The Fall

The Fallen State of Man¹
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—1995

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, the effect of their action went far beyond them. It had ramifications for the entire human race. The Fall, as it is known, brought sin and death into the world God had called "very good" (Gen 1:31a). In what ways, though, do we, Adam's descendants, suffer for his sin? What do we inherit as a result of the Fall?

I. Two Theological Descriptions

As theologians have wrestled with these questions, they have explained man's fallen state using the concepts of "original sin" and the "imputation of sin" (Hodge 1972:325, 357).

A. "Original sin" concerns the moral effect of Adam's disobedience.

1. It is the corrupt nature we inherit from Adam.
2. When Adam sinned, he introduced a defective gene into the moral DNA of the species, a propensity to sin that was not part of the original genetic code.

B. "Imputation of sin" concerns the legal effect of Adam's disobedience.

1. It is the judicial guilt we inherit from Adam.
2. When Adam sinned, he implicated the entire race, making all his descendants guilty by association.

These ideas derive chiefly from Romans 5,² a series of statements in which Paul explains how Adam's sin affects us, his descendants. Rather than examining the many different positions theologians have taken on this subject, we will just look at the biblical source and try to determine what we can safely say.


II. The Biblical Exposition (Rom 5:12-19)

In Rom 5:12-19, Paul makes a series of parallels between what Adam did and what Jesus did.

How are Rom 5:12-14 different from Rom 5:15-19? ...The first section, especially Rom 5:12, is an introductory statement which indicates three points Paul will use to contrast Adam's work with Jesus' work (and, perhaps, to limit the extent of the analogy). The apostle answers the question...

A. Why do we suffer for what Adam did? (Rom 5:12-14)

1. Adam was the first to sin.
2. Adam's sin introduced death into the physical realm.³
3. All men die because they all sin (although not necessarily in the same way Adam did; cf. v. 14).⁴

In the verses that follow, Paul concentrates on the far-reaching affect of Adam's indiscretion. Here, the question is...

B. How do we suffer for what Adam did? That is, what effect did the Fall have on succeeding generations? (Rom 5:15-19)

1. One possible answer is that we are casualties of Adam's sin. (The popular term would be victims.)

• We inherit his corruption ("original sin"), as well as the guilt from ("imputation of sin") and the penalty for his disobedience.

• Solomon observes that "[t]here is not a righteous man on earth" (Eccl 7:20 = Rom 3:10), which confirms that we have received a corrupt nature, what rabbinic literature calls an evil inclination.⁵

2. Another possible answer is that we are culprits with Adam.

• We make ourselves corrupt and guilty by doing essentially the same thing (i.e., disobeying God; so v. 12); thus, we are subject to the same penalty.

• God states that guilt does not accrue from one generation to the next, and He places great emphasis on personal responsibility.⁶

Ezek 18:20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.

C. Which option best describes how we suffer for what Adam did, as casualties or culprits? ... The answer is probably a bit of both.

1. We certainly have inherited Adam's corruption, a defect in our character, making us casualties of his transgression.

If we all entered life morally neutral, surely some people in the course of human history would have chosen to obey God rather than to disobey Him. That no one ever has—at least, not successfully—is a strong argument in favor of our having inherited a fallen nature from Adam.

2. We also have inherited Adam's inclination, a propensity to sin, making us culprits with his transgression.

Nevertheless, we do not need Adam's guilt to condemn us. We do more than enough to accumulate guilt of our own, sufficient to warrant the same penalty Adam's sin drew.

Therefore, I would say we are casualties in that we inherit Adam's corruption ("original sin"), and we are culprits in that we choose to confirm (or increase) our corruption, to disobey God (as Adam did), making ourselves guilty as a result.

What to remember: Whether we are casualties, culprits, or both, we should not lose sight of Paul's main point in Rom 5—No matter how debilitating the affect of Adam's sin, "much more" is Jesus' sacrifice able to overcome that effect, to repair us as well as our relationship with God. The wonderful news is: what the believer receives in grace is far greater than what Adam lost in sin.⁷

For the Endnotes see the pdf here.