Hello Adrian,
You wrote: If Adam was simply an illustration, then Adam could not have been
the cause of the condemnation ...
Because Adam in paradise could not manage to obey one simple command from
God, he clearly demonstrated that he and the entire human race, including
those who had lived before him and those who would live after him, were
undeserving of eternal life.
I believe it was with this fact in mind that Paul could quite accurately
refer to Adam when he wrote, "By one man's disobedience many were constituted
sinners." (Romans 5:19, Amplified Bible) "Constitute" means "to establish
formally."
After Adam failed a simple God given test of his righteousness, I believe God
had good reason to retroactively condemn the entire human race as being
deserving of the deaths they had been suffering, and undeserving of eternal
life, a gift God had not yet given to any human being.
You wrote: because the other humans were already unable to obey, and have
probably disobeyed prior to Adam's disobedience.
No one disobeyed God before Adam. Adam was the first person who was put under
any God given law.
You wrote: They would all have already been condemned.
They died natural deaths. But they had not yet been "condemned."
You wrote: How do you explain why Paul so clearly explained that sin came
through one man, Adam?
Romans 5:12 tells us that "sin entered into the world through one man, and
death through sin." But as we read further we find that the kind of "sin"
that first entered into the world through Adam, the "sin", which was
responsible for bringing about his "death", was the "sin" of "breaking a
command". (verse 14) And we are told that the kind of sin that was committed
by Adam "is not taken into account (or imputed KJV, NAS) when there is no
law." (verse 13)
There was no law before Adam. Verses 13 tells us that "before the law [to
Adam] was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account (or
imputed) when there is no law." Thus the "sin" that "was in the world"
"before the law [to Adam] was given" must have been a different kind of sin
than Adam's sin. It must have been unimputed sin.
I believe Romans 5 makes it clear that the kind of "sin" that first entered
into the world through Adam was "imputed" sin, and that unimputed "sin" was
"in the world" "before the law [to Adam] was given." But because the sins
committed by men before Adam did not involve "breaking a command" (vs 14) the
kind of sin that was "in the world" before Adam did not bring condemnation on
those who committed such sin.
I wrote: It seems that some here feel that Adam must have been the first man
created
in God's image because Gen. 5 seems to connect the "man" of Gen. 1:26,27 with
the "Adam" of Gen. 2.
You responded: As does Romans 5:12-14
How does Romans 5: 12-14 connect the "man" of Gen. 1:26,27 with the "Adam" of
Gen. 2? I don't see that it does.
You wrote: It is correct that Gen 9:6 is talking about the sanctity of all
human life, but the traiditonal understanding is that all human life
descended from Adam.
Many here believe that "the traditional understanding" is in error.
In Christ,
Mike
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