The enjoyment of this blessed state could only be
retained upon conditions. God laid down a law or
commandment for man to obey. The penalty attached for
breaking this law was, death, and a forfeiting of that
blessed state which he held and enjoyed. "And the
Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."—Gen.
2:15-17.
But by listening to the subtle reasoning
of the Devil, man disobeyed and broke the commandment of
God. And just as God had said; he died. Not a literal
death of the body, but a spiritual death. "The soul
that sinneth, it shall die."—Ezek. 18:4, 20. The
very moment a man sins, it separates him from God, and he
dies (spiritually).
All who transgress the law of God
are said to be "dead in trespasses and sins."—Eph. 2 :1, 5. Thus man lost the divine image
in which God had created him, and fell to the plane of
sin. As a result of this, since that time, people are born
in this world in man's likeness and image. See Gen. 5:3.
That is, a depraved nature was inherited from our fore
parents, which has passed upon the whole human family.
"The imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth."—Gen. 8 :21.
"The wicked are estranged from
the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies."—Psa. 58:3.
"Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."—Psa.
51:5.
"Man that is born of a woman
is of few days, and full of trouble." "Who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not
one."—Job 14:1, 4.
"And were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others."—Eph. 2 :3.
Now if a man is sinful from youth,
birth, and even from conception, it is evident that he is
born with the germ of sin in his heart. It is sin in
"nature"—sin as a moral element, or bent to
evil. If then humanity is sinful by birth, in whom could
the degenerate nature have started, but in him through
whom the human family fell?
Adam is the medium through whom all
sin has entered the world. "Wherefore, as by one man
[Adam] sin entered into the world."—Rom. 5:12.
"Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
transgression."—Ver. 14. "Through the offense
of one many be dead."—Ver. 15. "The judgment
was by one to condemnation."—Ver. 16. "By one
man's disobedience many were made sinners."—Ver.
19.
Observe also that in 1 Cor. 3 :1-3,
Paul shows that carnality (the Adamic nature) remains in
the heart after spiritual birth, which is positive proof
that it is inherited; for justification removes all
acquired sin. This inherited nature is styled in the
scriptures, "besetting sin" (Heb. 12:1),
"body of sin," the "old man" (Rom.
6:6), "flesh" (Gal. 5:17, 18; Rom. 8:7-9),
"carnal mind" (Rom. 8:7), "carnality"
(1 Cor. 3:1-3), "works of the Devil" (1 John 3
:8), "uncleanness" (Zech. 13 :1).
Sins, in the plural, are those
actual transgressions which men commit from the years of
accountability on. David cried unto the Lord, "Blot
out my transgressions." From the foregoing we clearly
see that sin exists in the world in two forms: inherited
sin, and actual transgressions.
