen by a comparison of Romans 9:4-5 with Ephesians 2:12. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we read, "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." To the Ephesians he writes, "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." The Jew had all the advantages and blessings; the Gentiles had nothing. Through the Cross this difference was removed. This does not mean that the Gentiles were raised to the level of the Jews, but rather that the Jews were placed on a level with the Gentiles; from the two classes, now on the same level, God saves all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and makes of the two "one new man," which is the Church, the body of Christ. This important truth is also found in the Gospels, and because it has been ignored by many, and denied by not a few, it has led to hopeless confusion--promises made to Israel as God’s earthly people, have been transferred to the church. The difference that obtained between the Jew and the Gentile is revealed in the words of our Lord when He commanded His disciples, saying, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-6). At another time Christ said, "I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).
Why were the Gentiles shut out in this way? This is a fair question. According to the Scriptures man had utterly failed during the first three dispensations: the first ended in wilful disobedience on the part of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-7); the second ended in moral perversion (Genesis 6:1-8); and the third ended in organized rebellion (Genesis 11:1-4). In the first chapter of Romans it is three times stated, "God gave them up" (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28), but however, not until they had completely turned away from Him. We read, "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (Romans 1:21-23). "Wherefore God gave them up."
Abraham lived amongst an idolatrous people when he was called to leave his country. We are told, "Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (river) in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods" (Joshua 24:2).
During the present dispensation of Grace, God does not deal with Israel as a nation. He deals with both Jew and Gentile alike as individuals. They are all "under sin," and all that are saved have been saved by grace, through faith, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5). "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles" (2 Timothy 1:9-11).