LESSON TWO – STUDENT’S Edition

HOW DID EVERY PERSON BECOME A SINNER?

I. Introduction

In Lesson One we learned man’s condition from God’s perspective. The Bible teaches that all men are sinners. But have you ever wondered, "How could this be?" Why is it that sin is completely universal, excluding no one? Doesn't it seem that somewhere, someplace, with nearly 6 billion people on the earth, doesn't it seem that someone would be sin-free? And yet Scripture plainly teaches that all people sin. Why does every person sin? Does Scripture supply us with an answer? It sure does.

Here’s the answer! The Bible teaches that all people sin because everyone is a descendent of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were the first couple in the human race. They disobeyed God’s Word to them in the Garden of Eden and became sinners. This is what sin is. It is disobedience to God’s Word. (You can read the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3. If you are unfamiliar with it, please take the time to read it.) The disobedience of Adam and Eve made them the first sinners. (Therefore, Adam and Eve’s sin is known as original sin.) Since all of humanity are physical descendents of Adam and Eve, we inherit their sinful nature at birth. Therefore, we are born sinners. From the time that we first have life, we are sinful. The following verses of Scripture prove this.

II. The Bible Teaches That All Persons Come into the World as Sinners.

1. Psalm 51:5 “OT”. Few things are more exciting than when a mother

has a baby. In vs. 5, there are two words closely related to a mother having a baby.

A. What are the two words?

(1.)

(2.)

B. How many months separate the birth of a baby from its conception?

C. When does this verse say that a person begins being “sinful”?

Because “conception” takes place when the father’s sperm unites with the mother’s egg, this verse clearly teaches that as babies form in the mother’s womb, they form as sinners!

2. Job 14:1-4 “OT”.

A. According to vs. 1, "man born of woman" is two things. What are the two things?

(1.)

(2.)

When vs. 1 says that man’s life is full of trouble, among other things it means that his life is “full of evil or sin.”

B. Vs. 4 tells us why it is that a person’s life is full of sin and evil. It is

because the persons that he comes from (both father and mother) are what?

C. From what we learned in Lesson One, are all mothers and fathers

impure?

D. Can a “pure” child come from impure parents?

3. Job 15:14-16 “OT”. What is the description of man given in vs. 16?

A. Vs. 14 is very similar to Job 14:4. Vs. 14 tells us why man is

“vile and corrupt.” Vs. 14 says it is because man is “born of

One well-known article says this: "Original sin is conveyed from

our first parents unto their posterity by natural generation, so that all who proceed from them in that way are conceived and born in sin." (Larger Catechism, Question 26)

Let me put this quote into simpler language. Original sin is the first sin ever committed--the sin of Adam and Eve. Their sin is conveyed or passed along unto their posterity (all who descended from them--thus all of mankind) by natural generation (by sexual reproduction) so that everyone is born in sin.

4. Romans 5: 12-18 “NT”. This passage greatly helps us understand the point that we are making--that everyone comes into the world as a sinner because everyone descended from Adam, the first man created by God.

A. According to vs. 12, how did sin enter the world?

B. Who is the “one man” that vs. 12 is speaking of?

C. According to vs. 12, what came into the world as a result of Adam’s sin?

D. According to vs. 12, how many people now have the sentence of death on them because of the sin of Adam?

E. Vs. 18 mentions “one trespass” that brought condemnation. Who committed the “one trespass”? (If you don’t know, you might need to look back earlier in the chapter for the answer.)

F. According to vs. 18, the “one trespass” brought condemnation to how many people in the human race?

G. What does the word “condemnation” mean? (The word “condemna-tion” is a very important word used in the Bible. Therefore, it is important that you understand its meaning. If you do not know its meaning, take the time to look it up in a dictionary.)

Romans 5:12-18 is teaching that the whole world stands condemned (declared guilty) by God due to Adam’s sin. One reason that this is true is because the whole human race has physically descended from him. Since Adam was a sinner, every person descended from him is conceived and born in sin.

5. Genesis 1:1-31 “OT” contains additional information that if you

comprehend it, you will understand why every person is born into the world as a sinner. Please read Genesis 1 and make a complete list of all the verses where you find the phrase, “according to their kinds” or a similar phrase. (You should find this phrase 10 different times in Genesis 1, therefore in some verses you might find the phrase more than 1 time.)

A. C. E.

B. D.

Before we tell you, let’s see if you can answer a very important question: “What does the phrase ‘according to their kinds’ have to do with proving the fact that all people are born into the world as sinners?”

The following is the answer to the question we just asked. (Read the answer and see how close you came to answering the question correctly.)

Through stating the phrase, “according to their kinds” ten times in Genesis 1, God is telling us that when He first created the world, He established a law that governs all reproduction. Everything that reproduces will bring forth “according to its kind.” God decreed that vegetation, plants and trees (Gen. 1:11-12) would reproduce “according to their kinds.” A cherry tree will produce only cherries with seeds in them that will reproduce only cherry trees. This is a law of reproduction. It is not possible for a cherry tree to yield apples with seeds in them to reproduce apple trees. The cherry tree must reproduce only fruit “according to its kind.”

In Genesis 1:21, God establishes the same law for sea mammals and birds of the air. God decrees that the same law of reproduction “according to their kinds” will govern their offspring. Whales can only produce whales when they reproduce. Sharks can only produce sharks, not catfish or bass! Ostriches can only produce ostriches, and never can they reproduce sparrows. This is because of the law of nature that God established at Creation known as the “law of reproduction” or “according to their kind.” All living creatures will only reproduce according to their kinds. This law is an unalterable law of nature.

At this point in time, the student who is relatively new in learning the Bible might still be asking, “What does this law of reproduction, or ‘according to its kind’ have to do with every person being born into the world as a sinner?”

The answer is this. The law of reproduction is true also of mankind! When men reproduce, they will bring forth “according to their kind.” Since the first man, Adam, became a sinner through disobeying God in Genesis 3, he could only bring forth children who are sinners! Adam and his wife, Eve, could never bring forth sinless children because Adam and Eve were sinful. Adam and Eve could only reproduce “according to their kind.” Interestingly, Genesis 5:3 says, “Adam had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.” This verse means that Adam’s son, Seth, was just like him or “according to his kind.” Adam was a sinner; therefore Seth was born into the world a sinner; Seth’s son was born into the world a sinner; on and on the law of reproduction continues and inevitably engulfs every living human being when he/she is born! Eventually you and I were born into the world, and because of the “law of reproduction” or everything being born “according to its kind,” we too were each born into the world as sinners.

Therefore, why is it that there is not even one righteous person under heaven before God? Out of nearly 6 billion people on the face of the earth today, why is it that we all are sinners?

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