In what way are we constituted sinners as a result of Adam’s disobedience? Are we are as guilty of our own sin, as of Adam’s and, therefore, cannot only blame Adam for our sinful condition?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Gospel of Jesus Christ’ (1994).

The question stems from Romans 5:12, which says, 'Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin: and so death passed unto all men for that all . . .'—and then came the crux of interpretation, how should the Greek there be translated?—'death passed upon all men on the grounds that all have sinned'? Or should you translate it as an aorist: 'Death passed upon all men because all sinned', meaning, as some say it means, that when Adam sinned, the whole human race, in toto and individually, sinned? Because they were all, so to speak, in Adam when he sinned and, therefore, when he sinned, the whole lot sinned, and were guilty of his sin.

Now that may seem to you a rather remote kind of question. It comes to practical consideration because people say, 'Well, what about this baby then, who was born and lived two days, and then died? Why did it die?' If you translate the verse, 'Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned', are you meaning to say that the baby in those two days managed to get round to do some sinning? And if death is through sin, well, when did this unfortunate babe sin? If it didn't sin in the two days it lived outside the womb, then people say—and there's a large number of very serious theologians that say—that it sinned when Adam sinned because it was in the great forefather. And, therefore, in some real sense, the baby is guilty of the sin of Adam.

Now, with all due respect, I personally don't believe that. But let me take an analogy. Analogies prove nothing, but they can help to enlighten us. In Malaysia, if you are caught drug peddling, there's a mandatory death sentence. You are executed. Well, let's consider the case of this good lady who was caught taking drugs herself, and drug peddling. The law condemns her to be executed, but she discovers she is pregnant. What do you suppose they should do? Execute her and with her, her unborn child? Will you argue, 'Well, the child was in its mother when the mother was guilty of drug peddling, so the child is equally guilty with the mother of drug peddling, so the child deserves to be executed along with the mother'? I daresay if I took a vote, there are very few that would say the child deserves to be executed because it was guilty of the mother's sin by being in the mother when she sinned. I think even in Malaya they'd wait until the child was born, and then after a suitable interval, execute the mother. Now, therefore, consider the child. It is altogether possible the child would be born with withdrawal symptoms, severely damaged in the womb by the mother's drug taking. While the child would not, in my understanding, be guilty of the mother's sin, it would have been wrecked by its mother's sin and be disposed, even if it survives, to taking drugs itself when the opportunity arose. If then the child is proved at birth to be defective and, in part, wrecked because of its mother's sin, the government wouldn't execute it for that reason. If the child thereafter engaged in drug pushing, it would then be executed. Of course it was given the impetus to start that life of actual sinning by being spoiled in its mother's womb.

And that, to me, is a little analogy of the situation we are considering. Adam sinned; he trespassed, he broke a prohibition. All his progeny die, not because they have sinned in the way Adam sinned, breaking an explicit prohibition or command. They die in spite of that. Firstly because, physically, they are ruined by what Adam did, born with a ruined, fallen human nature, and therefore subject to death. But also because, as far as God's judgment is concerned, as each have grown to an age of responsibility, without exception, apart from our Lord, they have all proceeded individually to sin. That is how I understand it. Why do we all sin without exception? Because we were ruined by what Adam did. We shall not be held accountable for what he did as though it were our fault. We shall be held accountable for our personal sins. But we've received a broken nature that is liable to physical death because of what he did. We should be held accountable for our own personal sinning. That, at least, is how I understand it.