Death Passed Upon All Men (Romans 5:12)

2024-03-03

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12)

Our fundamental problem is greater than that we sin. This is bad enough, of course. The blood of Christ has paid for our sins. However, what remains is that we sin because we are sinners. By nature, we are sinners; we were born that way.

So, who is the one man by whom sin entered into the world? This would be Adam, from whom every human being came. Every person on the face of the earth traces his or her lineage back to this one man. He was created by God sinless in every way, but he outright rebelled against the commandment of God. He had no child until after this sin; therefore, every person was born outside Eden and by nature marred with sin.

This is what makes sin so grievous. It is not that we just did rebellious acts and that we would be better people if we had refrained from them. We think our sinful actions are grievous but that we ourselves are not that lost, but we are. The evil we do flows from the evil we are. We need deliverance from what we are.