Why Must We Pay For Adam's Sin?

 Doubtless some of you might wonder why the rest of us suffer because of Adam's sin. Certainly this puzzled me for many years. After all, it doesn't seem fair to us that we have to pay for something we never did.

I've come to the conclusion that since Adam and Eve were the first parents, their enormous sin debt was inherited by their children. It passed down the generations until a second Adam could make restitution for those who sought forgiveness.

The Apostle Paul's writings are most instructive on this matter. In God's wondrous plan to have created beings who loved him voluntarily, he had to allow us a choice. Otherwise love isn't love when it's forced.

The first Adam was given the role of prophet, priest, and king. He blew all three when he disobeyed God and went along with his wife. He should have refused to partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. He should have guarded the garden and told Satan to go back to hell where he came from. He should have rebuked Eve for what she did.

But all wasn't lost since God told them about the saviour to come. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:14 (KJV), "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses,  even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's  transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." That person was Christ.

Paul elaborated in 1 Corinthians 15:22 (KJV),  "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all  be made alive." What a wonderful promise for all of us who place our trust completely in Christ's atoning work on the cross.

God, knowing all things, had provided the plan of salvation before time began. The vastness of his mind contains the entire history of the universe, rather like an author who knows his story and the characters in it. Knowing this, I feel comfortable about letting the Father guide my life. He's as far from stupid as the east is from the west.

I'm working on my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? I'll elaborate at length in it about the subjects I've discussed here. Watch this space for updates and more Bible-based teaching.