Of the Imputation of adam's sin to
all his posterity
John Gill
Having considered the disobedience
of our first parents, and the sad effects of it to themselves, I shall next
consider the concern their posterity have in it, and how much
they are affected by it. There are two things follow on it with respect to
them; the imputation of the guilt of it to them, and the corruption of nature
derived to them from it.
I shall begin with the first,
as being previous to the other, and the foundation of it, and
which is expressed in very strong terms, #Ro 5:19. "For as by one man's
disobedience man were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous". The apostle is upon the doctrine of justification by the
righteousness of Christ; and whereas it might be a difficulty in the minds of
some, how any could be justified by the righteousness of another; and he had to
do greatly with Jews as well as Gentiles; the former of
which might better understand the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin to
his posterity; or how all men are made sinners by his sin, than the doctrine of
justification by Christ's righteousness; he observes, it is as easy to conceive
how men may be made righteous by the obedience of another, namely, through the
imputation of that obedience to them, as it is to conceive
how all men are made sinners by the disobedience of one man, even through the
imputation of that disobedience to them. To set this doctrine in the best light
I can, I shall,
1) Observe the act of
disobedience, by which men are made sinners.
2) Who they
are that are made sinners by it.
3) In what sense they are
"made" so through it.
1. First, The act of
disobedience; whose it is, and what.
1a. Whose
it is: it is sometimes expressed by "one that sinned"; and more than
once called, the "offence of one", #Ro 5:15-16,18 and yet more
clearly; "By one man sin entered"; and is called, "one man's
offence", and "one man's disobedience", #Ro 5:12,17,19 for it is
not the sin of one of the apostate spirits, by which men are made sinners; but
the sin of one of their own species, one of the same nature, even the common parent of all mankind, and who is expressed by name, #Ro
5:14 where this offence and disobedience is called "the transgression of
Adam"; and so in #1Co 15:22. "In Adam all die", being all in
him, and having sinned in him, death comes upon them for it; but then this is
to be understood of Adam not to the exclusion of Eve, who was also in the
transgression, and first in it, and was the mother of all living.
They both have the same name, the same appellative name, "man"; the
same proper name, Adam, #Ge 5:1-2 were of the same nature; nay, Eve was formed
out of a rib of Adam; was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone; a part of
himself; and by their marriage relation became one flesh, #Ge 2:21-24 they had
the same law given them, which forbid the eating of the fruit of a certain
tree; the same covenant was made with them, and they were
both guilty of the same act of disobedience; and had a sentence of punishment
pronounced on them both; and which did not rest on their own persons only, but
is common to all their posterity, and still continues; which shows that their
posterity had a concern in their act of disobedience, in the guilt of it, since
they share in their punishment, as all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve do; as in the toil and labour of the one, and his return to
the dust; so in the pains of childbearing in the other, and subjection to the
man.
1b. What this disobedience
was; which appears from what has been already said, it was disobedience to the
law and will of God, in eating the fruit which he had forbid; so
disbelieving the word of God, and giving credit to the serpent. Now it was this
one act of disobedience, by which Adam's posterity were made sinners; and
therefore is sometimes called the one sin, and the one offence; so in #Ro 5:16
some copies read enov amarthmatov, "by one sin"; and so in #Ro 5:17
en tw eni paraptwmati, "by one offence"; and so #Ro 5:18 may be
translated as it is in the margin of our Bibles; it was a
single sin, and the first sin committed in our world; I say in our world,
because sin was committed before in the world above, in heaven, by the apostate
spirits, the angels that sinned; but with their sin men have no concern; or
they are not made sinners by it; but by that sin which first entered into our
world, by the one man, Adam; and this the only one of his sins, and that which
was first committed by him, and not any after sins of his;
it is what, and it is the only one that was committed by him, while he stood
the federal head of his posterity: that he was a covenant head to us has been
proved already; and that he was such when this was committed by him is plain,
because his posterity were then considered in him, as a federal head, and
sinned in him, which brought death upon them all, #Ro 5:12. But no
sooner had Adam committed this first sin, by which the covenant with him was
broke, but he ceased to be a covenant head; the law given him, as a covenant of
works, was no more so; the promise of life by it ceased; the sanction of it,
death, took place; and he was no more in a capacity of yielding sinless
obedience; and so could not procure life for himself and his; wherefore he no
longer standing as a federal head to his posterity, they had
no more concern with his later sins, than with his repentance and good works,
both of which, no doubt, were performed by him; yet by his repentance they are
not reckoned repenting sinners; nor are his good works accounted to them.
2.
Secondly, Who they are that are made sinners by the disobedience of Adam. They
are said to be many; not only Adam and Eve, who were transgressors, and so
became guilty and polluted sinners, through their disobedience, as they most
certainly did; as appears from their consciousness of nakedness; from the shame
and confusion of face that covered them; from the fear and dreadful
apprehensions of the wrath and vengeance of God; and from
their fleeing from his presence, and hiding themselves; but even all their
posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation, were made sinners
hereby; for though they are only said to be "many", these many
signify "all"; the reason of the use of this word, is to answer to
the next clause, to the "many" that are "made righteous by the
obedience of one Man"; and yet the "many"
there, signify all that are in Christ, as their covenant head; even all his
spiritual seed and offspring, given to him and chosen in him: and so all the
natural seed and offspring of Adam, to whom he stood as a federal head, are all
made sinners by his disobedience; which is thus strongly expressed, "As by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that or in whom all have sinned", #Ro
5:12. And again, "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, #Ro 5:18. I say, all descending from him by ordinary generation,
are made sinners by his sin, and none else. Had God made more worlds than one,
as he could if he would, and worlds of men too; yet as these would not have
descended from Adam, they would have had no concern in his sin:
had God raised up children to Abraham out of stones, which he could have done;
yet such so raised up, in such a miraculous manner, and not descending from
Adam, could not be affected with his sin; and for a like reason the human
nature of Christ must be excepted from any concern in it, and from any effect
of it, guilt, or pollution; for though he was a partaker of the same human
nature, of the same flesh and blood with other men, and
made in all things like unto them, yet not by ordinary generation; he was made
of a woman, but not begotten by man; God, his Father, prepared a body for him
in covenant; and in the fulness of time his human nature was formed by the Holy
Spirit, in a wonderful manner; it was an extraordinary production; it was a new
thing, which God created in the earth, and so an holy
thing; was holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, without spot and blemish,
and any consciousness of sin; and thus as it was clear of the taint and
corruption of nature from Adam's sin, so it was exempt from the guilt of it;
see #Lu 1:34-35. And besides that, Christ not descending from Adam by ordinary
generation, could not be a federal head to him on that account {1}; so neither because of the dignity of his person; the human nature being
personally united to the Son of God, could never be under a creature as its
federal head, or be represented by one. Moreover, Christ was the head of
another and better covenant than Adam's, and was previous to it, even before
Adam and his covenant were in being. Christ was an head to Adam, as he was
chosen in him, given to him in covenant to be redeemed and
saved by him; but Adam was no head to him; "The Head of Christ is
God", and he only, #1Co 11:3.
3. Thirdly, In what sense all
Adam's posterity are made sinners by his disobedience.
3a. Not by
imitation, as say the Pelagians; men may become more sinful by imitation, but
they do not first become sinful by it: men may, by example, be drawn in to
commit sin more frequently, and to commit greater ones; and therefore the
company of wicked men is to be shunned, since "Evil communications corrupt
good manners"; especially persons of power and authority, their examples
have great weight and influence; as civil magistrates,
ministers, parents, and masters. So Jeroboam caused Israel to sin, was the
occasion of it, and drew them into it by his authority and example. But this
cannot be the case here; for,
3a1. Death,
the effect of Adam's sin, and the punishment
inflicted
for it, takes place on such who never "sinned
after the
similitude of Adam's transgression", #Ro 5:14
namely,
infants dying in their infancy; who, though not
without the
corruption of nature in them, yet without any
actual sin
committed by them, like to that of Adam's
transgression;
dying so soon, they have neither capacity nor
opportunity
of committing any sin similar to his; that is,
any actual
transgression; and therefore said, in that
respect, to
be innocent, #Jer 19:4 not free from the taint,
but from the
act of sin. Now since death, which is the
punishment
of sin, takes place on them, that supposes guilt,
or otherwise
punishment could not in justice be inflicted on
them; and as
they are not made sinners by Adam's sin,
through
imitation of it, they must become guilty, or be made
sinners in
some other way.
3a2. Death,
the effect of Adam's sin, and the punishment of it,
takes place
on such who never heard of it, and consequently
cannot be
made sinners by it, through imitation of it; for
death passes
upon all men, all nations of the world, and all
individuals
in it, through the sin of one man, Adam; even on
such who
never heard of the law which forbid the eating of
the fruit of
the tree of knowledge; nor, indeed, ever heard
of the law of
Moses, and the sins forbidden by that; are
acquainted
only with the law and light of nature; the law
written
in their hearts, according to which their minds,
consciences,
and thoughts, accuse or excuse one another; and
yet they that
are without law, perish without law, being
sinners; and
therefore as they cannot be made sinners by
Adam's sin,
through imitation of it, they must be made so
3a3. This
sense makes a man no more a sinner by Adam's
disobedience than
he is by the disobedience of his immediate
parents, or
any other whose ill examples he follows. Adam
seems
to be too remote an ancestor to imitate; more likely
immediate
parents; and yet this is not always the case;
children do
not always follow the examples of parents, bad
or good. Some
may have evil parents, and, like the Jews,
fill up the
measure of their fathers' sins, and do as they
did,
and appear to be a generation of vipers: and others
have good
parents, who give them a religious education, and
set them good
examples, and yet they take very bad courses;
and so not by
imitation, at least of their parents. And
indeed, sin
in general does not come by imitation; but it is
from
a corrupt nature; and there are many sins which are
never seen
committed, yet are committed by those who never
saw them; as
murder, acts of uncleanness, &c. Did Cain sin
by imitation
when he murdered his brother? Did Lot's
daughters sin
by imitation when they contrived to commit
incest
with their father, and did? It is possible that all
these defects
in nature may meet in one man, as to be born
blind, deaf,
and dumb; and so not capable of seeing and
hearing, and
knowing what sins are committed, and yet be as
vicious as
any of the sons of Adam.
3b. Nor is the sense of the
phrase, "made sinners by one man's disobedience, "what the more
modern Pelagians and Arminians give into; that by a metonymy of the effect, sin
being put for the punishment of it, men become sufferers, or are obnoxious to
death, and suffer death on the account of Adam's disobedience; but this is to depart from the common and constant sense of this
word, "sinners". Nor can any instance be given of the apostle's use
of the word in this sense, either in the context or elsewhere; it always signifying
a sinful, guilty, and defiled creature; one that is guilty of a crime, and
obnoxious to death for it; it is contrary to the apostle's scope and design in
the context, which was to show how death came into the world, namely,
by sin; and to the distinction he all along makes between sin and death; the
one he represents as the cause, the other as the effect; whereas this sense
confounds cause and effect, sin and death, together; and makes the apostle
guilty of such bad reasoning as can never be charged upon him, and which a man
of such large reasoning powers, abstracted from his being an inspired writer,
could never be capable of; for then the sense of these
words, #Ro 2:12. "Death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned", must be, death passed upon all men, because it has passed upon
all men; or all men are obnoxious to death, and suffer it, because they are
obnoxious to it, and suffer it. Besides, it is granting us too much for
themselves; it makes their cause indefensible, and even destroys it, and cuts
the throat of it; for if men are obnoxious to death, even
though but a corporal death, which is what they mean, and suffer such a death
on the account of Adam's sin, they must have a concern in it, and be, in some
way or other, guilty of it; or such a punishment, in justice, could not be
inflicted on them. What greater punishment is there among men, for the most
enormous crime, than death? And why should men suffer death for
Adam's sin, of which they are in no sense guilty? Let this be reconciled, if it
can be, to the justice of God.
3c. Nor is the sense of the
phrase, "made sinners by one man's disobedience, "that Adam's
posterity derive a corrupt nature from him, through his sin; this is indeed a truth, but not the truth of this passage; it is true that all
men are made of one man's blood, and that blood tainted with sin; and so a
clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean; what is born of the flesh is
flesh, carnal and corrupt; every man is conceived in sin, and shapen in
iniquity, as David was; but then there is a difference between being
"made" sinners, and "becoming" sinful, the one respects the
guilt, the other the pollution of nature; the one is
previous to the other, and the foundation of it; men receive a corrupt nature
from their immediate parents; but they are not made sinners by any act or acts
of their disobedience. Wherefore,
3d. It remains that the
posterity of Adam are only "made" sinners through the imputation of his disobedience to them. And this imputation is
not to be considered in a moral sense, as the action of a man committed by
himself, whether good or bad, is condemned and reckoned unto him as his own,
whether in a way of praise or dispraise; as the zealous good work of Phinehas
in slaying two persons in the very act of sin, was "counted unto him for
righteousness"; that is, was judged, reckoned, and
esteemed a righteous, worthy, and commendable action; but in a
"forensic", judicial, and legal sense; as when one man's debts are in
a legal way placed to the account of another, as if they were his, though not
personally contracted by him. An instance of this we have in the apostle Paul,
who said to Philemon, concerning Onesimus; "If he hath wronged thee, or
oweth thee anything", ellogei, "let it be imputed
to me", or placed to and put on my account. And thus the posterity of Adam
are made sinners by Adam's disobedience, that being imputed to them, and put to
their account, as if it had been committed by them personally, though it was
not. And this sense is to be confirmed and illustrated, ----
3d1.
From the signification of the word here used, hatestayhsan,
"constituted"
in a judicial way, ordered and appointed in
the
dispensation of things, that so it should be; just as
Christ was
made sin, or a sinner by imputation, by the
constitution
of God, laying upon him, reckoning, placing to
his
account the sins of all his people, and dealing with him
as though he
was the guilty person, and as if he had
committed the
sins, though he had not; and not imputing
trespasses to
them, though they were the actual
transgressors;
see #Isa 53:6 2Co 5:19,21.
3d2. From its
being the disobedience of another, by which men are
made sinners;
and therefore they can in no other way be made
sinners by
it, than by the imputation of it to them; just as
the
righteousness of Christ being not our own, but his,
another's;
we cannot be made righteous by it, but by the
imputation of
it to us.
3d3. From the
punishment inflicted on persons for it. The
punishment
threatened to Adam in case of disobedience to the
law
and will of God, was death, #Ge 2:17 which includes
death,
corporal, moral, and eternal; a corporal death has
been taken
notice of already, and which is allowed to be
suffered on
account of the sin of Adam; and if so there must
be guilt; and
that guilt must be made over to the sufferer;
and
which can be done in no other way than by the imputation
of it. A
moral death is no other than the loss of the image
of God in
man, which consisted in righteousness and
holiness; and
particularly it is a loss of original
righteousness:
in the room of which succeeded
unrighteousness
and unholiness; and is both a sin, and a
punishment
for sin: it is a sin as it has malignity in it,
and a
punishment for sin; and so it was threatened to Adam,
and came upon
him as such; and so to all his posterity, by
the
ordination and appointment of God; for which there can
be
no other foundation but the imputation of Adam's
disobedience
to them; nor can anything else vindicate the
righteousness
of God; for if the law of nature was
sufficient,
why should this original taint infect men,
rather than
the sins of immediate parents? Now if this comes
upon
men as a punishment, it supposes preceding sin; and
what can that
be but Adam's disobedience, the guilt of which
must be made
over to Adam's posterity, or it could not in
justice take
place; and that could no other way be made over
to them but
by imputation. And if eternal death is taken in
to
the punishment, as it must be; for the wages of sin is
death, even
death eternal; and this can never be inflicted
on guiltless
persons; if men are thus punished for Adam's
sin, the
guilt of that sin must be imputed to them: in
#Ro 5:18 it
is said, "By the offence of one, judgment came
upon
all men to condemnation"; that is, the righteous sentence
of God passed
upon the whole posterity of Adam, to the
condemnation
of them for his offence; be that condemnation
to a
corporal, or to a moral, or to an eternal death, to any
or all of them,
it supposes them guilty of that offence, and
that
the guilt of that offence is made over to them, and
reckoned as
theirs; which can only be done by imputation; or
they cannot
be righteously condemned and punished for it in
either sense.
3d4.
That this is the sense of the clause, "made sinners by the
disobedience
of one", appears from the opposite clause; "So
by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous": now
the many
ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ died, and
whom he
justified, are made righteous, or are justified only
through
the imputation of his righteousness to them; and he
is made sin
by the imputation of their sins to him,
#2Co 5:21. In
like manner are Adam's posterity, or all men,
made sinners
through the imputation of his disobedience to them.
And this is
the sense of this clause, notwithstanding what
It is no
objection, that Adam's disobedience or sin is
not now in
act; as soon as it was committed as an act, it
ceased; and
therefore not to be imputed. The same may be
objected
to the obedience of Christ; or rather a course of
obedience, a
series of actions, which when performed, ceased
to be in act;
but then the righteousness arising from them
continues;
and is in Christ, The Lord our Righteousness; and
is unto all
and upon all that believe. And so Adam's sin,
though
it ceased to be in act, the guilt of it continues,
and is
imputed to all his posterity. In like manner the sins
of the saints,
before the coming of Christ, ceased to be in
act as soon
as committed; and yet Christ died for the
redemption of
transgressions that were under the first
Testament,
and the sins of all the people of God were laid
upon him by
imputation. Nor is it any objection to this
truth, that
Adam's posterity were not in being when his
disobedience
was committed, and so could have no concern in
it: but
though they had not an actual being, yet they had a
virtual
and representative one; they were in him both
seminally and
federally; and "sinned in him" too, #Ro 5:12
as Levi was
in the loins of Abraham, and paid tithes to
Melchizedek,
#Heb 7:9,10. I say, both seminally and
federally;
and it is their being in him seminally that is
the
foundation of their being in him federally, and makes it
reasonable
that so they should be; and this may be greatly
illustrated
and confirmed by modern philosophy, according to
which all
kinds of plants of the same sort to be produced in
all following
ages, were actually formed in the first seed
that
was created; and that all the "stamina" and "semina",
not only of
plants but of animals, and so of men, were
originally
formed by the almighty Parent, within the first
of each
respective kind, and to be the seed of all future
generation
{2}: thus all mankind being formed in the first
man,
in this manner, it easily accounts for it, how they
came to have
a share in the guilt of his sin, and that to be
imputed to
them; as also to have the corruption and
pollution of
it derived to them. Nor does this act of
imputation of
Adam's sin to his posterity, make God the
author
of sin; since this act makes men sinners not
inherently,
but imputatively; it puts no sin in them, though
it reckons sin
to them; and though this imputation is God's
act, it makes
him no more the author of sin, than the
imputation of
Christ's obedience, makes God the author of
that
obedience; as not God, but Christ, is the author of
the obedience
imputed; so not God, but Adam, is the author
of that
disobedience imputed to his posterity: nor is this
doctrine
chargeable with cruelty and injustice; it has never
been reckoned
either, that children should suffer for the
sins
of their parents; or rather, that parents should be
punished in
their children; God describes himself as a God
visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto
the third and
fourth generation of them that hate him; and
yet it is
impossible that he should be guilty either of a
cruel
or unjust action: when Achan sinned, his sons and his
daughters,
and all that he had, were ordered to be brought
forth, and
they were all burnt with him. The Amalekites, for
the injury
they did to Israel, when they first came out of
Egypt, Saul
had orders, some hundreds of years after, to go
and
smite them, and utterly destroy all they had, men and
women,
infants and sucklings, and all their cattle: the
blood of all
the righteous persons that had been shed from
the beginning
of the world to the times of Christ, was then
avenged on
the wicked Jews. And such a procedure in
subjecting
children to penalties for the sins of their
parents, is
justified by the laws, customs, and usages of
all nations,
who make treason punishable in the posterity of
men. A
nobleman, when he commits treason against his
sovereign, he
is not only stripped of his titles, honour,
and
estates himself, but his children are also, and
reduced to
poverty and misery, until the attainder is taken
off. And if
treason against an earthly king is punishable in
this manner,
then much more treason against the King of
kings, and
Lord of lords, as Adam's sin was.
The text in
#Eze 18:2-4 is not to the purpose; that the
proverb,
"The father's have eaten sour grapes, and the
childrens'
teeth are set on edge", should be no more used in
Israel, but
the soul that sins should die; since this speaks
not
a word of Adam, and his sin, nor of his posterity
suffering for
it; nor even of such men that commit the same
sins their
fathers have; but of good men and just men, that
do not follow
their fathers evil ways, and so shall not be
punished for
any sins of theirs, and is restrained to a
certain
case and time. The case of the man born blind, is
also quite
impertinent; since that also respects not Adam's
sin, but the
sin of the man and his parents, and a
particular
disaster, blindness. The disciples put this
question to
Christ upon it; "Who did sin, this man or his
parents,
that he was born blind?" Christ's answer is,
"Neither
hath this man sinned, nor his parents": not but
that they had
both sinned, but their sin was not the cause
and reason of
his blindness; but the sovereign will and
pleasure of
God, "That the works of God should be made
manifest
in him"; that there might be an opportunity for
Christ to
give proof of his Deity and Messiahship, by
performing
such a cure as was never heard of before,
#Joh 9:2,3.
To
close this point; let it be observed, that the ground
of the
imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, is not
his being the
natural head, and common parent of them; for
so are
immediate parents to their respective offspring; but
their
particular sins are not imputed to them; Adam, being
the
common parent of mankind, may be considered as the
ground of the
derivation of a corrupt nature to them; and
yet the
justice of that will not clearly appear without
their being
considered as made sinners by the imputation of
Adam's sin to
them: but the ground of this imputation is the
federal
headship of Adam, or his standing as a covenant head
to all his
posterity; so that what he did as such, is
reckoned as
if done by them; which is not the case of
immediate
parents; and therefore their sins are not imputed:
that Adam
stood in the relation of a federal head to his
posterity,
has been proved in a former chapter, and
vindicated
from exceptions to it.
{1} See more of this in Vol.
II. of this Work, Book II. Chap. 1. See 4Topic on "Incarnation" 950
{2} See
the Philosophical Transactions abridged, vol. ii. p. 912. Nieuwentyt's
Religious Philosopher, vol. ii. contempl. 23. s. 13. p. 711. ed. 5. Wolaston's
Religion of Nature, s. 5. p. 160, 164. ed. 8.