Many denominations base their beliefs upon the teaching that you and I have inherited the guilt of the first man, Adam’s, transgression. It is asserted we are utterly guilty of the iniquitous act of Eve’s misbehavior and Adam’s following suit with her. Let me ask you to examine the following verses. Do they teach total depravity to be hereditary?
 

Genesis 6:5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only continually evil.

 

Genesis 8:21  And Jehovah smelled the sweet aroma. And Jehovah said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for the sake of man, because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will not again kill* everything living, as I have done.

 

Job 14:1-4 Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and is cut down. He too flees as a shadow and does not continue. And do you open your eyes upon such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

 

Psalm 51:5  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.

 

Jerimiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

 

John 3:6  What has been born from the flesh is flesh, and what has been born from the Spirit is spirit.

 

Acts 8:23  For* I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of unrighteousness.

 

Romans 5:12  Because of this, just-as sin entered into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death has gone forth to all men, in which all have sinned.

 

Romans 8:7  because the mind-set of the flesh is enmity at God; for* it is not subject to the law of God, for* neither is it able to be;

 

Ephesians 2:3  among whom we also all conducted ourselves previously in the lusts of our flesh, practicing the wills of the flesh and of the mind and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

 
The truth is these passages teach people are utterly corrupted by sin. But, that does not imply we inherit Adam’s “Guilt.” Before we came to Christ we were utterly depraved; we were of the carnal mindset, which is at enmity against God. Again, however, in no way does our sinful condition nor propensities mean we inherited total depravity.
 
By the trickery of the Devil sin entered our world through one man, Adam. Death was the consequence of sin. We all will experience physical death as due sin’s existence in our life. No person will be excused in this temporal world. See Romans 5 and read it from the perspective of death being a physical consequence. Read Romans 7 and see the lethally spiritual consequence being an individual’s act of sinning.
 
Certainly you and I are sinful, even from our youth. As infants and little children, however, we were innocent. (See Matthew 19:14). In Romans 7:9, Paul states there was a time when he was innocent from sin. Before he was educated to know the law he was innocent from sin. We infer this must have been in his childhood. Therefore, until one reaches an age of accountability, he is not amenable to moral laws. Ezekiel 18 describes personal responsibility for one’s actions leading to reward or punishment in the spiritual realm. The father shall not bear the iniquity of the son; nor shall the son bear the sin of the father. Each is responsible for his own actions.
 
The Solution To Our Condition….
 

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, in order that the body of sin might be done-away, that we are to no longer be enslaved to sin; for* he who has died has been justified away from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)

 
Give your life to Jesus. Obey the good news today!
 
 
Article by: Donny Weimar
 

(All quotations from MLV 2016 4-9-16.)