Condemned in Adam, or Justified in Christ

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

— Romans 5:18–19

All mankind is born “in Adam”. We are one human “Adamic” race in this regard and as such, there are some truths that the Word of Truth tells us in this regard: Adam’s race is

• Dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
• Children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2)
• By nature the children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3)

Adam’s race is helplessly condemned, and the situation would be hopeless without God’s provided Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. The condemnation is to all. All the world is guilty before God. One may attempt to argue that he has lived a good life. He may say that he is better than others. He may be religious. He may say that he has done his best to keep the law, the ten commandments (he has failed), or maybe the golden rule (he is also a failure here). He may say that he has lived his life according to “what would Jesus do” (again, total failure). He may argue that he lives by the Sermon on the Mount.

All of this argument comes to naught, when we read God’s judgment on the matter, “that every mouth may be stopped, and that all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). Argument is over, the gavel has struck and no further witnesses will be heard. We are all guilty and God has said so. God has bundled the entire human, i.e., Adamic race together in this. Where once there was a difference placed between the Israelite “race” and the Gentile “race”, we now know the revelation from God that there is no difference, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

From this judgment of God, liberal “Christianity” offers absolutely nothing to make the situation better. The flavor of the day among them is “racial reconciliation”, but let us look at a scriptural example of racial reconciliation:

“And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.” — Luke 23:12

Lest one think that I am reading too much into this:

“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” — Acts 4:24–28

Even among conservatives, it is often expressed, “we are all the children of God”. This also is false. The apostle Paul makes it clear who it is that are the children of God:

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” — Galatians 3:26

This is not a “racial” thing, for all mankind is one as Adam’s race. We are united to Adam by birth, and have a universal “brotherhood” in Adam; and as Adam’s first two children could not get along, it is pure fantasy to think that any following would ever get along in any meaningful way, except that the two divisions that God did make among the children of Adam found unity in that they came together to crucify the Son of God. They stand today, together, fully condemned under sin.

But by the obedience of One, many shall be made righteous! This is God’s answer to the human sin problem. Jesus Christ was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8), and by His death God made the way that any who are in Adam can be saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only place the condemned sinner can go is to throw himself at the mercy of the court. And good news for you, God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), and is rich unto all that call upon Him (Romans 10:12). Those redeemed are redeemed according to the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7), and are saved only according to God’s mercy (Titus 3:5).

The righteousness of God is fully satisfied in Christ, so much so that He sees the sins of mankind accounted to Christ and His death fully putting them away (2 Corinthians 5:21). God sees all those who are justified by Christ through faith as having Christ’s righteousness accounted to us because He baptized us into Christ (Romans 6:4, 1 Corinthians 12:13), so now, we who are in Christ can say we are accepted by God, because Christ is accepted by God, and we are in Christ. We are made the righteousness of God, in Him.

In Christ, the various families of Adam can leave their history in Adam behind, and see ourselves as God sees us, in Christ. We can accept each other, not on the basis of “tolerance and diversity” but on the basis of a new “brotherhood”.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.” — 1 Corinthians 12:12–14

Look friends, at the glorious gift of God that He has freely given to all of Adam’s race. A chance to find ourselves welcomed into a new life, with the old history in Adam crucified with Christ. We have a new future in Christ, with a gift of God that is eternal life — IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

At best, mankind can learn to live together in peace, but it is an uneasy peace, with often only a small spark needed to send the whole “peace and love” thing into war and bloodshed. That is the whole history of mankind in Adam. But in Christ, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are urged that as much a lies in us, to live peaceably with all men, and we should really think about how much lies within us, for we who are saved have the Spirit of Christ in us.

As mankind, in all its wisdom, seeks for a lasting peace and comes up a failure, we have this lasting peace. We are one new man, we are created in Christ Jesus, and the great middle wall of partition that God created separating His two old divisions of humanity is brought down so that we are one body in Christ. There should be no wall of separation between any of us in Christ, keeping us from any others who are also in Christ based on our old separations in Adam. I recognize that there are doctrinal differences between those who are truly in Christ, but even in these, if we recognize the Scriptures as our final authority, we need to ask each other in all of our arguments, “What saith the Scriptures”, and search them to see what is really so.

We should be open to the Scriptures for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). And we should be open to each other to discuss these things, not leaving behind our own convictions, but also not acting toward each other according to the flesh. We are together in Christ if we are saved, and should be acting as such with each other.

I can recognize also that there is a language barrier between many of us in the family of God that can be difficult to overcome, but even this is not impossible. We are together in Christ and rejoice in that fellowship. We can overcome temporary external differences with the greatness of knowing our common future in Christ:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” — 1 Corinthians 15:22