Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
God deals with sinners through representatives. Adam was our representative or federal head in the Garden. His sin is imputed to us and imparted to us. Imputed because he stood for us before God, and imparted because no one (but God) can get a clean thing out of an unclean. Natural generation imparts nature. Rabbits have little rabbits, Turtles have little turtles and sinners have little sinners. In both senses (imputation and impartation) we are sinners before God, and in both senses it is “by one man.” He alone was our representative, not Eve, and also it is through our ancestry by Adam that we have a sin nature.
Because of the impartation of our sin nature, we are active sinners ourselves, from birth to death. Psalms 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. The word “estranged” here is loathsome. We are born vile in the sight of God, in ourselves, by nature. Someone has said, sinners do not go to Hell because of Adam’s sin, but because of their own. I don’t see that it matters much, because either way, your only hope is Christ and Him crucified, but the truth of imputed and imparted sin clearly shows that we are accountable for both. If God imputes (gives the credit for) sin in Adam, then I am guilty in the sight of God, where it counts. To be guilty in God’s sight is to be guilty, period.
I love this doctrine of representation, because as I am a sinner by representation, so, I am a son of God, righteous and holy, by a Representative. Just as Adam stood for me in the Garden, Christ stood for me on this earth, and on the cross, lifted up from this earth. As in Adam, we had sin imputed and imparted to us, in Christ, we are both legally given the credit for His righteousness, and are given His righteous nature.
Just as we are all sons of Adam, we all who are in Christ, are sons of God. You cannot be someone’s son by birth without having their nature. 1John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. We are legally adopted yes, but also begotten (1Peter 1:23)
We are not yet like Him in the sense spoken of in the above verse, but we are NOW His sons, and being His sons, we have His nature. This is evident in that the flesh (the old man) could never believe on, love or worship Christ. Christ told Nicodemus “ye must be born again,” and nature is always imparted at birth, always. This nature God imparts to His people is none other than “Christ in you (Col 1:27)” It is the Spirit of God, “that dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
We don’t much act like God is “in us.” As a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so the sin nature that we still are, pollutes all of our works, even our most solemn devotions. Nevertheless, “by one Man,” the Man, Christ Jesus, I am alive, I believe, I do love Him, and I am holy in the sight of God, where it counts. |
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