06. Moral Effects of Adam's Sin on His Posterity

CHAPTER VI Moral Effects of Adam’s Sin on His Posterity

Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.- Genesis 5:3. The use of the words " likeness " and "image" in Genesis 5:3 is a notable parallel to the use of the same words in Genesis 1:25.

Adam was created in the image and likeness of God; Seth was begotten in the image and likeness of Adam. Had Adam remained in his primitive state of purity, his posterity would have been begotten in the likeness and image of God; but now that he had lost the divine image, his posterity was doomed to be begotten in his fallen image. Some time after the fall, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). "Every imagination" in the Hebrew signifies "not only the imagination, but also the purposes and desires, " so that the original conveys the idea that the imaginations, purposes, and desires of man’s heart became only evil continually. So wicked had man become that "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart " (Genesis 6:6).

There is an obvious connection between the conception of Seth in the likeness and image of Adam and the subsequent wickedness of the human family. Imaginations, purposes, and desires that are only evil continually do not spring from moral natures that are pure. " A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither cloth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh" (Luke 6:4345). This language of Jesus shows unmistakably that the nature of the heart determines the tendency of the life. Reasoning backward, then, from effect to cause, we can discover no reason for the widespread and deep seated wickedness of the people before the flood other than a moral lapse of the race. But native depravity and consequent wickedness are not confined to the antediluvian world. Subsequent history reveals a moral state of men but little better than that of their antediluvian brothers. A writer long after the deluge uses these words: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5). Again he says, "The wicked arc estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies" (Psalms 58:3). The phrase "as soon as they be born" is evidently hyperbolical, but it establishes beyond question the feet that man goes astray at a very early age. Upon no other ground can we account for man’s universal sinfulness ("all have sinned" Romans 3:23) than on that of universal depravity. The impossibility of righteousness by the law and the imperative necessity of redemptive grace are strong evidences of a moral lapse of the race. Righteousness could not result from the Mosaic law; "for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Galatians 3:21). "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God" (Hebrews 7:19). If moral and spiritual life had been possible by the law, Jesus would not have said to Nicodemus, that wise rabbi and student of the law, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God.... Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:3; John 3:7). The unavoidable necessity of every man’s having to be born of the Spirit before he can see the kingdom of God (John 3:5) presupposes the common native depravity that leads man into sin; for if men were born into this world in a state of moral purity, it would certainly be possible for at least some to avoid the necessity of the new birth, by perpetuating that state of moral purity. The only reason for a universal and unavoidable necessity of being born again lies in the native depravity common to all men.

If the race is morally depraved, we might naturally expect the universality of sin; Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.- Genesis 5:3. conversely, the universality of sin is a strong testimony to the universality of native depravity. Sin is universal, "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). So positive are the inspired writers of the universality of sin that John says in 1 John 1:10, "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. " Paul, in speaking of both Jews and Gentiles, sums up his argument on the universality of sin in these graphic words: "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin" (Romans 3:9). By nature we are universally depraved and enslaved in sin; the Mosaic law could not give life; only through Christ can we escape the nature, practice, and penalty of sin.

Aside from the plain and unmistakable statements of the Scripture that sin is universal to the human family, history, sacred and profane, is uniform in its testimony to the universal sinfulness of man. This universal sinfulness can not be accounted for in any other way than by an evil tendency common to the race. Exceptional cases of individual righteousness, the existence of a good man here and there, prove nothing against the teaching that man is universally depraved. Such exceptional cases can readily be accounted for on the ground that God has been willing in all ages to assist those who seek him. The fact that Enoch and Elijah were translated, so that they did not see death, does not militate against the Biblical statement that it was appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. A position can not be established by exceptions, especially when the exceptions are so few. The universality of sin can not be accounted for upon grounds other than some inherent tendency common to the race; and tendency is determined by nature; therefore the universality of sin is finally traceable to a native depravity universal to the race. That nature determines tendency is a fixed and self evident law, a rule which needs no proof other than mere mention to be immediately accepted as truth. An illustration of this law in the lower animal kingdom is seen in the lamb and the lion. Even if we can not fully analyze the cause of the wide difference between the tendencies of these two animals, we all consent that it is some difference in nature that determines the gentleness of the one and the ferociousness of the other. Similarly, we conclude that sin and righteousness in the human race are traceable to differences in moral nature. Hence universal sinfulness can be accounted for in no other way than by supposing universal depravity.