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“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on this passage is titled “Searching for Adam”.

Why does Adam’s sin spread to all men? Why aren’t all humans treated as individuals, able to stand or fall on their own merit? This question is a good one and highlights the fact that the main way God relates to individual humans is through a representative. This representative is sometimes referred to as the federal head.

An old confession of the Christian faith called the Westminster Confession of Faith described it like this in Chapter 6:

  1. Our first parents, begin seduced by the subtlety and temptations of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.
  2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.
  3. They being the root of mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by original generation.

This reality of federal headship is what makes the gospel possible. For if we could not be represented as sinful by fallen Adam, it would also be impossible for Christ to become our new Adam and represent us as righteous before God.

 

For Further Study

  • Tabletalk magazine article on Federal Headship.
  • Another article on this topic by A.W. Pink.

 

Small Group Questions

  • Reflect on the sermon from this last Sunday and review Romans 5:12-21. What stands out to you?
  • How does it feel to know that Adam made a choice for all humanity, that from the moment of birth, every human is infected with sin, not because they sinned, but because Adam did? What are the implications of this truth?
  • Reflect on the idea that we often “search for Adam” in our lives. What does this mean? What are some common “Adams” we tend to look to?
  • Read Psalm 146. How does this psalm compare God with alternative princes? What is one promise from this psalm that stands out to you?