Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned [Rom. 5:12].

Let me give you my own translation of this verse, which may bring out the meaning a little better: “On this account (the plan of salvation for all by one Redeemer) just as through one man sin entered (as a principle) into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread throughout upon all men on the ground of the fact that all sinned.”

Now we need to understand that the sin we’re talking about is the sin of Adam, that first sin of Adam—not his second one or his third one or his fourth one—his first sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden, which brought death upon all of his offspring.

Now that brings me back to consider something that is very important: You and I are sinners, as we have said, in four different ways. (1) We are sinners because we commit acts of sin. Also, (2) we’re sinners by nature (sin doesn’t make us sinners, but we sin because we have that nature). (3) We are in the state of sin. God has declared the entire human family under sin. (4) Finally, you and I are also sinners by imputation. That is, Adam acted for the human race because he was the head of it.

It is on the basis of the federal headship of Adam that now God is able through the federal headship of Christ to save those who will trust Christ. This is what theologians have labeled the federal headship. Adam and Christ are representatives of the human race. Adam is the natural head of the human race. By the way, I accept that. I saw a bumper sticker that interested me a great deal. It read, “My ancestors were human—sorry about yours.” This lays in the dust the idea that you can be a Christian, believing the Word of God, and also accept the theory of evolution. Adam is the head of the human family. That is what Paul is saying here—he is the natural head. And his one act of disobedience plunged his entire offspring into sin. We are all made sinners by Adam’s sin.
First, let’s see what this does not mean. It does not refer to the fact that we have a sinful nature inherited from Adam. It is true that I got a sinful nature from my father, and he from his father, and on back. Also, I passed on that nature to my child and to my grandchildren. The first grandchild was such a wonderful little fellow, I was beginning to doubt the total depravity of man. But as he began growing up, he began to manifest this depraved nature. Now I have a second grandson, a redheaded boy, and does he have a temper! Now I am convinced again of the total depravity of man. I have seen a manifestation in these two little fellows of a nature they got from their grandmother (I think!). Although you and I do have sinful natures and do pass them on to our offspring, this particular verse does not refer to that fact.

Also, the verse before us that says “all have sinned” does not mean that we are guilty of a sinful act. Of course, we are guilty, but that is not what the verse is talking about.

Now let’s see what it does mean. It does refer to the fact that we are so vitally connected with the first father of the human race that before we even had a human nature, before we had committed a sin, even before we were born, we were sinners in Adam.

Maybe you don’t like that. But God says that that is the way it is. We see it illustrated in Hebrews 7:9, “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.” That is, long before Levi was even born, he paid tithes to Melchisedec. How could he do it? “For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Heb. 7:10). In just such a way, Adam’s sin was imputed to us. What Adam did, we did. God could put all of us in a Garden of Eden and give us the same test He gave to Adam. Do you think you would do any better with your sinful nature than Adam did without a sinful nature? I don’t think so. We might as well accept the fact that Adam’s one act of disobedience made all of us sinners.

Now let me give you a personal illustration. My grandfather lived in Northern Ireland although he was Scottish. Even in his day they were fighting, and he didn’t like it. So he emigrated to the United States. Now, what my grandfather did, I did. When he left Northern Ireland, I left Northern Ireland. And I thank God he left. I really appreciate what Grandpa did for me! What he did, I did because I was in him. The reason I was born in America is because of what he had done.

In this same way Adam’s sin is imputed to us.

We have already seen that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us by the death of Christ. Christ is the head of a new race, a new redeemed man, and the church is His body, a new creation. The hymn writer put it accurately: “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by water and the word.” The church is a new creation, a new race. This is what Paul says, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit…. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47). Now, there will not be a third Adam, for Christ is the last Adam. There will be the third and fourth and myriads of men because Christ is the second man, but He’s not the second Adam. He is the last Adam. He is the head of a new race. That is something that is preliminary.

As we go through this section, we will notice an expression that is very meaningful. It is “much more.” What Paul is going to say is that we have “much more” in Christ than we lost in Adam. That expression occurred in verse 9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” And in verse 10, “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” There is a great deal of “much more” in this section. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 21–22, I read this, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Now, death came by Adam. And if you want proof that the first sin of Adam was a representative act, consider why a little infant will die when that little child has not committed a sinful act. Well, that little infant belongs to the race of Adam. In Adam all die. You see, God did not create man to die. God had something better in store for man and does today.

Now, with that thought in mind, let’s move on to verse 13.

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law [Rom. 5:13].

From Adam to Moses sin was in the world, but at that time sin was not a transgression; it was merely rebellion against God. I think this is the reason God did not exact the death penalty from Cain when he murdered his brother. I cannot think of a deed more dastardly than what he did, but at that time God had not yet said, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exod. 20:13). Actually, God put a mark on Cain to protect him. A little later on you find that one of the sons of Cain, Lamech, tells why he killed a man. He says, “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold” (Gen. 4:23–24). You see, Lamech had a reason. Also, that generation that was destroyed at the Flood was saturated with sin. They were incurable incorrigibles. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). But not one of them broke the Ten Commandments—because there were no Ten Commandments then. But they were judged because they were sinners. And, friend, that answers the question about the heathen being lost who haven’t heard the gospel. The answer is that all men belong to a lost race. It may be difficult for you and me to accept this fact, but you and I have been born into a lost race. We’re not a lovely people. We are not the product of evolution—onward and upward forever with everything getting better. You and I belong to a lost race, and we need to be redeemed. Even the very thoughtlife of man is alienated from God.

Somebody may say, “Then I think God is obligated to save all of us.” No, He is not. Suppose that you could go down to an old marshy lake covered with scum where there are hundreds of turtles, and you take a turtle out of there. And you teach this turtle to fly. Then this turtle goes back to the lake and says to the other turtles, “Wouldn’t you like to learn to fly?” I think they’d laugh at the turtle. They’d say, “No! we like it down here. We don’t want to learn to fly.” And that is the condition of lost mankind today. People don’t want to be saved. People are lost, alienated from God. Now, that’s a great truth that does not soak into our minds easily, because we have that lost nature. We just love to think that we’re wonderful people. But we are not, my friend.


McGee, J. V. (1991). Vol. 42: Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (Romans 1-8) (electronic ed.) (95–99). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.