1219. Many Constituted Sinners–Many Constituted Righteous
Many Constituted Sinners–Many Constituted Righteous
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom_5:19).
1. "For by one man's disobedience, many were constituted sinners." If Adam could have sinned without placing sin upon his posterity, all would have been different.
However, the human race came by generation. Every man on the earth is a son of Adam. Every man lay in Adam's loins when Adam sinned.
The unfailing law of generation–"kind begets its kind"–made imperative the statement of Scripture–"In sin did my mother conceive me."
Inherited sin has fallen to the lot of every man. "Sinners by nature," is the result of sinful parentage.
To this unfailing law all have succumbed–"There is none righteous, no, not one."
2. "By the obedience of one shall many be constituted righteous." The out-working of the same law that proclaims inbred, inherent sin, also proclaims inbred and inherent righteousness.
If in Adam, the one who sinned, men are constituted sinners (that is, made sinful in nature), then in Christ Jesus, the One Who was sinless, men are constituted righteous (that is, made holy in nature).
According to this the children of God are not only clothed by the imputed righteousness of Christ, but they possess the inherent righteousness of Christ.
All of us readily grant that the sinner saved by grace stands justified before God; his sins are taken away, they are blotted out; God imputes unto him the righteousness which is by faith.
Are all of us ready to grant that the saint born of God has been constituted righteous? that God's sons are created after the image of Him Who created him? that the "new man" which is begotten of Christ Jesus, is created in righteousness and true holiness?
The whole matter goes back to the question–what happens when one is born again? Is the new birth a theory or a fact? Is the one born again really begotten of God? Does he actually possess a new nature?
If in Adam all are constituted sinners, because all are born of Adam's race, because all inherited sin under the inexorable law, "kind begets its kind;" then in Christ Jesus all who are born again must be constituted righteous, because they inherit from Christ His holiness.
"That which is born of God sinneth not." We do not mean that Christians never sin; but that when Christians do sin, it is their old man that sins, and not their new man.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR