04600
 
 

IMPUTED SIN
 
 

Man is lost due to Adams sin. Is that a true statement? In that God justly transmitted Adams nature to all mankind, yes.
 
 

In reality, man is lost in this life because of Adam's sin. In the next life, man is lost due to the fact that he did not respond to God's free offer of salvation in this life.
 
 

Rom. 5:19 tells us, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
 
 

Wow! Two, huge doctrines introduced in one little verse.
 
 

WE ALL WERE MADE SINNERS BY ADAM.
 
 

WE ALL CAN BE MADE SAINTS BY CHRIST.
 
 

The thought of our sinning in Adam is foreign to some people. I wasn't there so why should I be blamed. Heb. 7:9-10 may help us to understand this one. "And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met him." (Melchizedek met Abraham in Gen. 14:17-20, Levi was born in Gen. 29:34) As Levi paid tithes before he was even born, so we all sinned before we were even born.
 
 

Rom. 5:12 also is quite plain on the subject. "Therefore, 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:"
 
 

Q. Would you have sinned if you had been there in the garden?
 
 

YES! Rom. 3:23 tells us that all have sinned. It would be illogical to assume that one of us could have "not sinned" if we had been in the garden. God could not justly pass sin on to all mankind, unless it was the just thing to do. It must be, that we would all have sinned had we been in the garden.
 
 

There are some varying views as to how this concept of our being a sinner in Adam is explained.
 
 

1. Pelagian: We aren't sinners in Adam. We sinned as he did after our perfect creation. Adam himself was only a bad example, and we being big copy cats, followed his example.
 
 

2. Arminian: Because of Adam's sin all mankind is unrighteous and unable to seek God. God does, however give us enough Spirit to counteract this evil, enough so that man can respond to God, or turn to sin. This conscious turning to evil instead of to God is when God imputes sin to us.
 
 

3. Federal: God made a covenant with Adam and Adam broke it. Ever since God has been creating souls with evil natures which leads to sin. Adam was the federal head of the race. This is a result of Adam's sin, not a passing down of a sinful nature because we are sinful.
 
 

4. Mediate Imputation: The new physical body is corrupted by propagation from Adam. God creates the soul perfect but as soon as the body and soul are joined, the soul is corrupted. It is automatic. Man has no test to undergo, or to fail. (This theory again shows it to be a consequence of Adam's sin not a consequence of our nature.)
 
 

5. Augustinian: "In Adam's free act, the will of the race revolted from God and the nature of the race corrupted itself. The nature which we now possess is the same nature that corrupted itself in Adam." (From Strong.) Adam's sin is given to us not because he failed, but because it is ours. He is the representative of the race. We are corrupt because we chose to be with Adam not because of consequences of his sin.
 
 

APPLICATION:
 
 

1. If we sinned in Adam then we must also assume if it had been Stan and Faith instead of Adam and Eve, that Stan would have sinned.
 
 

If the above is true then: a. We should not be upset with people that sin, for we in their place would sin also. We do have the Holy Spirit, however that gives us the opportunity to not sin. b. There should never be any self righteousness on our part when dealing with sin, or sinners. Our only righteousness is the best robe of the Son placed upon us by the Father.
 
 

2. Christ took ALL our sin and gave us HIS righteousness. A feeble illustration would be - at one point in my life in the 60's we owed $6000, plus. At that point had Mr. Getty the multimillionaire, come to me and said, "I am taking over your debt and I'm going to give you every penny I have or own." I would have received not only the forgiveness of the debt, but also the riches of the debt taker. This illustrates that Christ took our sins and gave His righteousness! "Think on these things" Philippians says.
 
 

When God says, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isa 6:8b, How can anyone not respond "HERE AM I SEND ME!"
 
 

WE HAVE NOTHING WITHOUT CHRIST!
 
 

DO WE LIVE LIKE IT? IS HE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE?
 
 

A sociologist researched the family history of the Edwards and the Jukes families. This is what he found.
 
 

The Richard Edwards and Elizabeth Tuthill family over 300 years have produced 1,394 offspring. The result was as follows: "12 have been college presidents, 65 professors, 265 college graduates, 60 physicians, 100 clergy men, 60 authors, 100 lawyers, 30 judges, 80 public officials, three congressmen, two senators, and two presidents. Distinguished names like Jonathon Edwards, Aaron

Burr, Eli Whitney, Bishop Vincent, Grover Cleveland, U. S. Grant, and Edith Carow Roosevelt...."
 
 

"On the other hand, during the same period, out of 1,220 members of the Jukes family 300 died in infancy, 440 were wrecked by disease, 310 were professional paupers, 50 prostitutes, 60 thieves, seven murderers, and 53 other criminals!" (From Treasury of Christian Faith; under topic of sin. by Albert W. Palmer.)
 
 

Now we all know that the Adamic nature is passed on generation after generation, but with statistics like these, one must wonder if the proper upbringing can't help in the overall situation. We all know that all of mankind is lost, but the Godly influence has something to do with the way people respond to their creator.
 
 

MAN UNDER SIN
 
 

Chafer suggests some points to describe man under sin. I would like to adapt these for our discussion.
 
 

Man is:
 
 

1. Definitely dead in Adam.

2. Depraved, dead and damned.

3. De sins de same - Devil's, Adams and personal.

4. Decreed "under sin".

5. Disregarded merit.

6. Divine extendable grace.

7. Devilish domination and deception.
 
 

I would like to elaborate on these briefly.
 
 

1. Definitely dead in Adam. We are proclaimed by Scripture to be dead in Adam. All mankind, fell with him. The lost person has no choice in the matter, he is dead in Adam.
 
 

2. Depraved, dead and damned. Because of the common fall of man, lost man is unable to respond properly to the creator. Not only is he unable of proper response, he is dead spiritually and damned to the lake of fire because of his sin with Adam.
 
 

3. De sins de same - Devil's, Adams and personal. All sin is the same, whether it is the Devil's, Adams, or our own. Sin is missing the mark set by God, and we all have accomplished that.
 
 

4. Decreed "under sin". God tells us in the Word that all lost mankind is under sin. There is no choice, there is no option - under sin is the lot of lost man. Only in Christ can this change.
 
 

5. Disregarded merit. Had Adam lived in the garden without sin, we must assume that merit would have been the result. He would have deserved to have eternal life with God in the garden, yet he chose to eat the fruit that was forbidden.
 
 

6. Divine extendable grace. Through Christ, God was able to extend His grace to man, to provide a method of salvation. This salvation allows Christ to give HIS merit to us, so that God can save us.
 
 

7. Devilish domination and deception. Lost man is dominated by the Devil. The Scripture tells us that he is the god of this world system, and the lost are totally caught up in the system.
 
 

Now, believer, do you have a little more to be thankful for? Are we not learning a little about how great God's grace is as we study and learn of sin?
 
 

APPLICATION:
 
 

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) Not of works lest any man should boast.
 
 

God is perfect so cannot accept less than perfect into His presence. Only the works of Christ's can appear before Him.
 
 

Unless I missed some loophole I think it is like this. God did it all. We can't do anything. - OR - God did it. We didn't it.
 
 

HOW FINAL CAN YOU GET?
 
 

One final thought. There is a teaching around in the 1990's which says that grace covers it all. No matter what we do, grace will cover it. Yes, grace will cover it, but our realization of what God has done and how terrible sin is, then why in the world would we want to walk in sin so that grace could cover it.
 
 

Christ suffered and died on the cross for our sin. His suffering ought to bring us to desire not to sin.
 
 

Grace covers it all - yes. Common sense says take opportunity of grace as little as possible!