Understanding Original Sin: Adam, Christ, and Justification

Sin entered into the world and that death came into the world as the result of sin that death is not a part of the natural process of life but is something that has been imposed penally upon mankind because of sin. Sin has brought in death, death by sin, and furthermore that death has passed upon all men, has spread into the life of everyone born into this world. [00:01:19]

The universality of death is due to and the result of the fact that all sin. That is what he's saying. Now there's no disagreement about that. Everybody's got to agree with that. Death passed upon all men because all sin. The explanation of the universality of death is the fact that all sin. [00:08:45]

Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Now we needn't go any further because the remainder is perfectly clear who is the figure of him that is to come. Now then, what does he mean by this? What does he mean by saying until the law? [00:09:41]

Sin can and did exist prior to the giving of the law through Moses. That's perfectly plain. That's the thing he's going to establish. And then he makes it still more clear by putting it like this at the beginning of verse 14. He says though sin is not imputed where there is no law, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses. [00:16:29]

Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. What does this mean? Here are two possible points of view. I'm not at all sure but that I accept both of them. There are some who say this, that this even here is an exposition of what he's just been saying. [00:17:43]

The death of children there, these infants, therefore, is due to sin. But they have not committed acts of sin, and yet they die. And that proves that they're guilty of sin. How do you explain this? Now that is the problem. The answer the Apostle himself gives you, see, is this phrase at the end of verse 12. [00:21:51]

The reign of death, death passing upon all men, according to the Apostle, proves that. And he does it in this way. Death is always a part of the punishment of sin. Death always therefore presupposes guilt and condemnation. Death is universal even in the case of infants who have not committed any actual sin. [00:31:00]

The fact that death has come upon all is proof of the fact that all sinned. Death is the result of sin, and therefore he says all sinned, and all sinned there in Adam. Now let me prove this to you. I prove it by going on with a section. It's not dependent only upon verses 12, 13, and 14. [00:33:19]

The parallel is with our Lord and his work, and it compels us to say what I've just been saying. The whole paragraph is concerned about justification and the finality of justification. So what he is saying I can put briefly like this: as Adam's one act of disobedience has made sinners of us all, so this obedience of Christ to all who believe in him makes them, constitutes them righteous. [00:41:42]

Adam's sin is imputed to us. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. But you've got to maintain the parallel. It's no use here saying, ah, I rather like to hear that second one, that Christ's righteousness is imputed to me. If you take that, you've got to take the other, says Paul, in exactly the same way. [00:42:02]

It is our Union with Adam that accounts for all our troubles. It is our corresponding Union with Christ that accounts for our Salvation. When Adam sinned, all sinned, and death and Punishment Came Upon all. But as Paul puts it again in 1 Corinthians 15, in Christ all can and shall be made alive who are united to him. [00:45:42]

The world is as it is because when Adam sinned, all sinned, and so sin and death have been Universal and have come upon the whole of mankind. It's a mystery. It's an astounding thing, yes, but who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God. [00:50:28]