Adam, the first man created in the image of God in holiness, was the Father of the whole human race. Before Adam had the first son, he chose to disobey God’s explicit command, which said, “…You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”1Adam, however, went ahead to eat of the tree in disobedience to God’s command. By his action, Adam transgressed God’s explicit and definite command. He became dead in trespasses and sins, and was subject to the control of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air, the father of all liars, the spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient to the instructions of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.2Adam sinned against God and became a sinner. By his actions, he ruined the holy nature of God and became sinful in nature and in actions.
We are all descendants of Adam through natural generation and have inherited a sinful and corrupt nature from him, and we produce sinful actions. Believe it or not, you have a corrupt human nature. The Bible states, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners… and as by one person sin entered into all the world and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned…If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”3The consequences of Adam’s sin were immediate and extensive. He became depraved, guilty, and spiritually dead instantaneously, with his physical and eternal death penalty happening later.
Depravity isan inborn corruption of human moral nature, including theheart, mind, emotion, and will, due to original sin, making human beings spiritually unable to please God. The whole human nature is depraved. All his faculties are disordered and corrupted.4 He has no thought, feeling, or deed of which God can accept, and he continues in constant progress in his sinful nature from which he can in no wise turn away in his own strength.5 Every sinner or depraved individual is entirely destitute of that love to God, which is the critical requirement of the law: “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”6 His corrupt nature has infected the whole man, including his heart, mind, emotions, and will. His sinful nature produces sinful actions, including evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication, thefts, false witnesses, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, revellings, wrath, strife, seditions, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variances, emulations, and drunkenness.7; Women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the new penalty for their error, unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, Covenant Breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful8; effeminate, thieves, extortioners, abusers of themselves with humanity, bestiality.9 Sin of commission and sin of omission,”10 making children pass through the fire in worship to an idol god, using divination, observing times, practicing enchantments, using charms on others, consulting familiar spirits, and engaging in necromancy.11 “Depravity has produced a total spiritual inability in the sinner in the sense that he cannot by his own volition change his character and life to make them comfortable to the law of God, nor change his fundamental preference of self and sin to the supreme love for God.”
Guilt is a spiritual state of being liable for breaking God’s law, a breach of the relationship with God, not just a feeling, but an actual state resulting from sin. After Adam’s fall, he wandered away from God to conceal his sin. Shame and guilt gripped him. As the Bible states, “The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion.”12 Adam knew that he was guilty and was full of fear to face God, because God is of “purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.13 Depravity and guilt took Adam out of an ideal environment where God provided all his needs.
One of the consequences of Adam’s sin was the penalty of death. And God said, “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Penalty is “that pain or loss which is directly inflicted by the lawgiver in vindication of his justice, which has been outraged by the violation of law.” Adam transgressed God’s command and incurred a death penalty that has passed to the whole human race. “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men.”By his action, Adam incurred three kinds of death: spiritual, physical, and eternal death.
God is Spirit. He created humanity in His own nature with a spiritual dimension. When Adam sinned, his sinfulness expelled him or separated him from a holy God, bringing about his spiritual death or spiritual separation from God. Spiritual death takes place instantaneously whenever anyone sins or disobeys God’s command. God’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil: …cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (NIV)
Physical death is the separation of the soul and body. It is a part of the penalty of sin. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”14
A sinner is spiritually separated from God; that is a spiritual death, while he is still alive. And suppose a sinner dies in that state without repentance and turning to Jesus Christ for salvation. In that case, he will be forever separated from eternal life, which is in God and in Christ Jesus, to spend eternity in everlasting fire.15
The only solution to the corruption of human nature is Jesus, the Savior. Jesus came to the world to save humanity from the sin nature, sinful actions, guilt, and the death penalty.16 You cannot save yourself. No matter how good you are, you cannot eliminate your sinful nature. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus did not come into the world to help you save yourself, but to be your Savior from the power and penalty of sin. Take a moment to thank Jesus Christ for His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection, which bring forgiveness for your sin, a new life, and a new standing and position with Him. Turn from your sins in repentance and turn to the Savior by faith. Your new life starts at that moment.
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