Are We Being Judged for Adam's Sin or Our Own?

I had a conversation with a student this week that I feel was worthy to turn into a Faith and Culture blog about the issue of sin...specifically about why it is fair that the world is being judged today for Adam's sin.  I had to explain first that each of us as humans that have free will have now sinned freely and we cannot blame that on Adam.  However, what Adam's sin did was that it changed our nature.  Where Adam and Eve were made to be in perfect communion with God and loved being in His presence, when sin entered the world, they desired instead to rebel against God and do what they felt was right--trying to decide good and evil for themselves.

Every generation since them has now been born with that same tendency to rebel against God and do what is contrary to His Law and divine nature.  They neither desire to know Him nor worship Him, and they definitely don't desire to obey Him.  I asked the student if a child had to be taught to lie or taught to tell the truth?  The student said that lying comes naturally.  I then asked if lying was rebellion against God's Law (sin)?  The student agreed it was.  We talked about several other examples, but I then made the point that the very first time that any of us (even a child) willfully sinned in any way that they knew was wrong, they now have their own sin that needs to be atoned for and we cannot blame that sin on Adam--it was our own choice at that point and it is our own sins which each of us will be judged by when the books are opened one day (unless Jesus has taken our sin debt upon Himself and paid our debt in full).

There is something to be said for God visiting the sins of the fathers on the third and fourth generation because the consequences of sin are long-lasting and multi-generational.  There is no such thing as a "personal choice" to sin that doesn't affect everyone else around you in some way.  That's why I personally can't buy into the Libertarian philosophy that liberty should mean anarchy where there are no rules and everyone does whatever they want.  God's rules are what is best for us personally, for our families and for our society and culture.  It is because He loves us that He gives us good rules to follow.  It is because we do not love Him that we break His rules and act as if we want to be our gods with a little 'g.'

So then what about the fact that Nature and all Creation was corrupted by sin?  How is it fair that things that had no capacity to sin before are now broken and not like they were to start off?  Are the plants and animals and ground all being judged because of Adam's original sin or our own?  The answer is "Yes" to both.  Everything in creation "fell" when Adam did because Adam was the federal head of creation.  Romans 5 talks about this but everything that was "in Adam" (all of mankind and all of creation) fell when Adam sinned, but "in Christ" all of us can be made new.  One day there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth that is no longer corrupted by sin.  We will be restored to what it was like in the Garden of Eden only better.  This time there will be not just one man and one woman, but men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation of the earth.  All people groups will be represented.  We will no longer need to be sexual creatures because the need for reproduction won't exist--there will be no more death and no more aging.  In fact, there won't even be any more time.  We will no longer even have the sun or the moon to tell us whether it is day or night.  We will just always be in the light of His presence forever and ever and it will always be eternal day.  There will be no more need to sleep, but we will have good work to do just like Adam and Eve did when the LORD told them they were cultivate and protect the Garden that He entrusted to them.

So then the question the student asked about do we strive so much because of sin and one day all that will be erased and we will have strived and fought for nothing, the answer is "No."  Those of us who are in Christ will be rewarded for how we live our lives in this life.  Whenever we live in a way that brings glory to God and we don't take the glory for ourselves, we will have another reward ("crown") that we can lay at the feet of Jesus.  When Christ is presented with His Bride, the Church, He will cause all of them to remember this old life no more--there will be no more crying for the decisions that we should have made or the decisions that others made that we are sad they are not with us.  All of that will be wiped away and we will simply be with the Lord forever.  At that point, we will be fully known by Him and fully know Him and everything we need to know, we will know.  We will almost certainly recognize each other as the disciples were able to recognize Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, but we will also be made to look like Jesus.  Our struggles in this life are not for naught because it brings great glory to Jesus that we love Him and those who love Him will suffer as He has suffered.  We cannot say we love Him if we are not willing to suffer like Him.  We then will have many rewards with which to give him when we get to "heaven," and whether or not we understand the meaning of the rewards at that point we will definitely understand that all the rewards we have received need to be cast down at the feet of Jesus for He is the one worthy of all glory and honor and praise.  Then all heaven and earth will join together in worship of Him, just like they were meant to do from the beginning--but sin ruined that.  I look forward to that day!