“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—” – Romans 5:12
The Penalty
Now as you read this passage, you may be thinking, “If sin entered the world through one man (Adam), it isn’t fair to punish the rest of us.” Yet, death spread to all men because “all have sinned.” We are not punished simply because Adam sinned, but because we inherited Adam’s propensity to sin, and have sinned ourselves.
Have you ever noticed that you don’t need to teach your children how to sin? Can you imagine sitting down with your child and saying, “Here’s how to lie successfully” or “Let me show you how to be selfish”? Those things come naturally.
Let me illustrate this another way. Have you ever seen an apple with a small hole in it? If you do, it’s okay to eat it. The presence of the hole suggests that there was a worm in there that has bored its way out.
Most people don’t know how the worm managed to take up residence in that apple. They think he was slithering by one day when he decided to bore through the outer skin of the fruit and set up house inside. However, that is not what happens.
Worms hatch from larvae dropped on the apple blossom. The blossom becomes a bud and the bud turns into fruit. The apple literally grows up around the unborn worm. The hole is left when the worm hatches and digs his way out.
In the same way, the seed of sin is within each and every one of us at the moment of birth. Though it may take some time before the evidence of sin shows on the surface, it is there and eventually it makes its presence known.
Sin demands a penalty. That penalty, according to Scripture, is death (Romans 6:23). That means physical death (where the soul is separated from the body) and spiritual death (where the soul is eternally separated from God).
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