In the previous blog, we saw the devastating effect of Adam and Eve’s sin upon themselves. But did the impact of their sin affect anyone else? Can the sin in the human family today be traced back to the first sin in the first man? Let’s reason backward.

Sin is a Fact
Man is a sinner. We only need to be locked up with ourselves for one single day to have ample proof of this statement. Although we may be unwilling to admit the evidence that is given through our thoughts, desires, feelings, words, and actions, just watch the evening news, listen to the gossip all around us. Man is a sinner. If we deny the reality of sin, we not only disbelieve God’s Word, and make Him a liar, but we also disbelieve our own experience and observation.

1 John 1:8

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:10

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

Sin is a Universal Fact
Every man is a sinner. There are no exceptions to this rule except the Man, Christ Jesus.

1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chronicles 6:36

When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin)

Romans 3:10

As it is written: there is none righteous, no, not one

Romans 3:12

They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.

A truly honest man knows and admits that he is a sinner. In John 8, the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman taken in the act of adultery to the Lord Jesus. They tried to tempt Him so that they could accuse Him. They asked Him if they should fulfill the law of Moses and stone her.

John 8:7-9

⁷ So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 

Who among us is “without sin”? We may differ in the degree of sin in our life, but not in the fact of sin. Many men are naturally kind, gracious, charitable, and loving but “there is none righteous.”

Every Man is a Sinner Before He Sins
Sin is much more than an act; it is a state, a nature, a disposition, a tendency. Sin is an inward reality before it is an outward manifestation. Sin is a desire before it is a deed.

James 1:15

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Have we not experienced watching a baby express its temper, self-will, stubbornness, and anger before it could talk or walk? Men were born in sin. We are all “by nature the children of wrath.” Humanity inherited a sinful nature.

Ephesians 2:3

… among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

“By God’s appointment Adam was the federal head of the human family. He owns the seed of the race, and all the coming generations were in him. Adam was not only man but he was the womb of mankind. As forerunner of the human race, he was also its representative.

Therefore Adam’s sin was not his sin alone. All mankind was vitally affected by it. Adam’s sin put the poison of sin in the human germ; the result was the moral and spiritual ruin of the race, collectively and individually. Adam was created without sin. By an act of his own will he became a sinner. “What man thus became, men are.” “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Job 14:4

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!

John 3:6

That which is born of the flesh is flesh

Adam fell, and by that fall he received a corrupt nature. Then, he begat sons in his own likeness who inherited his sinful nature.  And so, the poison of sin continued down through the human race until all men are involved.

Genesis 5:3

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:19

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners

Through Adam’s disobedience, all men were made sinners, and the death sentence now rests upon us all. With Adam’s fall, spiritual deterioration and death began immediately, and the depths into which the human race would soon sink are revealed in the following words.

Genesis 6:3

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh;”

Genesis 6:5-6

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Upon Adam’s fall, physical deterioration began immediately and death and decay were the final consequence. Adam lived and died. The sad record of Genesis 5 shows that the seed of death rooted in Adam was spread to his posterity until each human being has to pay the death toll.  Everyone is born on Death Row.

Source Ruth Paxson “Life on the Highest Plane.”

Lord, save us from our own self-deception. This is Man without a Savior.

In Him,

Marion