Rom. 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
Sin entered into the world through the disobedience of one man, Adam. Through sin, the punishment of sin also entered into the world—death. In Adam, all sinned and thereby also came under the punishment of death. The “all sinned” in Romans 5:12c is not personal sin, but the sin of the representative, Adam. We all sinned because he sinned. His sin and trespass did not only lead to our death, but also to our Judgment and condemnation. His sin brought both physical and spiritual death; natural and eternal death.
When sin entered into the world, separation came between man and God. Separation from all good, physical and spiritual death also, the second death, the death of all eternity and torment in Hell. Sin creates separation between the Creator and creature. The sin that is in us causes Him to grief and be angry with us and make His wrath abide on us (Gen. 6:5-6; John 3:36).
Isa. 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
§3 Original Sin and Federal Headship
- They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free. 1
- Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 45, 49; Ps 51:5; 58:3; Job 14:4; 15:14; Gen. 8:21; Prov. 22:15; Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 6:20; Heb. 2:14, 15; 1 Thess. 1:10
They were not only the root, i.e., the first parents of all humans, but also by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind (Rom. 5:12-19). It was God Who decided that Adam be the federal head of all his descendants. This meant that whatever Adam did in the Covenant of Works (see chapter 7) counted for his descendants also. Since Adam disobeyed, all the curses of the Covenant came upon us, too. Thus, the guilt of sin was imputed (Rom. 5:12) to us and the corrupted nature conveyed by ordinary generation, i.e., procreation. Note especially the word ordinary, which excludes our Lord from being under Adam since His birth or generation was unordinary. From our first point of life we are sinful. We are conceived in sin. Conceived in and not by sin. We are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), not children of God. And we are subject to all the curses of God because of Adam’s law-breaking and our own sins against God and will remain so unless the Lord Jesus sets us free.
Here is the Confession’s full statement on the classic doctrine of Original Sin, or as Dr. Wayne Grudem suggests, Inherited Sin. We see that Adam and Eve, or more specifically, Adam, stood in our place in the Garden. They were the tree of the human family, so to speak, and if the tree is corrupt, its fruits will also be corrupt (Matt. 7:18). It was God Who appointed Adam as the Federal Head of the human race, the legal representative. It was His doing, there is no questioning of God’s decision. He is righteous in all His ways and is never “unfair” (Deut. 32:4; Gen. 18:25; Job 34:10). None of us would h...