We Believe In Jesus: The RedeemerSample

Personal Consequences of Sin: Romans 5:18

Paul taught that Adam’s one act of disobedience condemned all humanity. In other words, God reckons Adam’s sin to the account of every fallen human being, so that we are all guilty of that first trespass. This happened because Adam was the covenant head of all humanity. He represented not only himself, but also his wife, and every other human being that would descend from them through natural human generation. As a result, we need redemption that frees us from this guilt and from the eternal punishment it brings.

Another personal consequence of the fall we’ll mention is depravity. The theological term “depravity” refers to sin’s corruption of human nature.

Different theological traditions understand the extent of depravity in different ways. But all evangelical Christians agree that it prevents us from gaining favor with God. Scripture speaks of the depravity of human nature in many places, including Romans 3:9-18. For example, consider these words from Romans 3:10-12:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

In these verses, Paul combined various references from the Old Testament in order to highlight Scripture’s consistent teachings about human depravity. In Romans 3, Paul taught that our behavior is depraved, so that no one is righteous and no one does good. Our intellect is also depraved, so that no one understands. And our will has been affected, too, so that no one seeks God. In fact Paul went so far as to say that human nature has become worthless before our holy God. We aren’t worthy of his blessing, and there is nothing we can do to redeem ourselves. We need someone else to rescue us.