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Sin, IInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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Results to mankind as a whole. Romans 5:12 states that “through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Compare 1Jo 1:8-10.) Some have explained this as meaning that all of Adam’s future offspring shared in Adam’s initial act of sin because, as their family head, he represented them and thereby made them, in effect, participants with him in his sin. The apostle, however, speaks of death as ‘spreading’ to all men, which implies a progressive rather than a simultaneous effect on Adam’s descendants.
Additionally, the apostle goes on to speak of death as ruling as king “from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression by Adam.” (Ro 5:14) Adam’s sin is rightly called a “transgression” since it was an overstepping of a stated law, an express command of God to him. Also, when Adam sinned, it was of his own free choice, as a perfect human who was free from disabilities. Clearly, his offspring have never enjoyed that state of perfection. So, these factors seem out of harmony with the view that ‘when Adam sinned, all of his as yet unborn descendants sinned with him.’ For all of Adam’s descendants to be held accountable as participants in Adam’s personal sin would require some expression of will on their part as to having him as their family head. Yet none of them in reality willed to be born of him, their birth into the Adamic line resulting from the fleshly will of their parents.—Joh 1:13.
The evidence, then, points to a passing on of sin from Adam to succeeding generations as a result of the recognized law of heredity. This is evidently what the psalmist refers to in saying: “With error I was brought forth with birth pains, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Ps 51:5) Sin, along with its consequences, entered and spread to all the human race not merely because Adam was the family head of the race but because he, not Eve, was its progenitor, or human life source. From him, as well as from Eve, his offspring would inescapably inherit not merely physical characteristics but also personality traits, including the inclination toward sin.—Compare 1Co 15:22, 48, 49.
Paul’s words also point to this conclusion when he says that “just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] many were constituted sinners, likewise also through the obedience of the one person [Christ Jesus] many will be constituted righteous.” (Ro 5:19) Those to be “constituted righteous” by Christ’s obedience were not all immediately so constituted at the moment of his presenting his ransom sacrifice to God, but they progressively come under the benefits of that sacrifice as they come to exercise faith in that provision and become reconciled to God. (Joh 3:36; Ac 3:19) So, too, progressive generations of Adam’s descendants have been constituted sinners as they have been conceived by their innately sinful parents in Adam’s line.
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Sin, IInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
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Sin and Law. The apostle John writes that “everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, and so sin is lawlessness” (1Jo 3:4); also that “all unrighteousness is sin.” (1Jo 5:17) The apostle Paul, on the other hand, speaks of “those who sinned without law.” He further states that “until the Law [given through Moses] sin was in the world, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law. Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression by Adam.” (Ro 2:12; 5:13, 14) Paul’s words are to be understood in context; his earlier statements in this letter to the Romans show that he was comparing those under the Law covenant with those outside that covenant, hence not under its law code, while he demonstrated that both classes were sinful.—Ro 3:9.
During the approximately 2,500 years between Adam’s deflection and the giving of the Law covenant in 1513 B.C.E., God had not given mankind any comprehensive code or systematically arranged law that specifically defined sin in all its ramifications and forms. True, he had given certain decrees, such as those given to Noah following the global Flood (Ge 9:1-7) as well as the covenant of circumcision given to Abraham and his household, including his foreign slaves. (Ge 17:9-14) But concerning Israel the psalmist could say that God “is telling his word to Jacob, his regulations and his judicial decisions to Israel. He has not done that way to any other nation; and as for his judicial decisions, they have not known them.” (Ps 147:19, 20; compare Ex 19:5, 6; De 4:8; 7:6, 11.) Of the Law covenant given Israel it could be said, “The man that has done the righteousness of the Law will live by it,” for perfect adherence to and compliance with that Law could be accomplished only by a sinless man, as was the case with Christ Jesus. (Ro 10:5; Mt 5:17; Joh 8:46; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1Pe 2:22) This was true of no other law given from the time of Adam to the giving of the Law covenant.
‘Doing by nature the things of the law.’ This did not mean that, since there was no comprehensive law code against which to measure their conduct, men during that period between Adam and Moses were free from sin. At Romans 2:14, 15, Paul states: “For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and, between their own thoughts, they are being accused or even excused.” Having been originally made in God’s image and likeness, man has a moral nature, which produces the faculty of conscience. Even imperfect, sinful men retain a measure of this, as Paul’s words indicate. (See CONSCIENCE.) Since law is basically a ‘rule of conduct,’ this moral nature operates in their hearts as a law. However, set over against this law of their moral nature is another inherited law, the ‘law of sin,’ which wars against righteous tendencies, making slaves of those who do not resist its dominance.—Ro 6:12; 7:22, 23.
This moral nature and associated conscience can be seen even in Cain’s case. Although God had given no law regarding homicide, by the evasive way Cain responded to God’s inquiry, he showed that his conscience condemned him after he murdered Abel. (Ge 4:8, 9) Joseph the Hebrew showed God’s ‘law in his heart’ when he responded to the seductive request of Potiphar’s wife, saying: “How could I commit this great badness and actually sin against God?” Though God had not specifically condemned adultery, yet Joseph recognized it as wrong, violating God’s will for humans as expressed in Eden.—Ge 39:7-9; compare Ge 2:24.
Thus, during the patriarchal period from Abraham through the 12 sons of Jacob, the Scriptures show men of many races and nations speaking of “sin” (chat·taʼthʹ), such as sins against an employer (Ge 31:36), against the ruler to whom one is subject (Ge 40:1; 41:9), against a relative (Ge 42:22; 43:9; 50:17), or simply against a fellow human (Ge 20:9). In any case, the one using the term acknowledged thereby a certain relationship with the person against whom the sin was or might be committed and recognized an accompanying responsibility to respect that one’s interests or his will and authority, as in the case of a ruler, and not go contrary to them. They thereby showed evidence of moral nature. With the passing of time, nonetheless, sin’s mastery over those not serving God grew, so that Paul could speak of the people of the nations as walking in “darkness mentally, and alienated from the life that belongs to God . . . past all moral sense.”—Eph 4:17-19.
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