Romans chapter 5, verse 19 will answer this question:

`by one man's disobedience many were made sinners'.

The `one man' spoken of here is Adam, who disobeyed God's commandment in the garden of Eden. Read the

whole story in Genesis, chapter 2 verse 15 to chapter 3 verse 6.

Through his disobedience Adam became a sinner, and since we have all descended from him, then we are

also sinners. We are sinners because we are related to the first man Adam; we have inherited a sinful nature

from him. This may seem unfair at first, for if we have become sinners because of Adam's disobedience, then it

is

our fault. This is true, but God is not unfair. He will not condemn any person for being a sinner because he has

descended from Adam. He will judge a person by what that person chooses to be, when he either accepts the

Lord Jesus Christ or rejects Him. We will see more of this later. For now, we should note that we are sinners

because of our relationship to Adam.

When Adam was created he was not a sinner, but he was warned against being disobedient to God. Read

Genesis chapter 2, verse 17 and notice the words:

`in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die'.

By disobeying God and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. If he became a

sinner he would die. Adam did become a sinner, and although he lived for a very long time, in the end he died.

Read Genesis chapter 5, verse 5:

`And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died'.

The punishment for sin is death. Read the first part of Romans 6:23 :

`the wages of sin is death'.

We may say first of all then that a sinner is a person subject to death. When Adam let sin into the world,

death came in with it and passed on to all men, for all were sinners. Read Romans 5:12 and remember that the

`one man' in this verse is Adam.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Before Adam sinned he lived in the garden of Eden, a place where he was able to talk freely with God.

When he became a sinner however, he was driven out of the garden of Eden and became separated from God.

Read Genesis 3:23,24 :

`the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden ... He drove out the man'.

A sinner is therefore a person separated from God.

There are a number of ways in which God speaks of this separation in the Bible. We are all looked upon as

separated from God because:



we are unrighteous



we are enemies of God

and we are also





(c)  we are servants of sin

subject to death.



(d) we are debtors

All this helps us to understand how great is our need of the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation for us. How

thankful we should be that He has delivered us from all this.