“SIN ENTERED THE WORLD” (An Article by Christian Henry) ~ 4/17/25

“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:” (Romans 5:12)

At the beginning, God created man and woman upright and perfect, and wrote His righteous law on their hearts which secured eternal life while it was kept. Although God warned that they would die if it were broken, man did not live long in this honor. Satan used the subtlety of the serpent to seduce our first parents, and they willfully transgressed the law of their Creator and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit. And by this act, God, according to His purpose, was pleased to permit sin to come into the picture - having chosen to order it for His glory.

Adam and Eve, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we, as a race, fell with them. For from this, death came upon all: we all became dead in our sins and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

They, being the root and by God's appointment standing in the place of all humankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed (and their corrupted nature conveyed) to all their posterity in birth. Therefore, their descendants are conceived in sin and are, by nature, the children of wrath, the servants of sin, and the subjects of death until the Lord Jesus sets them free. All other transgressions proceed from this original corruption, by which we are rendered unfit for any good and left to stew in our evil.

During this life, the corruption of nature remains in those born again. Although it is pardoned and put to death through Christ, this corrupt nature and all its initiatives, drives, and temptations are genuinely and adequately sinful.

Paul states that sin came into the world through one man. This one man is Adam; the first man created from dust by God Himself. God breathed life into Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden with only one restriction: Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and his wife, Eve, did precisely what they were told not to, and sin entered the world.

It's worth noting that the term "world," specifically refers to humanity. Paul's discussion here focuses on the relationship between human beings and God. Death followed sin, just as He said it would. First, God slaughtered an animal to provide clothing for Adam and Eve, suddenly made aware of their nakedness by their sin. More than that, Adam and Eve were sent away from God and from the garden and began to die physically. They became mortal beings with a limited lifespan. Even worse, Adam and Eve passed on their sin to their offspring. Every person ever born in the world, other than Christ, was born sinful and destined to die. Sin always leads to death.

This was the tragic and seemingly inescapable result of Adam's first sin in the garden.