One Man’s Disobedience (Romans 5:19)

2024-03-04

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

When talking about sin, we normally think of bad things we do. However, it is not that we are sinners because we do bad stuff; we do bad stuff because we are sinners. Here, we see that we “were made sinners.” Just as genetic traits and family names are passed down from father to son, the condition of sin was passed down from everyone’s common ancestor: Adam. We were conceived and born that way.

Doing bad stuff, sinning, or acts of rebellion, as you see here, is only a symptom of the real problem. The problem was that we all were born into the family of sin and death. No amount of good stuff we think we can do can undo the root problem. Every “good” thing we think we do really isn’t good, because it is from a bad source: the Adamic source. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

The only solution is death to the Adamic man and rebirth in Christ. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).