When Satan seeks to destroy God’s plan he attacks the foundations. Foundations like God is love. And that it is not God’s will that any should perish. But, that all men would be saved. And even that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever will believe in Him should not perish. But, would have eternal life.

He uses any and all means to destroy the place where we should be standing so that it appears to shift and falter. But, it’s only by his deceptions it appears to. Because God’s foundations never falter.

Satan’s greatest work was to set in the place of God’s gospel the doctrines of devils. Doctrines that cause men to accept these counterfeit beliefs in place of the foundations God laid down for us. Foundations that are meant to sustain us in times of our greatest trial. As well as the best of times.

In this message, and citing the correct understanding of Rom.5:12-14, I will show how original sin and sin nature are such devilish foundational doctrines brought by Satan’s emissaries. Used by his orators in cunning ways in an attempt to destroy the foundation we find in God’s word. By perverting truths found in the plain language of the scriptures. To make them incomprehensible to those who would otherwise be saved by them.

Making them so blind that they can not see the truth. Even when it is presented to them from the plain language of the Bible. Blinded as Paul said by this strong delusion that is the gnostic antichrist doctrine of original sin and sin nature.

Foundational doctrines like those found in the Genesis account, when in the creation of Adam and Eve in the garden, God said it was very good. Doctrines that are necessary for building a foundation that is made of the rock. Rather than sand. As Jesus explains in Mt.7.

Foundations upon which if we will believe what the scriptures plainly say we come to realize that it was because Adam was natural and not spiritual when God made him. That leads us toward true understanding that the reason Jesus came had nothing to do with paying a penalty for sin. Or dying in our place.

Because no payment of a penalty for sin was required by God for Him to be able to love and forgive us. Jesus showed us this when He said to people during His time here on earth living as a man that “Thy sins are forgiven thee. Now go and sin no more.” How could He do this before He died on the cross if His death was necessary to pay the penalty for sin for people to be forgiven?

It is because Jesus’ death has only to do with making it possible for natural men to become spirit. A creation event that joins us to God for eternity. One that brings us into a relationship with Him that can never be broken. As Paul taught in Rom.8 when he said, “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We see this in the Genesis account when God says He made man in His image and likeness. Adding in Gen.2:7 that man is a body made from the elements, the “dust of the ground”, with air breathed into his nostrils that made him a “living soul”. Not a living spirit as so many have been taught to believe.

Paul confirming this in 1Cor.15:45-48 saying, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual….”

The “afterward” Paul speaks of here is a reference to Jesus’ teaching in John3 saying that men need to be born again. Because He said what is born of the flesh is only flesh. And only what is born of the Spirit of God is spirit. And that these who are made spirit by the new birth are the only people who will enter the kingdom of God.

By this and more a great heresy has been the foundations the church is built upon since Constantine legalized Christianity. And Augustine’s teachings were codified to the new religion. One that has become her foundation for all she believes and teaches. The heresy of Gnosticism that causes men to pervert the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. And its antichrist effect upon their progeny.

Also perverting Paul’s gospel to mean that all die “because all sinned.” When the truth is that Paul taught that it was only Adam and Eve whose sin was followed by death.

Saying in Rom.5:12-14 that for the rest of mankind it was death that came to mankind first, then sin for those who did sin. Knowing that not everyone has sinned. To see this we will read and break down what Paul said here in these verses.

I will be reading from the KJV. And even though there may be difficulty for some to understand every word used in the KJV. Its translation of this very important part of scripture is closer than any other to actually translating the efho found in the latter part of the verse.

It is for this reason I recommend and use the KJV. Because it is a key passage that false teachers use and butcher in an exercise to put forward the false teaching called original sin and sin nature.

In vs.12 Paul writes, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. Here we see that through Adam sin came into the world.

The sin Paul references here was Adam’s sin of eating the fruit was now in the world. Nothing more. And that after he sinned he died. No one else. At least not yet. He was not saying Adam’s sin was passed to all men.

We know this because Paul follows this up saying that the death that came to Adam is what passed to his progeny. So for the rest of mankind it was death first then sin. Not the other way around as it was for Adam and Eve. This is very important to know and keep in mind as we read further in these verses.

Paul confirms this by stating at the end of this verse, “for that all have sinned.” The preposition “For that”, efho in Greek, is a phrase that when literally translated means of which or upon which. And being masculine obviously points to the word death, thanatos in Greek, that passed to all men.

So here we see death being present with men before men sin. This means that for everyone after Adam and Eve death came to them first, and upon which death those who sinned did sin. And not the other way around as it was for Adam and Eve.

I searched through several commentaries to find if any of them gave this interpretation of the passage. And found one written by Godet where he at least makes mention of a few men who prescribed to this interpretation.

He mentions that one option is to interpret this to mean that “The death of all individual men arises solely from Adam’s sin.” In this he is correct in that death passed to all men as Rom.5:12 says and not sin. And that this death is present in men when all who sin do sin.

Paul is not saying that all men sin. Neither is he saying that men sin because of death. He is simply showing that death is present in man since Adam sinned. And that this death that passed to all men did so not through imputation. Nor did it happen by inheritance. But, only that it has happened.

To know why we need to look to the Genesis account. Because it is there we find that the reason for death in all men is the same reason for death in the first man Adam. And God says that reason is because “the man has become as one of us to know good and evil.”

Frederic Godet makes the mistake of depending upon his belief in Augustine’s doctrines to arrive at his conclusions about why Paul used efho in describing the relationship between death and sin. When he should have simply believed the plain language Paul used here.

Because if he had he would have realized another option for interpreting this passage. One that would have opened his eyes to the truth that imputed and inherent sin comes from the construct made up of gnostic material. But, at least he mentioned this alternative interpretation. Others do not even do that.

The importance of this being correctly understood by those who want to know God and His salvation can not be overstated. Because it is the difference between knowing the truth or believing a lie. It is the difference between actually being saved or being deceived and never knowing the salvation the Biblical Jesus came to provide for us.

The only relationship between sin and death from Adam is that death reigns over all mankind. And if a man chooses to sin it is independent of this death. Death does not cause men to sin. Otherwise what caused Adam to sin?

So when we read that under the law in the Old Testament where Ezekiel says to Israel, “The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.” We see this is something different from what Paul says happened when Adam sinned.

Here we see that even under the law where sin is imputed as Paul said in Rom.5:13. Imputation of sin from one person to another did not happen. But, that every man under the law was accountable only for his own sin. Making Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, the pillars of church doctrine, false teachers in regard to this matter.

But, there is more to be concerned with here for those who desire to know the Biblical Jesus and His salvation. And that is what happens to our understanding of the Bible when we believe the heresy taught by men who accepted a gnostic gospel of imputation and inheritance of sin.

They have tried to destroy the foundations and replace them with doctrine that is actually the opposite from Biblical doctrine. Saying that because the law says the soul that sinneth it shall die this must also be true from the beginning when Adam sinned. Adding the very unBiblical belief that one man’s sin(Adam’s) is imputed to another man.

But, Paul shows this to be false teaching when he writes in vs.13 that even though sin was in the world before the law was given through Moses. Those sins that were in the world before the law was given through Moses were not imputed to anyone, not even the man who committed the sin, because there was no law.

Paul tells us here that the reason Adam and the rest of mankind die has nothing to do with the imputation or inheritance of sin. Not Adam’s sin. Nor anyone else’s before the law was given to Israel through Moses.

Concluding in vs.14 that death reigns, in other words people still died, even those who had not sinned. This shows that not only was Adam’s sin not the reason that all men die. But, also that sin itself has nothing to do with why men die.

So Paul is showing us here in Rom.5:12-14 what is the opposite from what the doctrine of original sin and sin nature does. That it is death’s reign that resulted from men no longer having access to the tree of life that causes men to die. And not sin’s reign that causes death as the false teachers I referenced earlier falsely proclaimed.

This is the foundation of God that standeth sure as Paul proclaimed. Saying in Eph.2 that a true and saving faith is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

With this foundation we can stand firm in our salvation. Rejecting the gnostic heresy taught by so many. Knowing that the real reason men die is because they can not eat from the tree of life. This is why Paul said in Rom.5:12-14 death came to Adam. And this is what Paul said has brought death to all of mankind.

Because God caused men to leave the garden where he could eat from the tree of life that kept their mortality from doing what mortality does. Just as He told Adam He would after he attained the knowledge of good and evil. Because now he was equipped to face a world where death reigned. Because he now had the ability to discern between good and evil that Adam did not have when God made him.

So it was not because Adam’s sin was imputed to him or anyone else. And not because his sin was inherited by anyone else. But, because as God said in Gen.3:22 Adam had become more like God to know good and evil.

And just as it is at any other time it is a good thing that Adam became more like God. And because it was a good thing Adam’s death was not a punishment for his sin. Rather, it was a good thing. A blessing. In disguise for those who love not the truth. But, not disguised for those who know our God and love His truth.

Who do not read into the scriptures the false doctrine of original sin and sin nature. But, instead let the scriptures mean what they plainly say. That this blessing would bring all men to a place where they could choose of their God given free will, a free will that these false doctrines deny men have, whether to trust in God, or not trust in God. And that this trust would be based upon the ability to discern between good and evil man received by Adam eating the fruit.

Knowing that because God loves all men He would one day join with us in our mortality. And in our death. So that as Heb.2 tells us He could experience everything that every man does. And because of this he is able to succour and empathize with them that are tempted.

And so that by conquering death on our behalf by the resurrection, men could join with Jesus in eternal life and immortality. Eternal life now by a spirit created in us when we are born again. And immortality at the resurrection.

All this the result of a choice made by our God given free will so that the life that is gotten is because of a relationship with God based on love. Because love is a choice.

And if you have not yet made this choice and have heard and believed the message I have shared with you here. And want to be made a child of God by a spirit created in you that joins you to Him for eternity. Then do as Paul taught we must in Rom.10:9,10.

Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. And you will be saved. Made a child of God now and given eternal life. And given immortality at the resurrection.

Do this and you will know God’s love that keeps you unto the day of redemption. Love that helps you deal with the world we live in in a different and beautiful way. Do this and the fear of death will not hold the power over you it once did. Because you will know the life and the love of God that conquered death on our behalf. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!