HOW DID WE BECOME SINNERS?
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday, 19th March 2006
Reading: Genesis 4 verses 1-16.
Text: Romans 5 v 12, “As through one man sin entered the world and death by sin.”
HOW DID WE BECOME SINNERS?
In Romans 5 v 11 Paul rejoices in God because we have received the reconciliation through Jesus Christ. At the mention of reconciliation he immediately discusses how sin came into the world, 5 vs 12-21 .
This morning I ask that question: How did we become sinners? If we know God at all, we will know that in His sight we are sinners. By sinner I mean a law-breaker, disobedient to God. We have not loved God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength nor have we loved your neighbour as ourself.
You may ask, Does it matter how I became a sinner? What matters is that I admit my sin and make my peace with God. So forget the past and how I became a sinner; the future is what matters. Friends, the past matters to God. In the end God will judge us for what we have done in the past. My question about how we became sinners is important because the way be became sinners determines in part the way to be reconciled to God.
IT MATTERS HOW WE BECAME SINNERS
Let me illustrate the point. If a couple fall out over money matters, because one spends too much and incurs debts which the other has to pay off, how can they be reconciled unless the over-spending problem is resolved? If they shake hands; or kiss and cuddle and get back together, the problem will recur. That is not reconciliation.
Reconciliation without change is not reconciliation. Last Sunday night we studied reconciliation in the Bible. To be reconciled means to change by means of an exchange. The change is from alienation to harmony. It is achieved by an exchange - exchanging the bad for the good; removing the cause of the problem and enhancing what binds them together. So in the nature of the case, reconciliation must take account of what went wrong in the first place. That is why I ask, ‘How did we become sinners?’ To be reconciled to God the cause of the Fall must be dealt with! And the way we became sinners will determine in part the way to be reconciled to God.
DID WE BECOME SINNERS WHEN WE FIRST SINNED?
Did we become sinners when we first sinned? In the year 310 AD, a British monk. Pelagius, visited Rome and started to write against Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. Pelagius disagreed with Augustine over Original Sin; Pelagius believed that man’s moral nature is basically good! He denied we were sinners from birth. He thought we were born neutral and became sinners when we first sinned. We become sinners by our own action. And we must be saved in the same way, by our own action. We all have the capacity to save ourselves with the help of God. In 412 he went to Palestine and faced heresy charges and was condemned by 418.
If Pelagius is right, then I became a sinner by my own action – the first time I disobeyed my parents or deliberately kicked my twin brother in the face! And I must be saved by my own action.
Is that right? Were we free to sin or not to sin? Or did we sin because we were already sinners at heart?
WHY DID CAIN MURDER HIS BROTHER ABEL?
Why did Cain murder his brother Abel? After Adam’s sin, which we call The Fall of Man, things went badly wrong in Adam’s family; his eldest son Cain killed brother Abel. God had warned Cain, ‘sin lies at the door’ but Cain had not put things right with God and as a result fell into the sin of murder and infracticide.
The way it happened is this. First Cain’s relationship with God broke down; he was angry with God and hardened his heart against God’s Word. Then there was nothing to restrain him from taking his anger out on Abel, He fell out with his brother because he had fallen out with God! Had he not fallen out with God, he would never have killed his brother. When the vertical relationships goes, all horizontal relationships come under pressure.
It follows that if we want peace on earth, if you desire to preserve marriage; to avoid civil strife; to end war between nations, we must first put things right with God. A nation that forsakes the living God will suffer the breakdown of all other relationships! That is happening in this country at the present time!
In history there are examples of revival followed by massive reductions in crime, marriage breakup, social problems, etc. If we want true peace on earth, we must turn back to God!
HOW PAUL SAYS WE BECAME SINNERS
Let’s turn to the Apostle Paul for an answer. Paul taught that we sin because we are sinners. He never held that we were born neutral and made ourselves sinners by our sin. “A bad tree brings forth bad fruit.”
Paul did not trace sin back to birth, as did the Jewish rabbis who said that, if a baby dies it is due to the sin of its parents. But in John 9 Jesus refused to blame a man’s blindness from birth on his parents.
Paul did not teach that sin is natural to man, in-built at creation! God did not create us sinners! Genesis 1 insists repeatedly that all God made was good! At creation there was no sin and no death!
So what did Paul teach? Romans 5 v 12, “Through one man, (Adam), sin entered into the world and death through sin; thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”! Clearly the one man was Adam.
ADAM’S HEADSHIP AND THE IMPUTATION OF HIS SIN TO HUMANITY
Let’s unpack that a little.
1st Paul held that Adam was head of humanity; Adam represented the whole human race; God chose Adam to be our representative and, whether he did right or wrong, he represented us correctly, so we cannot complain! Adam is our physical progenitor and our legal representative.
2nd On that basis, Paul held that what Adam did is counted, logged, imputed, credited to the whole human race! Adam’s disobedience in the Garden is imputed to the whole human race! In Adam ‘all sinned’, Romans 5 v 12! And the judgment of God upon Adam, death, is also imputed to the whole human race, ‘In Adam all die’ 1 Corinthians 15 v 22! Or as Paul puts it in Romans 5 v 15, “By one man’s offense many died.”
So we became sinners in Adam, the head of humanity, by the imputation of his sin.
RECONCILIATION BY CHRIST’S HEADSHIP AND THE IMPUTATION OF HIS OBEDIENCE
Does that tell us how we may be reconciled to God? In Romans 5 v 11 Paul says, we received reconciliation from Christ! We do not achieve reconciliation because we cannot change sufficiently to be reconciled to God.
God sent His Son into the world to be the new Head and representative of a new humanity! We did not chose Him! God appointed Him to be our Head and representative! And though tempted far more than Adam, He did a far better job than did Adam! As our legal representative, our federal head, our King and High Priest, He represented us before God and He reconciled us to God by His obedient life and by His blood.
As in Adam all sinned and all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. He is our federal head. Our sin was imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us, that we be reconciled to God in Him. Romans 5 v 19: “As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”
So the way we became sinners – in Adam – indicates the only way we may be reconciled to God – in a new Head and representative Man! The Gospel tells us the good news that God has provided for us a Second Adam and He is the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Him!
Therefore let us rejoice in God because we have received the reconciliation through our Lord Jesus Christ!
