WE LOST ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS IN ADAM
Romans 5:12
By the sin and
fall of our father Adam, we all suffered a threefold loss of righteousness. And
until righteousness is recovered and restored to us, we can never be accepted
in the presence of the holy God.
1. WHEN ADAM SINNED IN THE GARDEN, MAN LOST HIS RIGHTEOUS NATURE. Man
before the fall was much more than an innocent creature. He was holy,
righteous, good and well-pleasing to God (Gen. 1:31). But after the fall man
was guilty, sinful, corrupt, repulsive to and condemned by God. And that which
was true of fallen Adam is true of all the fallen sons of Adam. Every faculty
of man's being is corrupted, defiled, twisted and deformed as the result of the
fall. We lost all natural, moral, spiritual goodness in the fall. Fallen man
has a perverted heart, corrupt will and vile nature. There is no righteousness,
goodness, or possibility of goodness in any of us by nature. In our flesh
"dwelleth no good thing".
2. IN THE MOMENT ADAM SINNED WE ALSO LOST ALL RIGHTIOUSNESS IN GOD'S
SIGHT (Rom. 5:19). Because Adam sinned, he was put out of the garden, separated
from God. And we, being made sin, are by nature separated from God (Isa. 59:2).
Man is so far separated from God by sin that he cannot, of his own will and by
his own works, return to him (I Tim. 6:15-16). Unless God himself intervenes to
bridge the gulf between himself and fallen man, we must be eternally separated
from him in hell. Having broken the law by sin, we have no legal righteousness,
no legal grounds of acceptance with God.
3. AND FALLEN MAN HAS NO UNDERSTANDING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Rom. 10:1-3;
Isa. 64:6). When man had righteousness before God he understood that he had it
only by the gift of God in creation. And he never gloried in his righteousness.
But ever since he lost righteousness, man has thought he has righteousness,
pretended to have it, and boasted of it as a grounds of acceptance with God. He
even attempts to cover his nakedness in sin by the fig leaf apron of his own
works, and expects God to approve of his deeds. (Gen. 3:7; Luke 18:11-12).