047. What is original sin, and how is it just to hold us guilty of it?

What is original sin, and how is it just to hold us guilty of it? The phrase “original sin” is used nowadays in a great variety of senses, and generally inaccurately. Strictly speaking, original sin was the sin in which all other sins originated, that is, the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

It is just to hold us guilty for this sin—first, because we were all in Adam when he committed the sin; and second, because Adam, who . . . was the whole race as it existed at that time, sinned as our representative, and we sinned in him (Romans 5:12, R.V.). But when Jesus came as the second Adam, He also was our representative, the representative of the whole race, the Son of man, and when He perfectly kept the law of God, He kept it as our representative and by His atoning death cleared us from the guilt of the sin committed in Adam (Romans 5:15-16; Romans 5:18). No one is lost because of Adam’s sin. If any one is lost, it will simply be because he does not accept the second Adam.

Gods plan of holding us guilty because of Adam’s sin is much more merciful than if each of us had had to stand for himself. If each of us had stood for himself, we would all have done just what Adam did, we would have sinned, and there would have been no hope; but because the first Adam stood as our representative, the second Adam could also stand as our representative, and He did for us what not one of us would have done for ourselves—He perfectly kept the law of God, and having perfectly kept it died for us who had broken it, not only broken it in Adam’s sin but broken it in our own personal transgression. There is a depth of mercy as well as wisdom in God’s plan that will fill us with wonderment and praise throughout all eternity!