Original Sin - Romans 5:12 - We Inherit Spiritual Death
Like 1 Corinthians 15:21, Romans 5:12 is another verse used to support the doctrine of Original Sin. However, does this verse mean that there was no death before Adam? That is important to answer, because if there was no death before Adam, then Evolution would be false, and the Earth would by necessity be young… and science would be turned on its ear.
The first verse on Original Sin that I addressed is 1 Corinthians 15:21, which reads:
21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
However, the context of this verse was a reference back to Daniel 12:2:
2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
So, because both saved and unsaved die, and both saved and unsaved resurrect, Paul was not talking of sin vs. redemption when he wrote of death vs. resurrection. He was merely talking of the transition from natural life (death) to after life (resurrection). Simply put, some resurrect to Heaven and some to Hell. Therefore, 1 Cor. 15:21 is not a verse on Original Sin at all, let alone the age of the earth. In fact, as if to emphasize this point, he even goes on in the next verse to say:
22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
In this verse, all means all.
Interestingly however, Paul does touch on Original Sin, and even describes it, but further down, where he writes:
31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How could he die every day? Well, probably in the same manner that Adam “died”, “on the day” that he ate of the forbidden fruit. However, it also seems that Paul is glories in his redemption every day as well. He dies just as surely as he is redeemed, and he does so every day. He wouldn’t seem to have the same difficulty with Adam’s “death” that many of us do.
Finally, as he closes out the chapter, Paul writes:
55“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
If Adam introduced death when he sinned, then the sting of sin would be death, but Paul writes it the other way around! The sting of death is sin! And why? Because the judgement we experience in the resurrection is measured according to God’s law. But God’s law also includes sacrifice, and Jesus Christ is ours. He will take the sting out of death for us; for those who are not saved, the sting will be grave indeed.
As Christians, we must be serious about what Christ accomplished. If we are to say that Christ conquered sin and conquered death, then we err to conflate the two. Why? Because Christ does not makes us sinless; He suffers the penalty of our sin for us. As for death, we still die; Christ does not suffer our death for us. Sin and death are related however, in that sin is death’s sting. By redeeming us, Christ removes the sting our death… but we still die all the same.
In the end, Paul confirms the doctrine of Original Sin, but his formulation is not in verse 21, but 56. It would seem that Adam did not introduce physical death; Adam introduced the sting of physical death, and that sting has been passed down to us for Christ to redeem.
I rehashed this study because it is important to understand what Paul believes when study his other major verse on Original Sin, Romans 5:12:
Romans 5:12 - “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
We know from 1 Cor 15 that Paul does not believe physical death entered the world through Adam. He appears to believe that Adam added the sting of sin to death. That said, Paul does believe in spiritual death, something we suffer from every day when we sin. It was the death that God told Adam he would suffer should he eat the forbidden fruit. Knowing this what can we say about Romans 5:12?
First of all, physical death did not enter the world through sin, but spiritual death did. “In this way, death came to all men, because all sinned,” not because all live long enough to die. It is why Paul died every day (1 Cor. 15:31).
In fact, after writing of the death that we inherit from Adam (clear confirmation of Original Sin), Paul clarifies what he means by inheriting death:
18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
In other words, we are sinners because we are spiritually dead, and we are spiritually dead because of Original Sin, which we inherit from Adam. We are dead regardless of our own sin, even while our own sin kills us anew every time. But all the same, or faith in Christ makes us righteous. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:31…
31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice also Romans 5:19 above, where the tension is not between physical death and redemption, but between being a sinner and being righteous. This supports what I wrote about Genesis 2:7 in Genesis 2 - A recall of Genesis 1?:
Because man already existed physically, this breathing of life must have been a breathing of something else into him besides physical life. Most people would say that it is a spirit. Personally, I believe mankind already had spirits. However, what mankind did not have was righteousness. God breathed into Adam righteousness… by introducing Himself. As we studied on this blog for over a year, righteousness is believing God and obeying him. God gave Adam something to believe… later in Genesis 2 He would give Adam something to obey… and man became a living being.
I say that “righteousness” is the life God breathed, and not spirit. Why? Because when Adam “died” his “spiritual” death, he did not really end up with a death body or a dead spirit. On the contrary, he went from being righteous to being a sinner. Now, whatever the nature of his righteousness before, it could never be any more than a token righteousness, as God gave to Abram in Genesis 15:6…
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Based on how Paul treats the death he inherited from Adam, and the need for Christ transform sinfulness into righteousness, I believe that Genesis 15:6 above is equivalent to God’s action on Adam in Genesis 2:7, where God ”breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
This, I believe, is a proper formulation of Original Sin:
- Adam became a righteous being. (Spiritual life - Genesis 2:7)
- Adam became a sinful being. (Spiritual death - Genesis 2:17, 3:6)
- We are therefore all sinners. (Born spiritually dead - Romans 5:12, 19)
- In Christ, we are made righteous again. (Re-born spiritually alive - 1 Cor. 15:31, Romans 5:19)
- Then, we physically die, and resurrect, some to Heaven and some Hell. (Daniel 12:2, 1 Cor. 15:21-22, Rev. 20:11-15)
Oh death! Where is thy sting? (1 Cor. 15:55)