The Consequences of Adam
5: 12-14
The consequences of Adam DIG: What is the logic behind the “bad news” in these verses? What is “The Fall?” What is “original sin?” How could what one man did at one time in history have such an absolute effect on mankind? If Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil first, why does the Bible say that “Sin entered the world through one man?” Who was the First Adam? Who was the Last Adam? What is the age of accountability?
REFLECT: When have you made a decision that affected others in a bad way? How does that help you understand verse 12? Does the message of the Good News excite you the way it does Paul? Why? Why not? What could help you regain its life and vitality once again? Why is it important to you to understand that all of mankind fell with the First Adam? How have the consequences of Adam’s sin affected you? How has Messiah rescued you?
Modern Judaism says you are a sinner because you commit acts of sin; but the B’rit Chadashah says you commit acts of sin because you are a sinner.
There was no sin in the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect environment, and Adam and Eve were free to live in perfect happiness, having fellowship with YHVH, and with each other. They were capable of perfect obedience. How long they enjoyed this Dispensation (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Ap – The Dispensations of God: The Dispensation of Innocence or Freedom) is unknown. Paul explains the sequence of events at the point where sin entered their lives as the consequence of their action. This is what we refer to as “The Fall” (see the commentary on Genesis Ay – The Fall of Man), the historical event when Adam and Eve sinned, and death, both spiritual and physical, entered the human race. This is also referred to as “original sin” – original because it was the very first sin. The entrance of sin into life on earth created an immediate need for a new approach to Ha’Shem, who knew no sin. God began to make a way for sinners to be received into His holy Kingdom through grace.126
These verses reach back in Romans where the subject of total depravity was first discussed (see Aw – The Religious Jew’s Lack of Understanding: The verdict). After describing the appalling sin and lostness of mankind (see Aj – The Universal Need of Mankind), Paul has revealed how Messiah, by His death on the cross, provided the way of salvation for everyone who comes to ADONAI in faith (see Ax – The Universal Solution: Justification). The inevitable question that then arises is, “How could what one man did at one time in history have such an absolute effect on mankind?” Paul now shows in this passage that sin and death come from the First Adam, and righteousness and life come from the Second Adam.
God gave Adam the power of attorney to act for the entire human race. We are participants in Adam’s sin, and therefore, guilty of that same sin. We have all become sinners because we have inherited the sin nature that has been passed down from Adam. Sin infected everyone; therefore, we are all born with the terminal disease of sin.
Sin entered the world through one man (5:12a): Therefore, sin was imputed, or transferred to another’s spiritual bank account, through one individual. The word therefore connects what follows with what has just been stated, namely as believers we have been declared righteous by the sacrifice of Yeshua Messiah (see Bj – The Restoration of Justification). Now, Paul begins the analogy of Messiah with Adam, the common principle being that, in each case, a far-reaching effect on countless others was generated through one man.
In the case of Adam, it was through one man that sin entered (the Greek aorist tense: eiselthen) the world. The Greek aorist tense, referring to a single past action, occurs in all three verbs in verse 12. It is important to note that Paul does not say that sin originated with Adam, but only that sin in the world began with Adam. Sin originated with the Adversary, who from the very beginning, has kept on sinning (First John 3:8).
It was through one man that sin entered the world (5:12a). The writer to the Hebrews knew that his Jewish audience would understand this concept, when he wrote about the tithes Levi paid to Melchizedek. And it is beyond all dispute that the one who blesses has higher status than the one who receives the blessing. Moreover, in the case of the priests, the tenth is received by men who die; while in the case of Melchizedek, it is received by someone who is testified to be still alive. One might go even further and say that Levi, who himself receives tenths, paid a tenth through Abraham; inasmuch as he was still in his ancestor Avraham’s body when Melchizedek met him (Hebrews 7:8-10). In other words, although Melchizedek lived many years before Levi (the father of the priestly tribe) was born, along with all the other descendents of Abraham, Levi being in the seed of Abraham’s body, shared in the tithe paid to the ancient king.
In the same way, although with enormously greater consequences, the sin of Adam was passed on to all of his descendants. When he sinned in the Garden of Eden, he sinned not only as a man, but as mankind. When he and his wife, who were one flesh (Genesis 2:24), sinned against YHVH, all of their descendents – that is, the entire human race in their loins – would share in that sin, the alienation from God, and the subjection to death that were its consequences. In Adam all die, Paul explained to the Corinthians (First Corinthians 15:22). Thus, as far as guilt is concerned, every human being was in the Garden with Adam, actually in the loins of Adam, and shares in the sin he committed there.
The fact that Adam and Eve were not only actual historical figures, but were the original human beings from whom all others have descended, is absolutely critical to Paul’s argument here, and is critical to the effectiveness of the Good News of Yeshua Messiah. If a historical Adam did not represent all mankind in sinfulness, a historical Messiah could not represent all mankind in righteousness. If all mankind did not fall with the First Adam, all mankind could not be saved by the Second, and last, Adam (First Corinthians 15:20-22, 45). In other words, all of Adam’s sin was transferred to us when he was lost, and all of Messiah’s righteousness is transferred to us when we are saved.127
Death entered the world through sin (5:12b): The second element of Paul’s argument is that because sin entered the world through one man, so also death, the consequence of sin (6:23), spread (Greek aorist tense: dielthen) to the world through that one man’s sin (5:12b). YHVH didn’t create Adam as a mortal being, that is, subject to death. But He explicitly warned Adam that disobedience by eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil would make him subject to death (Genesis 2:17). And contrary to the lie of the Adversary (Genesis 3:4), that was exactly what happened. Death is the unfailing fruit of the poison that entered Adam’s heart and the heart of every one of his descendants. Later, Paul will expound on this verse and say: Because of the offense of one man, death ruled through that one man (5:17a), and because of the disobedience of the one man, Adam, many were made sinners (5:19a).
Sin brings spiritual separation from God, which Adam experienced immediately after his disobedience. Physical separation from human beings. Although Adam did not immediately lose his physical life, he became subject to death the moment he sinned. Physical death will bring to an end the opportunity for salvation. The third kind of separation not only brings separation from God, but brings eternal torment in hell (see the commentary on Revelation Fp – The Lake of Fire is the Second Death). The unbeliever has reason to fear all three deaths. Spiritual death prevents his earthly joy; physical death will bring an end for the opportunity to be saved, and eternal death will bring everlasting punishment. But no kind of death should be feared by believers. We are saved forever by Messiah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer) from spiritual and eternal death, and our physical death (or rapture) will usher us into His divine presence.128
Dear Loving Heavenly Father, Praise Your great love that rescued us! Your holiness is fantastic! Your love is a very comforting thought; but Your perfect holiness and my sin creates a distance between us and makes me want to move far away from You. How thankful I am that You Yourself opened the door to heaven by providing the path for forgiveness for all who would choose to love and to follow You as Lord and Savior. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). Thank You! I bow in worship of You. In Your holy Yeshua’s name and power of His resurrection. Amen
Death spread to all mankind because all sinned (5:12c): The last clause in verse 12 tells us that we were involved in some way in Adam’s sin. In other words, it was in some sense our sin. And because Adam’s sin was imputed to us at conception, we sinned, and as such, each of us deserved to die. As Ezeki’el says: The person who sins is the one that will die (Ezeki’el 18:20). And in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned through Adam (5:12c). The verb sinned (Greek aorist tense: emarton) refers to a single past action . . . Adam’s sin. Had Paul intended to refer to a continued process of sin, and not Adam’s sin, the present and imperfect tenses were available to him. But he chose the aorist tense, and it should be taken at face value. Indeed, if we regard the sin of all mankind and the sin of Adam as one-and-the-same, verses 12 and verses 15 and 17 dove-tail together nicely.
The status of miscarriages, babies and infants needs to be addressed. If the reasoning that precedes is correct, then all begin life with both a corrupted nature and the guilt that are the consequences of sin. Does this mean that should these little ones die before making a conscious decision to receive the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous (5:17), that they are lost and condemned to eternal death? No, heaven forbid! Indeed, our Lord did not regard them as basically sinful and guilty. He held them up as an example of the type of person who will inherit the Kingdom: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). In addition, David had confidence that he would again see his child that had died (see the commentary on the Life of David De – David’s Son Dies).
The Bible teaches that there is an age of accountability for each person. King Ahaz needed something that would serve as a sign that Isaiah’s prophecy that he would not be dethroned would take place in his lifetime. When Isaiah went to meet the king, he prophesied that his son, Shear-Jashub was a sign to king Ahaz. He will eat curds and honey until he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. Within about three years, the boy would know the difference between right and wrong, have the ability to make moral choices, and thus be accountable for them. At that time, Isaiah said, the land of Ahaz’s enemies would be laid waste and the northern alliance between Isra’el and Syria would be broken (Isaiah 7:15-16).
We become responsible and guilty when we accept the fact that we have a sin nature. There is a time in the life of each one of us when we become aware of our own tendency toward sin. That is the age where YHVH holds us accountable for our moral decisions. At that point, we may despise the sinful nature that has been there all the time. In that case, we would repent of it and might even, if there is an awareness of the gospel, ask God for forgiveness. At the very least, there would be a rejection of our sinful makeup. But if we submit to that sinful nature, we are, in effect, saying that it is good. In placing our unspoken approval upon it, we would also be approving or agreeing with the action in the Garden of Eden so long ago. As a result, we would become guilty of that sin without having to commit a sin of our own.
There is no condemnation until one reaches the age of accountability. If an embryo, a baby, or a child dies before he or she is capable of making genuine moral decisions, there is only innocence, and the child will experience the same type of future existence with ADONAI as will those who have reached the age of accountability and had their sins forgiven as a result of accepting the offer of salvation based upon Messiah’s atoning death.129
The Jewish view is that mankind enters the world free of sin, with a soul that is pure, innocent, and untainted. While there were some Jewish teachers in Talmudic times who believed that death was a punishment brought upon mankind on account of Adam’s sin, the dominant view by far is that man sins because he is not a perfect being, and not because he is inherently sinful. The closest Jews come to a doctrine of original sin, is that since no one is perfect, everyone has “an inclination” to do evil from his youth (Genesis 8:20).
The rabbis teach that babies are born with a yetzer ha’ra, or the “evil inclination,” and later develop a yetzer ha’tov, or the “good inclination.” While still in the womb, the “evil inclination” begins to develop. From birth until 13 years later, nothing hinders the sinning. But at the Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, the child’s moral sense has developed sufficiently to hold him or her responsible for their actions. R. Isaac Arama, the fifteenth century Spanish philosopher and commentator, connected this change around Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah to the well-known beginning of the Mishnaic tractate on the Passover, “For the first thirteen years of life, one rebels, but in the fourteenth year, the light of intelligence appears in him, and then he becomes a bar mitzvah (or son of the covenant), and subject to the punishment of a human court. Similarly, our sages, of blessed memory, hinted at this when they said, ‘On the evening of the fourteenth, we search the hametz [leaven] by the light of a candle’ (Mishnah Pesachim 1:1)” (Sefer Akedat Yitzhak 61).130
Eve is not mentioned because Adam was responsible to take care of the Garden (Genesis 2:15), which implies to take care of his wife because Eve was in the Garden (see the commentary on Genesis Lv – I Do Not Permit a Woman to Teach or Have Authority Over a Man, She Must Be Silent).
History proves that death reigns over all mankind (5:13-14): Having made that statement, Paul now sets out to prove it. Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah (5:13). This shows that Adam’s sin was imputed. They died even though they were not guilty of committing a specific act of sin as given in the Torah. Why? Because they had a sin nature. Nevertheless, death ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam’s violation of a direct command. Because Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden after they sinned, they had no more opportunity to disobey God’s single prohibition. They no longer had access to the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, nor have any of their descendants. Consequently, it has been impossible for any human being, either before or after Moses, to have sinned exactly like Adam sinned. Which, again, points to the fact that Adam’s sin was imputed, or transferred to our spiritual bank account, at birth.131
In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come, but there are very significant differences between the two (5:14). Adam was one man, who committed one act of sin, with one result. But in that one act, he became a type of yet another man. The last Adam, Yeshua Messiah. He was one man, committing one act, with one result. Next, Paul brings out the contrast between Adam and Messiah.
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