We must first look at man’s origin and how sin came into the picture in order to understand why the gospel of Jesus is such good news. After God created man He placed Adam and his wife in the garden of Eden. There Adam represented the whole of mankind in what is called ‘the covenant of works.’ (Now, if you have problems with the idea of a covenant of works, keep reading, we will discuss it later.) To obey, all Adam had to do was obey God’s command not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. Of course we all know that Adam’s wife, Eve was deceived by the serpent and she ate, as well as Adam who was with her. It is always interesting to me that the Bible says that Adam was with her and yet he neither said nor did anything to stop his wife from disobeying the Lord’s command.
OK. We all know this story. What is this ‘covenant of works’ thing? Well, basically it is that as mankind’s representative (or federal head), Adam could have obeyed, and as a result would have preserved the state of holiness, righteousness, and true knowledge of God that he was created with. We also believe that he would have earned additional blessings as his reward for keeping the covenant. As it stands we know that Adam did not keep the covenant. As a result of his failure to keep the covenant, Adam and all mankind that proceded from him, received the curse and penalty for breaking the covenant. This includes what we call the state of ‘original sin.’ Original sin does not refer to the sin that Adam committed. But, it refers to the state into which we are born: we have inherited Adam’s guilt as well as his corrupt nature. It is important that we understand that we received both of these aspects of original sin. That’s not fair! True enough, at first glance it doesn’t seem fair to say that we are held guilty for Adam’s sin. After all, we are not held guilty for the sin of our parents. The difference is that Adam was our representative. For reference see Romans 5:12-21. But, it is vital to note that this principle of Adams guilt being imputed to us is in this sense the same as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers.
We also inherit a corrupt nature. We are born Spiritually Dead. This term ‘spiritually dead’ requires some unpacking to understand. Often it seems that the reformed term ‘total depravity’ is very misunderstood. So, I will not use it here. When we talk about the aspect of original sin that refers to a corrupted nature or spiritual deadness, we do not mean that man’s spirit is dead in the sense of inactivity. We mean that in relation to God, man by nature is very active in disobeying and rebelling against God. Man is dead to desiring a holy, righteous relationship with God.
OK. Do you have trouble calling this a ‘covenant’? I realize that in Genesis it isn’t called a covenant, but it is elsewhere. Hosea 6:7 refers to the covenant that Adam broke. Not to mention the concepts already refered to in Romans 5:12-21. Also, see I Corinthians 15:22.
So, the result of this first covenant is that all of mankind is, from birth, under condemnation due to the guilt imputed to him from Adam. He also invariably commits actual sin because he is, by his corrupted nature, opposed to God. Man is therefore, outside of the work of the Holy Spirit changing man’s heart, unable and unwilling to respond to the outward call of the gospel.
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