WE LOST ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS IN ADAM
"Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned." -- 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.
Natural Righteousness
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.”
Legal Righteousness
In the moment
Adam sinned we also lost all righteousness 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 (1 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.
Righteous Knowledge
Fallen man has
also lost all understanding of righteousness (Rom. 10:1-3; Isa. 64:6). No of
us, by nature, even knows what righteousness is. 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). What no man knows, until God
teaches him, is the righteousness can be had only in Christ, by the gift of
God’s grace, through blood atonement.
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #772
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net