To further expand upon his point of all men inheriting the legacy of total depravity, Paul once again returns to the witness of the Old Testament. In Romans 5: 12 – 23, Paul discusses the first man, Adam, as the source of all human sinfulness. The Federal Headship of Adam is the true identity that all men may rightfully claim in that all men have sinned against God in the likeness of Adam; a likeness inherited from this common ancestor. Not only this, but all men are rightly condemned for this inherent sin because of the transgression of Adam. He stands as the representative of all mankind and all men are held accountable for this depraved condition that has been imputed to them by their first father. Paul also describes how in the same way, the second Adam, that is Christ, came and imputed justification to many. The justifying work of Christ, according to Paul here, is in response to the judgment of God upon the transgression of one imputed to all in that the righteousness of the One is imputed to many. He says in verses fifteen through seventeen,
“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
As with the Jewish people of Paul’s day, who embraced the acceptance of God granted to the nation through the covenantal relationship but denied any real obstruction in that relationship due to sin, many in faith life today gladly embrace the imputation of righteousness from Christ without accepting the equal doctrine of imputed corruption in Adam. The failing of both groups is the insistence upon right standing with God through “keeping the Law” and though the keeping process is different as one group is compared to the other, the foundational ideology is the same. The Apostle’s declaration of Christ’s imputation of righteousness upon the believer in God is dependent upon Adam’s imputation of corruption and sin upon all mankind. In other words, if the full and unmerited grace of God is to be imputed solely at the good pleasure of God and not based on anything meritorious in the recipients of that grace, the recipients must be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to be totally corrupt and completely without merit. To try and hedge this reality in fact denies both assertions. According to the teachings of Paul, if one is able to rightly justify himself through rite and observance, they are not counted in the first group; that is, those who are in Adam. By extension of the Romans 5 text, if one is not found in the likeness of Adam, there is no necessity of their inclusion in the second Adam, or simply put, they are not found in Christ.
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