Now it might sound at this point like I’m splitting hairs, but I want to make an important distinction. It is this. There is a difference between what I do and what I am. When a person does some act contrary to the Law of God we say he has committed a sin. If we would speak of what he is, we would say he is a sinner. Now then, which is correct - to say: “I am what I am (a sinner) because I do what I do (acts of sin)” OR to say, “I do what I do (acts of sin) because I am what I am (a sinner at heart)”

The orthodox position throughout church history has always been the second position, that is, “I do what I do because I am what I am”. Because I am born as a child of Adam and a sinner at heart, therefore, I have the natural tendency to do acts of sin. 

When we understand people from this framework we begin to see how severe is the human condition. Pleasing a holy God cannot come about by merely cleaning up the acts of sin in our outer lives. True righteousness demands a whole new inner change of life which can empower me to do what is right. 

All of this discussion points to the truth of what theologians have for centuries called the doctrine of “Original Sin”. In other words, every child born into the human race enters this life with a fallen, human nature and an irresistible propensity to commit sin. We inherit that nature because our first father, Adam, deliberately chose to disobey the will of his Creator. The alarming truth, then, is this. We are sinners and in danger of God’s judgment even before we have the opportunity to commit our first act of sin. There are no ‘innocent’ children born into this world. 

Sometimes we hear the statement that if a person rejects Christ as Savior he will be condemned. The Biblical view, however, says that a person is in danger of judgment even before rejecting Christ. In other words, rejecting Christ does not move us from a position of moral neutrality into one of impending judgment. We are already there. If rejecting Christ was the primary cause of condemnation, then the worst thing we might do is to share the Gospel, because the person might reject it. The fact is we don’t come into the world in a morally neutral condition. 

But here is where God’s plan of redemption is so precious. If we don’t want the first, fallen Adam to represent us before God’s tribunal, we can allow the second Adam, Christ Jesus, to be our representative. The Bible says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) 

But here again the fairness issue surfaces. If it’s not fair to suffer alienation for the first Adam’s sin, is it fair to partake of reconciliation because of the second Adam’s righteousness? God is not interested in our concept of fairness as much as His concept of justice. At the cross He can be both merciful in offering us His Son and just in accepting Christ’s death as payment for my unrighteousness. 

The Bible says that, “Just as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there results justification of life to all men” (Romans 5:18). Here we see the two classes of men in the world: those ‘in Adam’ and those ‘in Christ’. To all in the first group belongs condemnation. To all in the second group belongs justification and eternal life. Which of these two groups have you chosen to identify with? 

Can you see the eternal consequences your response will bring? A correct view of sin and sinners shows us that we are in no neutral state before God. We really do need Christ as Savior, not because we have sinned, but because we are sinners.