Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned
— Romans 5:12
We are, in general, big fans of inheritance. Many fights have ensued after the death of parents for the rights of inheritance. However, we only want good inheritances, not bad ones. We want riches and good property. So, the fights that ensue when the inheritance is a double mortgaged house in disrepair are not over who gets to keep it, but who has to deal with it.
Adam gave us both good and bad things as our covenant head. We inherit the image of God. That’s very good. We inherit this world. That’s good. We inherit sin-nature and death. Those are not good.
But they are our inheritance by virtue of us being Adam’s sons and daughters. We are his children, and he gave to us a sin-nature. This nature of sinfulness is just as much a part of us as the image of God. We are fallen, inherently sinful.
Our inherited sin-nature is not the same as saying “we have all sinned,” although this latter statement is also true. The reason we commit sins now is because we have a corrupt nature that desires to disobey. This is a stronger statement than to say that we are prone to sin. We don’t lean towards sin; rather, we are slaves to it. We have the wrong master. Our master is a sinfulness that comes to us because we are children of Adam. We have inherited our sinfulness.
We fell in Adam
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned
— Romans 5:12
We are, in general, big fans of inheritance. Many fights have ensued after the death of parents for the rights of inheritance. However, we only want good inheritances, not bad ones. We want riches and good property. So, the fights that ensue when the inheritance is a double mortgaged house in disrepair are not over who gets to keep it, but who has to deal with it.
Adam gave us both good and bad things as our covenant head. We inherit the image of God. That’s very good. We inherit this world. That’s good. We inherit sin-nature and death. Those are not good.
But they are our inheritance by virtue of us being Adam’s sons and daughters. We are his children, and he gave to us a sin-nature. This nature of sinfulness is just as much a part of us as the image of God. We are fallen, inherently sinful.
Our inherited sin-nature is not the same as saying “we have all sinned,” although this latter statement is also true. The reason we commit sins now is because we have a corrupt nature that desires to disobey. This is a stronger statement than to say that we are prone to sin. We don’t lean towards sin; rather, we are slaves to it. We have the wrong master. Our master is a sinfulness that comes to us because we are children of Adam. We have inherited our sinfulness.