nuance

The Whole World is Guilty: Romans 5:12-21

We are hitting a section here that is truly deep theology. It is controversial, and questions arising from this passage have caused significant debate among Christians for centuries. So before reading, a word about theology:

• Doing theology is like going snorkeling: while it’s good to look down into the depths, it’s important to stay close to the surface. If you let yourself plunge into deep and difficult theories and arguments, sometimes it can lead to confusion, doubt, and even disillusionment. Sometimes it can lead to false doctrine and heresy. It’s important to always stay connected to simple truth while you study deeper theology, simple truth like Jesus is God, Jesus died for our sins, Jesus rose from the dead so that we could have eternal life, Jesus loves the world and desires that people repent and come to know him. These things are the air that Christians breathe.

• I think there are two ways that we should read the Bible, and these should always be happening simultaneously. The first way is to understand what the passage is really saying, what it really means in its historical context, at least in a basic sense. The second way is to understand what God is saying TO YOU through the passage. In other words, we need the basic truth or facts and we need the Holy Spirit to speak to us. A lot of Christians just do one or the other; they either spend all their time getting really intellectual about interpreting a text properly OR they seem to overlook good interpretation altogether and just take random messages from a verse or passage out of context as it suits them.

Let’s start with a question: Have you ever felt deep, heart-wrenching, soul-twisting, devastating guilt about something? So guilty that you could literally feel the pain of it like a knot in your stomach, so guilty that it made it almost impossible to go about your daily routine because of how much it bothered you? You know how it works: you wake up, and it’s there, that feeling like, “Oh my God, how could I have done that?” (Go through the day…)

Read Romans 5:12-21

• This is a passage about guilt on a massive scale - and grace on a massive scale. The redneck cliff note here is that what Adam done broke, Jesus done fixed, big time.

• Does anyone know what major Christian doctrine is mainly drawn from this passage? (Hint: the same as a now-defunct snowboard company run by Dynastar…)

• Christians through the ages have disagreed on the precise definition of “original sin.”

  • The term seems to have come from St. Augustine in the 5^th century A.D.

  • Adam committed the “original sin.”

  • Augustine stressed that human beings thus inherit legal guilt from Adam, apart from their own acts of sin. (Unbaptized infants that die would go to hell.)

  • Augustine also stressed that human beings inherit a sin nature from Adam, which makes them prone to sinning as soon as they are able to do so. It’s nearly impossible for them to not sin.

  • The Reformers (Luther, Calvin, etc.) generally accepted Augustine’s position. They expounded that Adam was the “federal head” of the human race; when he sinned, it was as if we all sinned with him since he is the “father” or ancestor of us all. They also affirmed a sinful or evil nature that is passed on to all people which results in our being prone to sin as soon as we are able.

  • The Roman Catholic church did not maintain Augustine’s idea of “imputed guilt” but does affirm the inheritance of a sinful nature.

  • The modern evangelical denominations (both Reformed and non-Reformed) generally all affirm that original sin means the inheritance of a damaged human nature that makes us all prone to sinning as soon as we are able to do so.

  • Almost across the board, orthodox Christians (Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Charismatics, Non-denominational evangelicals, etc.) oppose the idea of Pelagianism - that all people are born with a totally perfect nature and have the ability to be perfectly good and earn God’s favor based on their actions. Pelagius held that Jesus’ work on the cross was not meant to atone for the sins of the world but to give an example to the world of selflessness and sacrifice so that they would be inspired to change their lives, become better people, and so be reconciled to God.

  • One exception to the Christian consensus would be the Eastern church (Greek, Russian Orthodox, etc.) which takes original sin to mean not an inherited sinful nature but an inherited sinful world or environment which seems to “teach” us to sin from youngest childhood.

  • Another exception would be Restoration churches which have varying ideas (including a denial of all original sin). (Buck - weigh in?)

• For the sake of argument, let’s assume that we all agree with the “sin nature” idea. We at least agree that all people are sinners. If someone is in Vegas and keeps rolling sevens, after a while you’re gonna think that something is wrong with the dice. (We can at least agree that all of us here are sinners.)

• Difficulties with the “inherited guilt” or “corporate guilt” idea:

  • What about babies or young children who die? Are they going to hell because they inherited Adam’s guilt?

  • What about Romans 2 where Paul says that God will judge everyone according to their own deeds? How can we be considered guilty because of another man’s sin, if God is really fair?

• I would like to briefly propose a modified defense of the corporate guilt of mankind in Adam by appealing to the idea of status. I think this actually saves us from the above concerns and that it is a well-balanced and biblically-honest position.

  • If you look at vv. 18 and 19 it is hard to deny that Paul is arguing for corporate guilt, in some sense. One man’s trespass and disobedience brought condemnation and sinfulness to all.

  • This is crucial to uphold because only then does the parallel make sense: One man, Jesus, brings salvation and justification and life to all. In other words, because it is one man on both sides, then we can completely rely in Christ for salvation. If it was more than one man, then we may have reason to doubt Christ or need to work our own way towards saving ourselves (as in Pelagianism).

  • When it comes to inheriting guilt and condemnation through Adam’s sin, the way we can understand it is simply to say that when Adam sinned, humanity as a whole received a guilty legal status, even if this does not specifically imply a total basis of judgment. We know God judges according to deeds. However, it is also true that he sees the entire human race as a fallen race, a failed project requiring a Savior.

  • This is analogous to a guilty nation in wartime. If we think back to Hitler’s Germany, we would have to say that clearly not all Germans were Nazis. But because of (the one man) Hitler’s heinous sin, the whole nation was held to be guilty. Innocent people would die from Allied bombs and bullets because of his sin. Would these individuals necessarily be convicted if they were tried for warcrimes after the war was over? No - not unless they had individually committed those crimes.

  • Similarly, we are in some sense all guilty by virtue of Adam’s sin alone. He is our head, our representative, our “federal leader” - and we are all his people. That’s why we all die - we all taste the penalty of his sin.

  • Does this mean that innocent children who die go to hell? No - b/c they are being tried individually after the “war” is over. They are innocent. Does this mean that when a nonbeliever goes before God on judgment day God is going to judge them guilty without even considering their personal deeds? No, he will judge according to their deeds, according to their own sin. However, since there is a sin nature, and all men sin, those deeds will be seen as connected to the whole of mankind and will join with the guilt of the first man Adam when the sentence is passed.

  • The idea of corporate guilt or condemnation in Adam is also a compelling thing because it destroys our purely individualistic (and very American) approach to the world. Regardless of what we’d like to think, we are connected to the pain, suffering, and evil in the world. We are a part of it. We, even in our relatively small sins, contribute to the fallenness of the world as a whole. This strengthens the sense of responsibility we should have when we look at “them” and see “their” problems and misfortunes; it should cause us to join in the work of alleviating the sin and destruction at work in the world as a whole. This is why we support the work among orphans in Haiti. This is why we want to see homeless people have a place to sleep. It’s not just their problem - it’s ours.

• What is the point of all this? FREEEEEEEEEDOOOOOMMMMMM!!! (cf. vv. 15-17.) Remember that horrible feeling of guilt we talked about earlier? Do you see how that guilt is much bigger than you could ever imagine? It’s not just your guilt - it’s EVERYONE’S guilt. This is MASSIVE. It is devastating. The world is dying because of it. And just as this guilt came to you freely, effortlessly - you were almost born into it - so the gift of life and righteousness comes totally freely through the work of the one man, Jesus Christ! YOU ARE FREE, and there is nothing you can do about it! Rejoice in this - let your life be shaped by freedom, invigorated by freedom, every day.