Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

In Adam I fell. In Adam I was cast out of Paradise. In Adam I died. 

If this is not true, then you cannot be saved. Because it is only if you have fallen in Adam, that you can be raised with Christ. It is only if you have died with Adam that you can live with Christ.

It is hard for us in a culture which is overrun by individualism and the self-help movement, to accept the idea that I am condemned because of Adam's sin. But if you are not corrupted by Adam's sin, then neither are you healed by Christ's righteousness.

A. What is Original Sin? Imagine a spring of cold water, flowing into a green meadow and watering the ground, giving joy and life to all the trees and animals. Now, imagine that spring being poisoned, the water polluted with a deadly acid. The meadow grows brown and fades, the trees become withered and dry, and the animals shrivel and die. That is a picture of the Fall, of original sin. Man was created to be the steward of all creation. All creation rejoiced in his rule, and he was the spring, the fountainhead, of all humanity. But Adam's sin poisoned the spring, and now the foul waters of sin and corruption flow through our veins.

When Adam lost the gifts which God had given him, he lost them not only for himself, but for us all. To change the image, it is like tree, planted by the banks of that foul river, it still looks green and fair on the outside, but inside it is rotten to the core. The roots have been poisoned, and can only bring forth rotten branches, which themselves will only sprout rotten twigs, which will no longer produce green leaves, but will produce sickness and death throughout the whole tree.

So what is original sin? Original sin, as Calvin put it, is "a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused to all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God's wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls 'works of the flesh'."

So our first point is that your nature has become corrupt in Adam. It is utterly opposed to all that is spiritually good, and completely inclined to all evil. Genesis 6 shows us how quickly man turned to evil. In Genesis 6:5 "the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Moses' point in writing this was to show us that within a dozen generations of creation, humanity had turned from purity and holiness in the garden, to wickedness and evil--to the point that God had to destroy man from the face of the earth, and start from scratch. But Genesis 9-11 shows that the flood didn't work. Man remained sinful, and continued to rebel against the Lord. Moses is saying that there is a root of sin which has corrupted the whole human race, even the people of God like Noah and his family.

Secondly, this corruption extends to the entirety of who you are. There is no part of your being that is free from the corruption of original sin. In other words, you are so perverted in every part of your nature--your mind, your will, your heart, your body, your soul--all has come under the power and dominion of sin, so that you stand condemned and convicted before God. After all, only that which is righteous, innocent, and pure may stand before him, and no human may claim that. Do you think that there is any part of you which is free from the taint, from the pollution of sin? Can you find a single thought or word or deed which is pure, innocent, and good?

When I look at myself, and the depths of my own sinfulness, the extent to which I am pervaded by my own passions and desires, I must admit that truly, there is nothing good in me--that is, in my flesh. I do not seek to please God, but I seek to please myself. Even when I am preaching the Word of God, I am constantly aware of how warped I have become. I am often more interested in what you think of my sermon, than what God thinks of it. It is in the very best things that we do, or the things that we are good at, that our pride and self-centeredness shows through. As Calvin puts it, "Our nature is not only destitute and empty of good, but so fertile and fruitful of every evil that it cannot be idle." And so we live our lives like the people of Jeremiah's day: "From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests as well, all practice deceit." Paul well describes the condition of all who are in Adam in Ephesians 2: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Truly, because of Adam's sin, our whole nature has become corrupt.

But someone may ask, what about a tiny newborn child, who has never had the chance to sin? How can God say that this infant is guilty? This child is actually guilty before God, because his nature is wholly corrupt. He cannot stand before God and protest his innocence, because there is a whole lifetime of sin and rebellion stored up in his tiny heart, which is only waiting for the strength and energy to burst forth.

No, as Paul says in Romans 3:10, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. When I look at myself, and see the depths of my depravity, my constant craving for power and pleasure, the ways in which I do good things simply to gain approval, and then sin behind peoples backs, I know that God's judgment against me is just. And then I look at you. If you are half as sinful as I am, then you are a wretched and miserable sinner, who is utterly bent on your own selfishness--the way you use your tongue, to flatter one moment and flatten the next. You can see it in your children. You have to teach them how to be kind, but nastiness and selfishness spring forth from the moment they come into the world! And you, even in your best moments, when you are the most holy and pure, you forget the God who poured his grace upon you, and claim the glory for yourself! Truly, as our text says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." And further, in verse 15, "the many died by the trespass of the one," and in verse 18, "the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men." Look at the world around you! The carnage in Africa and Middle East, and the gang warfare in our cities. The plague of AIDS in Africa and America. The starving children of a thousand generations crying themselves to sleep with hunger, only to die in the night. War, plague and famine--they are truly the curse of God against a sinful people. All of Adam's race suffers under that curse. And you have not escaped! You have faced disease and death in your families. You have felt the bitter sting of miscarriages, divorce, or abusive parents and spouses. And even you children have lain sick in your beds, coughing and sneezing--crying for relief. Is it any wonder that our catechism says that Adam brought us into an estate of sin and misery? God is angry with Adam, and all of his children. And God is just. 

B. But how can a just God declare you guilty for Adam's sin? There are basically two ways to look at it: 

1. Because Adam was the representative and the source of all of humanity. If Adam becomes corrupt, how will his children escape corruption? Can a bad tree produce good fruit? Can a poisoned well produce clean water? Even so, we are born with the taint and corruption of Adam's sin. And how can a holy God accept you, if you are evil? God told Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. How can a spiritually dead man have children who are spiritually alive? But there is also a second way of looking at it, and this is the way which Paul approaches it in our text: 

2. If God cannot declare you guilty in Adam, then God cannot declare you righteous in Jesus Christ, who is the second Adam. This is the contrast which Paul draws in Romans 5. Adam is not just anybody, he is the head of the whole of humanity. The actions of the head--the "one man"--have a profound impact on everyone who is in that one man. So, Adam's sin is not simply his own. By that ONE sin, many are made or constituted sinners, so that death comes to all through that one sin. In Adam all die. So also Christ's righteousness is not simply his own! By his ONE ACT of righteousness, many are justified in Christ, so that all who are in Christ are made alive. So in this sense, there are only two men in all of history--Adam and Christ.

ADAM: one man's sin-->condemnation-->death for all in Adam 
CHRIST: one man's righteousness-->justification-->life for all in Christ

Now think about it. Remember how Paul described you as DEAD in your transgressions and sins? Remember how Paul declared that there is NO ONE who does good? That humanity has become a rotten, filthy heap of manure, fit only for the fires and torments of hell? That is what it means to be in Adam. That is what it means to be constituted a sinner by the ONE ACT of disobedience. But as you contemplate the depths of your sin, remember Paul's "HOW MUCH MORE!" Paul is placing Adam and Christ in parallel--but the key is in the constant refrain, "how much more"! Notice verse 15--"But the gift is NOT LIKE the trespass" there is a difference--a HUGE difference--between what Adam did, and what Christ has done.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

How can God consider you guilty for Adam's sin? Because all of humanity was in Adam, just as all of the new humanity was in Christ. Adam was our representative, just as Christ is our representative. But, Paul is saying, if you have received condemnation and death through the sin of Adam, HOW MUCH MORE will you receive justification and life through the righteousness of Christ?

How often do you think about what it means to be alive in Christ? You who were dead in your trespasses and sins have been made alive in Christ, raised with him and seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, as Paul says in Ephesians 2. You are NO LONGER under the power of sin and death.

C. Application: There are three things which you need if you are to escape the curse of sin and death. 

1. The first thing you need is to be in Christ. This is Paul's own application in chapter 6. If Jesus Christ has destroyed the power of sin and death, then if you are going to escape the power of sin and death, you need to be united to him. You need to be a part of the new humanity. And if you have been united to Christ, and if you have died with him, then you are not under the power of sin and death, but rather, you are under the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ. Sin is not your master--so do not let it master you. Sin has no more authority over those who are in Christ, than it does over Christ himself. Do you understand that? 

But if you have not been united to Christ, if you have not been united to him by faith through baptism into his death, then you will never live with him. Because if you have not died with him, then you will not be raised with him. The death he died, he died to sin. If you have not died with him, then you are still in Adam, and you are still under the power and dominion of sin. Yes, Jesus Christ triumphed over sin, but if you are not united to him, then you still remain in sin. And if you remain in sin, then when Christ destroys sin, he will destroy you. And if you do not believe in him, then you still remain under the power of death. And if you have not been united to his death, then when he returns to destroy death, he will destroy you. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me." He didn't say that because he wanted to keep as many people out as he could. He said it because the only way to avoid being destroyed with sin and death, is to be united with the one who conquered sin and death.

2. The second thing you need is to mortify the flesh--to put to death all that belongs to your old life in Adam. But if original sin is the corruption and depravity which overflows to us from Adam, so that the whole of our lives are pervaded with sin, where do you start? 

Let me put it this way, if you are standing in front of a dam with a hundred little holes in it, is it going to do any good to simply stick your finger in one of them? That would be like putting a band-aid on a severed artery. It won't work. Sin is like that reservoir: it may only show itself in these little trickles on the surface of the dam, but there is a mass of water back there large enough to destroy the whole dam. Even so, sin may only show itself in little trickles on the surface of your life, but there is a mass of sin within you, large enough to destroy your whole life. You can try to deal with one sin at a time, but another one will always take its place. You can eliminate one sinful habit, but then you will discover that there are three more which were hiding behind it! But I do not counsel despair. Rather, I want you to see how big your God is. You've been thinking too small. God doesn't want to just repair the dam, he wants to dry up the whole lake of sin and misery! And in Jesus Christ that is exactly what he has done. Don't think small, think bigger than you've ever dreamed before. Don't just tackle sins, the little trickles which come through the dam. You need to tackle sin, the whole reservoir! If you are struggling with a sin, you can fight against it with all of your might, but if you do not kill the root, you will fight a losing battle. And what are the roots? The roots are your fundamental desires, and your cravings, which show forth the corruption that remains in you. You cannot chop off the fruit of envying and grasping after your neighbor's possessions, until you dig up the root of desiring status and wealth. You cannot chop off the fruit of lusting after women, until you dig up the root of desiring your own selfish pleasures. You cannot chop off the fruit of nagging and criticizing, slandering and gossiping, until you dig up the root of seeking power and control.

But how do you dig up these roots? By replacing them, by planting in their place, the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. The only way to put to death the deeds of the flesh, is to fix your hearts and minds upon your Savior. That is why Paul says in Colossians 3, "Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." That is your identity. That is who you are. You are no longer defined by Adam's one act of sin. Rather, you are defined by Christ's one act of righteousness, his death and resurrection. You are no longer a slave to sin--why don't we understand that??!!! So you need to be united to Christ, you need to put sin to death, and finally, 

3. You need the grace to persevere in your struggle against sin, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. You need to find the sustenance to remain in Christ, even as the world, the flesh, and devil try to lure you back into Adam. That is why we come to the table today. Because Jesus said that his body is real food, and his blood is real drink. And that if you do not eat his body and drink his blood, you have no part of him. Jesus Christ offers you himself in the Supper, as the medicine of immortality. And as you feed on him in your hearts, with faith and with thanksgiving, remember that you are no longer a slave to sin and death, because you participate in his death, as Paul says in I Corinthians 10:16: "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?"

And anyone who has participated in the death of Christ, has died to sin, and has the guarantee of eternal life. That is your hope. Cling to it. This is where you will find the grace that you need to sustain you, for if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace