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HOUSMAIL
HM143
August 2014 WHAT DID
ADAM’S SIN DO TO US? Romans Chapter 5 In his second epistle Peter says that Paul wrote “some
things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable
wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” I think he must have had Paul’s epistle to the Romans in
mind …… especially chapter
5! If the Jewish Peter didn’t
find it easy, consider how much more difficult it must be for those of us now
faced with translating Paul’s 2000 year old Hebrew idiom, written in Greek,
to the vastly different thinking patterns of 21st century Aussie English! This short article can’t attempt to deal with the whole
chapter and will concentrate mainly on those “difficult” sayings about the
effects of Adam’s sin on the rest of us. “Therefore as sin came into
the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all
men because all men sinned.” (Romans 5:12 RSV) This verse has been widely and illogically misinterpreted
to say that when Adam sinned, his nature was changed from “something” which
was neither mortal nor immortal, to the condition which we now call
mortality. This mortality is alleged to have been the punishment for his sin.
It is further claimed that this same sentence of mortality was “inherited” by
all his posterity as a direct consequence of Adam’s sin. Some even go so far as to say that since Adam’s death 930
years later was THE punishment for his sin, he is eternally lost, without
hope of any future life beyond the Resurrection! And some go even further
still to say that since Adam has already had his punishment, he won’t even
rise from the dead at the last day when Jesus returns! Illogical? Yes!! Think carefully. How can something be
neither mortal nor immortal? The two terms are mutually exclusive. If
something is immortal it can NEVER die. (Luke 20:36, John 11:26) If
it is mortal it can die. And there is no possible logical “in-between”. So what was Adam when he was created? Clearly he was NOT
immortal. Otherwise the threat of death is meaningless. So he must already
have been in a condition where a threat of death can be regarded as a
deterrent to any potential disobedience. That only leaves mortality! Adam
must have been created mortal. And since he was already mortal BEFORE he
sinned, the sentence, whatever it was, could not have involved a change of
nature from something else to mortality. Everything else in our understanding of Romans 5 revolves
around that fundamental conclusion. WHAT
DID PAUL REALLY MEAN BY “DEATH”? It comes down to a proper understanding of what Paul meant
by “DEATH” in this chapter. The Scriptures speak about death in different ways, to mean
different things.
And
Of course the end result of the first two is the same. Life
ceases! The difference between them lies, not in the end result, but in the
REASON why they happen. The first one is a natural event which happens to all,
saints and sinners alike, because of the mortality we are born with …… BEFORE
we sin. It can be reversed! The second is the cutting short of a viable life which,
without the intervention of the judge, could otherwise continue for some
finite time. It can never be reversed. It is forever! (2 Thessalonians 1:9) This “second death” cannot possibly have anything to do
with the “natural mortality” of infants who never had an opportunity to sin!
Nor can it have anything to do with the “natural mortality” of those who live
and die outside the scope of responsibility for their sins and will never
rise from their graves. So which of those two constitute the threat made against
Adam? And what was it that “spread” to all of us? Paul says that it is a death which spread to all men
because all men sinned. Clearly, the death Paul is speaking about is not
“natural mortality”, which is already “there” BEFORE we sin, but a personal
death sentence incurred by each individual who commits sins of his own! That “death” is the “second death” (Revelation 20:13-15) which will happen to resurrected, unrepentant
sinners on Judgment Day. REVISITING
EDEN - WHAT REALLY DID HAPPEN TO ADAM? In Ezekiel
33:14 we learn that the man to
whom God says “thou shalt surely die” does not die – IF HE REPENTS!! Instead
he LIVES! Of course this cannot be referring to
"mortality". Clearly, Ezekiel’s man who “lives” instead of dying is
still mortal. He will still eventually die the “common
death of all mankind”. (Numbers 16:29) BUT that is not the penalty which he has escaped through
repentance. If he truly repents he will never suffer that. God does not
forgive and still punish!! What a terrible injustice that would be. “As far
as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from
us” (Psalm 103:12) Have you noticed that what God says to those men in Ezekiel
is what he had also said to Adam more than 3000 years before? “You shall
surely die”. (Genesis 2:17) (2) (2) For more about the
meaning of the Hebrew phrase “MUTH TEMUTH” translated as “surely die” see
also my article: “MUTH TEMUTH - You Shall Surely Die” available online at: https://www.allonmaxwell.com/bdigest/ BD74 Muth Temuth - You Shall Surely Die.htm And have you noticed that Adam’s threatened death was
supposed to take place in the very same day as the offence was committed. ………
“In the day that you eat” And have you noticed that it didn’t happen!! Adam did not
experience the threatened penalty “in the day”, Instead he was allowed to live on …… just
like those other sinners in Ezekiel who turned from their sins. How could that be? Learn from Ezekiel. It’s all about
repentance and forgiveness! Clearly, since God deals with all men equally (Ezekiel 18
& Ezekiel 33) what God says about sinners, through Ezekiel,
tells us WHY that first sinner Adam did NOT die in the very same day that he
sinned. Rather he LIVED ….. and LIVED …… and LIVED ...... until he was 930
years old! Only after nearly 1000 years did he at last return to the dust
from which he was made, to await resurrection and judgment! And from that we
learn that just like those other men in Ezekiel, Adam also must have taken
advantage of the promise of a future Savior and forgiveness based on
repentance. Instead of suffering his threatened penalty, he received his life
back and “lived” for the centuries long duration of his mortal probation! ORIGINAL
SIN – SIN NATURE – SIN IN THE FLESH Another seriously mistaken teaching which some read into
Paul’s words in this chapter, says that as a result of his sin, Adam’s newly
created mortal nature became infected with “something” variously called
“original sin”, or “sin nature”, or “sin in the flesh” -- which is supposed
to have been transmitted to all of his descendants as a resident evil quality
which makes them naturally inclined to evil, and therefore inevitably
powerless to obey what God commands. Some versions of this also claim that we are all worthy of
death simply because we are born, through no fault of our own, with this
inherent evil quality. (That is one of the reasons why Infant Baptism was
“invented”. It is supposed to cancel the alleged guilt of “original sin”.) Of course this all amounts to a terrible slander against
God ……… bordering on blasphemy! Think about it. Can it possibly be true that God commands
men to obey, knowing that it is inherently impossible for them? And can it be
true that God then punishes men for the sins they were powerless to avoid? That would accuse him of the most awful injustice!! And it would
deny of God’s own claim that He does NOT punish the innocent for the sins of
the guilty. (Ezekiel 18:19-20) Praise God!! He is NOT like that at all!! He does NOT
condemn the righteous for the sins of their fathers! (Ezekiel 18:5-18) Every man is accountable only for his own un-repented
sins. (Ezekiel 18:20) And we are promised that we can – in these
mortal bodies -- and in this life: “Put off your old nature which belongs to your
former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed
in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24 RSV) ADAM
IS A TYPICAL CASE!! “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type
of the one who was to come.” (Romans 5:14 RSV) Who or what is this “one” that Paul refers to, of whom Adam
is “a type”? Actually Paul didn’t use a specific word for “one” in his
Greek text. Literally what he said was: “who is a type of the (?)
coming” Proper translation to English requires the insertion of a
word in that parenthesis which I have inserted before “coming” (which isn’t
in the Greek text but is implied by the Greek Grammar) to define who or what
is coming. The translators have chosen to add the word “one”, leaving it to
readers to work out for themselves who or what or which “one” Paul is talking
about. It makes the best sense if we regard the “one coming” as
NOT any a specific “one person”, or “one thing”, but the “class” or “group”
of mankind in general from which each of us is a generic example. Most
likely, Paul is saying that Adams’s sin was a TYPE of “the general class of
sin” committed by the “general class of men” who were to come after him, by
which each of us would individually incur our own guilt and liability to
penalty. The bottom line is that what happened to Adam is TYPICAL of
how God deals with the rest of us when we too sin like Adam! Adam sinned ….. and incurred a penalty …… which however, he
did NOT suffer! Instead He was promised a Saviour, and his life was restored.
On Judgment day we shall learn how Adam used his renewed probation. THAT is the “type”. When we COPY Adam’s example by committing our own sins, “not
(exactly) like the transgression of Adam” (Romans 5:14) God
deals with us in the same way he dealt with Adam. Just like Adam we incur the
same death penalty for ourselves. And just like Adam, when God seeks us out
and confronts us with our guilt, if we repent, our judgment is also postponed
to Judgment Day, while we live out our own restored probation. That is the “antitype”. SO
WHAT DOES PAUL MEAN – “by one man’s disobedience
many were made sinners”? (Romans 5:19) Clearly the great weight of Scripture tells us that Adam’s
transgression can only have been personal to himself. No sin committed by
Adam can affect OUR personal relationship with God. God
does not put any man to death for the sins of his ancestors. (Ezekiel
18:20) We are “made sinners” by our own actions …… when we copy
Adam’s disobedience. AND
WHAT DOES PAUL MEAN – “by one man’s obedience many will be made
righteous.”? (Romans 5:19) Clearly the righteousness of Jesus is PERSONAL to himself.
It cannot affect OUR personal relationship with God if it exists only in
Jesus. It can only make US truly righteous, and it can only restore US to
personal relationship with God, if we copy
HIS righteousness and make it
OUR OWN by following his commandments. It cannot possibly mean that the righteousness inherent in
Jesus is somehow credited to our account because he has done it for us, and
that therefore we don’t need to be righteous! God is NOT interested in any
mere pretence that a man can be regarded as righteous just because someone
else has done it for him …… allegedly vicariously! There has to be a change
by which we actually become righteous. It would therefore seem reasonable to paraphrase Romans 5:18 as
something like: “Therefore
as by (COPYING) the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by (REPENTING AND COPYING) the righteousness of
one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” (KJV) CONCLUSION What did Adam’s sin do to us? First ….. what it didn’t do. As we have seen above, there
is no Scripture to support the view that Adam’s sin, caused us to be born
with some mysterious inherited and inherent evil quality of nature which
makes it inevitable that we will sin. Nor did Adam’s sin cut US off from
relationship with God. Each of US individually does that for ourselves when
we make a freewill choice to sin like Adam. It did however result in us being born outside the Garden
of Eden. When Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden and denied access to
the “Tree of Life” so were all his unborn children. Praise God!! That isn’t the end of the story!! Before Adam
was driven from the Garden, God had promised a way back. A saviour was
promised who would die to pay the ransom required to redeem Adam from the
penalty of his sins. (Matthew
20:28, 1 Timothy 2:6) Of course, as we learn from Ezekiel, there would have
been conditions, which are clearly spelled out by Ezekiel. (which Adam must
have met in order to survive the day) The same salvation from the penalty of OUR sins is offered
now to all Adam’s descendants, on the same terms of repentance and renewed
life in obedience to the Saviour “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his
blood”. (Revelation 1:5 RSV). That is the heart of the message in Romans 5! “Grace will
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans
5:21) Allon |