Did We All Inherit Sin from Adam and Eve? Got Questions
Answer: Yes, all people inherited sin from Adam and Eve, specifically from Adam. Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18). Genesis 3 describes Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God and His command. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin has been an “inheritance” for all of their descendants. Romans 5:12 tells us that, through Adam, sin entered the world and so death was passed on to all men because all have sinned. This passed-on sin is known as inherited sin. Just as we inherit physical characteristics from our parents, we inherit our sinful nature from Adam.
Comment added: The Word of God also says in James 2:8-12 that ‘… if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors’. This means if a person takes the word of man (pastor, priest, evangelist, etc.) over the law of God then it is accounted to that person as sin…transgressor of the law. This is why we are told to search the scriptures to see if what we are being told is supported by the word of God. So, we are not to be a ‘respector of man’s words’ over God’s word. Think of the serpent, Satan. Think of his words to Eve, Think of Eve’s response to those words. How is this applicable to our day? If there is a person or an organization who teaches that they can change God’s law and an individual accepts or is in alignment with that teaching…then that individual has become a partaker in their sin. The Plain Word.
Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6). However, we are also in the image and likeness of Adam (Genesis 5:3). When Adam fell into sin, the result was every one of his descendants also being “infected” with sin. David lamented this fact in one of his Psalms: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). This does not mean that his mother bore him illegitimately; rather, his mother had inherited a sin nature from her parents, and they from their parents, and so on. David inherited sin from his parents, just as we all do. Even if we live the best life possible, we are still sinners as a result of inherited sin.
Being born sinners results in the fact that we all sin. Notice the progression in Romans 5:12: sin entered the world through Adam, death follows sin, death comes to all people, all people sin because they inherit sin from Adam. Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we need a perfect, sinless sacrifice to wash away our sin, something we are powerless to do on our own. Thankfully, Jesus Christ is the Savior from sin! Our sin has been crucified on the cross of Jesus, and now “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (comes from repentence), according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). God, in His infinite wisdom, has provided the remedy for the sin we inherit, and that remedy is available to everyone: “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” (Acts 13:38). Our Unfortunate Inheritance (Signs of the Times, June 2011)
Every Person’s Inheritance
But as many genetic variations of our parents as we receive, there is one characteristic every human being has from humanity’s first parents—and after numerous millennia, we still cannot shake it.
Genesis 3 records the tragic fall of Adam and Eve. God had placed them in perfect paradise, but they disobeyed the one command God had given them. They thought they could equal God, that they knew more than He did, and that their desires were more important than His. Because of their disobedience, they brought a curse upon themselves and this world. The last line of this sad chapter says that after God “drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Gar den of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).
Banished from Paradise and cut off from eternal life, our first parents now lived in a world full of sin. Not only was life harder outside the beautiful Garden, but something shifted in their nature when they broke their relationship with God through disobedience—and we have all inherited that nature.
The clearest evidence of this can be seen in Adam and Eve’s first children, Cain and Abel. For the first time, jealousy and fighting broke out on planet Earth. You are no doubt familiar with the tragic story – Cain “attacked his brother Abel and killed him” (Genesis 4:8). In an ideal world, people would look out for each other. Now this thing called “sin” that is rooted in selfishness began to corrupt humanity’s sense of right and wrong. And the Bible is laden with accounts and texts demonstrating the fact.
Within a few hundred years after Creation, the human race had turned so completely wicked that God had had enough. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5).
People not only committed evil deeds; they thought evil thoughts. God resolved to destroy every human being except one man named Noah, along with his family. These people were doing their best to follow God in a wicked world. God showed Noah grace and saved him and his family. But after the wicked were destroyed, even God’s people continually fell into selfish ness and sin.
Natural Instincts
King David lamented, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). This vile force of sin embedded within us is as natural to us as breathing.
Think about it; do you have to teach children to misbehave? Some may argue that it’s simply a lack of knowledge that makes people sin, but the default setting in our brains is selfishness, and even when we do acquire knowledge, we find more complex ways of destroying each other. Think drug abuse, sex-trafficking, cheating on your taxes or your spouse, inventing nuclear weapons, and thinking thoughts you wouldn’t share with anyone else.
Even when people are polite and courteous, it’s not necessarily because they want to be. It’s what society demands, and they go along with it in order to make a good impression. We may wait in a buffet line for the mother and three children to go first, but if manners didn’t matter, we would have pushed our way ahead of them. We may keep the laws of the land, but it’s only because we don’t want to go to jail.
Protestant theologian John Calvin attests to our natural tendency to sin when he says, “When viewing our miserable condition since Adam’s fall, all confidence and boasting are overthrown, we blush for shame, and feel truly humble.” Paul Althus, commenting on Martin Luther’s theology, states that man “still sins when he does what is right.” This means that our motives are so bent that even when our behavior is correct, we sometimes perform it for selfish reasons. Luther himself said we have “inherited sin . . . because we have not committed it but bring it from our parents.” Finally, the New Testament sums up the issue when it says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Doomed?
This genetic defect inherited from our ancestors guarantees not only our temporal but more importantly our eternal destruction (Romans 6:23). The only way we can avoid this inheritance is to be some how reborn into a different family. Thankfully, we are offered that chance!
“For if the many died by the trespass of the one man [Adam], how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (Romans 5:15). Jesus paid the penalty humanity accrued by its sin, thereby making a way for our redemption. Not only that, He promises that “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We can be re-created by coming to Jesus, confessing our sins, and asking Him to make us new. And when we make that decision to follow Jesus, our inheritance of sin and death changes into the one described by Matthew where, at the Second Coming, “the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’” (Matthew 25:34).
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2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AND 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”