The Inheritance of Sin

On the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

–Romans 5:16

A good magician is a master of distraction. He distracts the audience from what he’s really doing by pointing their attention in another direction. In a way, Satan was the original magician. He distracted Adam and Eve from God’s blessings and pointed their attention toward the one restriction God gave them.

Satan said to Eve, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). No, God had said, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (2:16–17). But Satan caused Eve to doubt God’s Word by twisting what He had said. Then Satan caused Eve to doubt God’s character. “You surely will not die!” he said. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:4–5). In other words, “God is trying to withhold something good from you.” Satan successfully convinced Eve, and she and Adam ate from the forbidden tree.

In Romans 5:12, we find the result of Adam and Eve’s sin: “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Everybody has inherited the sin virus, and physical death is the proof. Do only mature adults die? No, even babies die. All of humanity dies because all of humanity has inherited the sin virus. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we’re sinners. When God says yes, our first instinct is to say no. We have inherited Adam’s guilt–and every time we rebel against God, we confirm Adam’s choice as our own.

If you think it’s unfair that everybody is held accountable for one person’s sin, Paul had an answer in Romans 5. He said, in essence, “The only thing more unfair than everybody being held guilty for one man’s sin is one innocent man being held guilty for everybody’s sin.” Paul wrote, “If by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (v. 17). It may seem unfair that we suffer the consequences of one man’s sin. But it’s even more unfair that God offers us forgiveness because of one man’s righteousness. That’s the free gift of God–for those who receive it.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “What Every Christian Should Know About Sin” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2022.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.