![]() ![]() So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. I believe that Adam and Eve ushered in an age in which mankind was held accountable for their sin in preparation for a new age in which mankind was offered the grace of forgiveness: Having not been granted forgiveness yet through the blood of Christ when Adam sinned his sin was attributed to him and he died both physically and spiritually. The sin that entered the world through Adam is covenantal. This is the lens in which I believe one must interpret the fall of man in Genesis 2-4. ![]() The fact that humanity is free from sin does not mean that people no longer sin: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts” Though the saints are still capable of sin, the fact that mankind is made free from sin by the cross in essence means that the saints though still fallible are sinless in God’s eyes. Before discussing how mankind is potentially freed from sin as a consequence of the resurrection, let us first focus on the nature of sin here on the earthly plane.Īs implied in Romans 6:7 it is through Jesus’ sacrificial death that mankind was made free from sin. I believe this analogy between the process of sanctification and the resurrection in Romans 6:4-7 is made because this process of sanctification and “death to sin” is a dark earthly reflection of the ultimate fulfillment of these verses in the sinless state of existence after the resurrection to heaven. In other words, through the forgiveness of sin offered by faith in the atoning work of Christ on the cross the saint is said to be dead to sin meaning he or she is freed from sin or made sinless because he or she is forgiven by God. In these verses, Paul likens the process of sanctification which occurs as a consequence of saving faith in Christ to physical death and the subsequent resurrection to heaven. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. The forgiveness from sin that Jesus offered through his sacrificial death entirely remedies the sin imparted with Adam. Romans 5:12 reads, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” The beginning (Genesis 1-4) and end (Revelation 21 and 22) are mirror opposites of one another. Most Christians believe that sin and the natural tendency to sin began with Adam. Near-death experiences (NDE’s) and Romans 6:5-7 might explain how this could be? How the Sinful and Flawed State of Mankind is Ultimately Made Perfect in HeavenĮven after the fulfillment of all Bible prophecy, I believe that the sinful nature of man would be expected to persist after the end of the age. John 3:2-9 implies that the saints residing in the highest heavenly realm, the realm in which God exists, are sinless. This sinless state due to God’s forgiveness enjoyed by the people of God on earth is a shadow of the true sinlessness of the highest heaven. And like Adam and Eve, the saints after the end of the age are also expected to be capable of error though sin is not imparted on them as was the case with Adam and Eve due to their ignorance of right and wrong prior to the fall. The sinless state caused by ignorance that Adam and Eve enjoyed prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mirrors the sinless state of the saints after the second coming. Prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve in their ignorance were sinless. Though not excusing the guilty of punishment ignorance of right and wrong also pardons the guilty of sin according to Isaiah 7:16, Romans 5:13-14 and Hebrews 12:7. Though still fallible, the saints are ultimately made sinless by the forgiveness brought on by the cross. The sin inaugurated with Adam is ultimately rectified by Christ. ![]()
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