on 16 June 2021
Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.
When I was growing up, occasionally you would see on TV some record attempt of domino’s being knocked over. Someone, perhaps a team of people, would have spent days placing dominos on their end next to each other. At a certain point, one single domino would be knocked over and the effect would be that one by one the dominoes cascaded over.
The effect of Adam’s sin has been like that first domino which fell: because that one domino fell they all fell. Adam’s sin has affected all humanity as he was the first man and all have descended from him. “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. We are united to Adam, sinning in him and falling with him. In Adam we die.
The terms of the Covenant were that Adam is our representative, as Adam falls so do we. All of Adam fell, there was no part of him that remained untouched by sin, and so it is the same with us.
However in this question there is hope. “All mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation”. There was one man who didn’t descend from him by ordinary generation. “A second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came“. His mother Mary was an ordinary woman, but she conceived the child by the power of the Holy Spirit. There was one born who did not sin and did not fall in Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ.