Why Should Adam’s Sin Affect Me?

(3 Minute Read)

People sometimes feel sympathy for Adam and Eve because they lost the idyllic Garden of Eden simply for the mistake of eating a piece of forbidden fruit.

Many think Adam’s action has nothing to do with them. They ask, “Why should Adam’s sin impact me?” How could it be fair for Adam’s mistake to affect me?

God embodies Justice in His own holy and exalted nature; He Himself is the eternal essence of what is right and just and fair. But beyond the logical contradiction of questioning one of the Almighty One’s edicts, whether it is fair or not is beside the point. The reality is that we all live in a world broken by Adam’s sin. All the ill effects everyone experiences in life stem from Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.

The reason why Adam’s sin affects me is that Yahweh created mankind as a race. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We are all genetically connected to Adam. When Adam sinned, all of Creation fell with him. All of Adam’s descendants inherited his fallen sin nature.

Adam was the representative head of the human race. He acted and chose for all of us. All humans, except for Jesus of Nazareth, are born with a sin nature inherited from Adam.

Even today we have political representatives who make decisions and choices which alter the destiny of the whole population of a country and sometimes the world. Parents’ decisions affect their children and grandchildren and subsequent generations for good or ill. Adam’s decision to eat the Forbidden Fruit has impacted everyone.

The Apostle Paul explained it this way:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14 NASB)

Just as we fell into sin and death along with Adam, we can be raised to new life with the Second Adam. Just as we died with the first Adam, so we can live with the Second Adam.
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19 NASB)

Scripture teaches that Jesus of Nazareth, the Second Adam, was conceived within His mother Mary by the Holy Spirit without a human father. It was a virginal conception. Joseph kept Mary a virgin until after Christ’s birth, so He was literally born of a virgin. (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38)

The stunning significance of the Virgin Birth is that Divinity took on humanity. God and man joined in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead. Jesus became fully human while remaining fully divine.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father (John 1:1, 14).

Salvation and the Virgin Birth are closely connected. Jesus had to be human and sinless to die in man’s place and pay the penalty for man’s sin. A natural son of Joseph and Mary would have been an ordinary sinful human, inheriting a sin nature from Adam. Thus a natural son could not have been a Redeemer.

The stunning significance of the Virgin Birth is that
Divinity took on humanity. God and man joined in
Jesus Christ, so that Jesus became fully human
while remaining fully divine.

Is the sin nature passed through the male alone and not through the female? Scripture does not answer this question, but if true, this would explain the necessity for a virgin birth. For Jesus to be human, divine, and sin-free, the Virgin Birth was essential.

We can’t do anything about being children of Adam. Adam sinned and all of us have inherited his sin nature. We all begin life dead in sin with a proclivity to sin. But God Himself did do something about it.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10 NASB)

Thanks be to God!

Questions to Ponder

1. Do you think you could have done better than Adam in resisting temptation in the Garden of Eden?
2. Would you have been a better representative than Adam for the human race?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the 27th of a series of weekly blog articles on Adam.
Read the prequels:
1. Was Adam in the Garden of Eden?
2. Did Moses Believe in Adam?
3. Did Jesus Believe in Adam?
4. Did Paul Believe in Adam?
5. Does Belief in Adam Matter?
6. Adam and Puppies
7. Why Did Adam Sin?
8. What Should Adam Have Done?
9. What Did Adam Cause?
10. What Was Adam’s Forbidden Fruit?
11. How Long Was Adam in Eden?
12. Was Adam’s Garden of Eden Real?
13. Christmas & Adam (with videos)
14. Where Was Adam’s Garden of Eden?
15. Did Adam Wear Clothes in Eden?
16. Was Adam Backward or Brilliant? (with video)
17. Who Was Mrs. Adam?
18. Adam’s Dream Girl
19. Adam’s Prolific Princess
20. Adam’s Problematic Princess
21. How Many Children Did Adam Have?
22. Whom Did Adam’s Sons Marry?
23. Did Adam Ride a Unicorn?
24. How Long Did Adam Live?
25. Did Adam Swat Mosquitoes in Eden?
26. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?

Read the sequels:
28. Did Roses Have Thorns in Adam’s Garden?
29. Adam the Image-Bearer & Harambe the Gorilla
30. Did Adam Ever Return to Eden?
31. What Was Adam’s Tree of Life?
32. Will Adam Be in Heaven?
33. Did Adam See the Big Dipper?
34. Did Adam Know Earth Is Round?
35. Did Jesus Say When Adam Was Created?
36. Did Adam See Dinosaurs?
37. Did Adam Like Steak?
38. Could Adam Read & Write?
39. Did God Use Evolution to Make Adam?
40. Adam & the Olympics
41. Adam and the Gospel
42. Adam and the Genesis Road

Read the prequels in the Why? Series:
Why Is the Age of the Earth Important?
Why Apologetics?
Why Do Atheists Care?
Why Did Adam Sin?

Read the sequel:
Why Do Leaves Change Color?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday May 25, 2016 A.D.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 2:16; 3:1-6)