Through One Man, Sin and Death Came to All

One Man, and Another

(Romans 5:12-14)

“Why should I bear the guilt of Adam’s sin? I wasn’t even in the Garden of Eden! That’s not fair!” At first, that sounds like a reasonable argument. Why should I be held responsible for something someone else did so long ago? But Adam was not just someone who lived long ago and had nothing to do with us.

1. Adam’s People
We had not yet been born when Adam sinned, but we were already in his body as seed. So when Adam sinned, all humanity sinned in him. What did we inherit from Adam? Death. Not just physical death, but a deeper death—the breaking of our relationship with God. Before the Law was given, there was no legal standard for declaring, “That’s a sin!” and punishing it. But sin still existed. People died even then. The very fact that they died was evidence that they had sin.

2. People with a Sinful Nature
Even though no one committed the exact same sin as Adam, death reigned over everyone. That is because we all inherited a sinful nature from him. People say, “That person has become so corrupt from committing so many sins.” But that gets the order backward. People commit so many sins because they already have a depraved nature within them. Even children lie and take things that belong to others without anyone teaching them to do so. Nothing in this world is more deceitful or corrupt than the human heart.

3. The Lord’s People
But there is another representative of humanity—Jesus Christ. Just as one man, Adam, brought sin and death, one man, Jesus Christ, brought righteousness and life. Though we were not in Eden, we became sinners in Adam. In the same way, though we were not at Golgotha, we died and were raised to life with Christ. Believers accept this by faith, and God accounts their faith as true. The very reality that we could never escape being Adam’s descendants has become the way for us to come to the Lord. Now we belong not to Adam, but to the Lord. Let us follow Him throughout our lives and never leave His side, even to the very end.

Overseer Sung-Hyun Kim