In Romans chapter 5, verse 12, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul says something rather perplexing. He wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

He’s talking about Adam here. We read in the book of Genesis that Adam, our first father, sinned in the Garden of Eden when he ate the forbidden fruit. Prior to that, God had told him that if he ate the forbidden fruit, he would surely die. Yet Adam heeded neither the commandment nor the warning and ate anyways. And in eating that forbidden fruit, sin entered into the human race and, along with it, the curse of death. Adam didn’t die immediately, but as God had told him, he would surely die, and die he eventually did.

But here’s the perplexing part. Death didn’t stop with Adam. No, the Bible says here in Romans 5 that death spread to all men, which includes you and me. And here’s the biblical reason given:  death spread to all men because all sinned. Notice that past tense of the verb “sin” there:  because all sinned. It doesn’t say present tense “because all sin.” And it doesn’t say future tense “because all will sin.” No, it says past tense, because all sinned. Death spread to all men because all sinned.

Why in the world does it say that? Well, the answer is that when Adam sinned, we all sinned with him. He stood as our representative head or federal head. And when he sinned, we sinned also. His sin was accounted to us. That’s why we are born sinners and then heap on our own sin. That’s why we are born prone to death.

Beloved, our sin is way more deep-seated than we ever realized. That’s why we need a savior so much more than we ever thought. And praise God, Jesus Christ is that savior! May you turn to Christ, the only one who can save you from the curse of sin and death.

Change begins in you!