> Augustine noted Rom 5:12 where Paul said
>
> “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into
> the world, and death through sin, and so death spread
> to all men, because all sinned.” -Rom 5:12
>
> Because of Adam, a baby is born to die; some do die one
> day old, not because of their own sin, but because of
> Adam’s sin. That’s a given. But Augustine also recognized
> that not only do we die physically in Adam, but we also
> die spiritually. So, he concluded that not only was the baby
> doomed physically in Adam, but also spiritually. I think
> we would say yes to the first, but no to the second.
James replied:
As a consequence of Adam’s sin, God cursed the earth (Gen 3:17). Because
man is taken from the earth and composed of it (Gen 2:7), man’s body
is cursed because the source of his body is cursed. Because of God’s curse,
all men are doomed to die.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil changed man’s perception of reality
from that of a child to that of an adult, and Adam recognized he was naked. It
may be that as a result of Adam eating of the tree that Adam was changed
genetically. Therefore, all of Adam’s children suffered a weakening of the flesh,
and this weakening of the flesh is what inevitably leads every man to sin.
Corruption has entered the world through sin.
As a result of God’s curse and the effects of the tree, our flesh opposes our
spirit (Rom 7:19). Because our flesh is cursed and opposes us, we face certain
spiritual death (Rom 3:23, 6:23). As Arminians have pointed out, we are not
born in sin and do not inherit Adam’s sin, but we do inherit Adam’s curse,
because God cursed the earth from which we spring and to which we return.
There is also a curse on Adam’s seed, that is, the curse is on you and me as
children of Adam.
God has promised that there is no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man and will with the temptation provide a way of escape that we
may be able to bear it (I Cor 10:13). While that is true, it is also true
that every man sins (I Ki 8:46). Since man is cursed, and every man sins,
the obvious reason is that because of the weakness of the flesh, man
inevitably falls into sin (Mt 26:41). Because of Adam’s curse that
degrades our bodies, it is simply not possible to live a lifetime free
from sin. While each individual sin has a way of escape, and it is
theoretically possible to avoid every sin, over the long haul, we will
succomb to sin (II Chr 6:36). God does not make us sin, but our flesh
will sooner or later be so weak that we will sin. The idea that we can
live a whole life without sin based on the fact that we can avoid every
individual sin is like the false logic that we can walk a mile without
stopping, therefore we can walk a thousand miles without stopping. The
logic breaks down because there are other factors that come into play as
you scale up the problem. Just like the fact that your flesh cannot walk
1000 miles without stopping because of limitations on the flesh, even so
in life sooner or later you will succomb to sin due to weakness of the
flesh. When you succomb to sin, then you die spiritually. Because the
earth is cursed, all of Adam’s children who are of the earth (I Cor 15:47)
are cursed as well. Because their flesh is cursed, they all sin. Because
they all sin, they all die spiritually.
Because we are of the earth, we cannot avoid sin because the earth is
cursed. Herein lies the big deal with Christ’s virgin birth. He is not
of the earth (I Cor 15:47). Because He is begotten of God and is from
heaven, he did not inherit Adam’s curse. He was not of Adam but of God
(Lk 1:35) and was of heaven. His body was therefore special (Heb 10:5).
He was not cursed in His body, because He was not of father Adam and the
earth was cursed for Adam’s sake. The curse on the earth comes through
Adam, not Eve. When Jesus was born of a woman, He did not inherit the
curse of Adam in His body and was therefore able to live in accordance
with God’s commandments. Since Jesus was not married, the serpent could
not get at Him through His woman (Gen 3:12), and He was able to live a
perfect life (Heb 4:15).
It is worth noting that in the resurrection our flesh (Lk 24:39, I Jn 3:2)
will be a vastly improved version. The Word says that we will then run
and not grow weary (Isa 40:31). Like the resurrected Jesus Who now reigns
24/7, we will not need to sleep. Because of the improved version of our
resurrected bodies, we will then be able to walk the thousand miles
without stopping. That portends good things about our ability to resist
temptation in the future, for it is through the weakness of the flesh that
temptation comes (I Jn 2:16). If the endurance of our flesh is to be so
vastly improved in the future, then it illustrates how much the weakness
of it that plagues us in the present age is to be improved. We know that
the flesh will be vastly improved, because the curse on our flesh will be
removed (Rev 22:3). Removal of the curse on our bodies and the
improvement of the constitution of our flesh in the resurrection is what
the text means when it says that our bodies are raised spiritual (I Cor
15:44). Because the resurrected body supports the spirit instead of
fighting against it, the body is a spirit-supporting instrument and thus
spiritual. Removal of the curse on the earth and our bodies allows them
to operate at least as well as God created them, and that was very good
indeed (Gen 1:31).
