SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:12, 19

(Romans 5:12) By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men/.

Whenever man sees clearly the alternative between right and wrong and deliberately chooses wrong, something dies in his soul. In addition, the more clearly the issue is seen, the more fatal in the choice of the wrong. Because the wrong choice of our first parents was made in spite of maximum opportunity to do God’s will, there was maximum tragedy in the soul.

This sin not only affected our first parents, but the evil consequences of this wrong choice have entered tragically into the lives of all men. God chose to bind our world together with interacting bonds of mutual influence. "None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself" (Romans 14:7) We lift others when we rise, and we drag our friends down when we fall. In a world of mutual influence, we could not have one without the other.

Our first parents sinned and fell from their high level of holiness. The serious nature of that fall is shown by the language with which the Bible describes it. The fall brought death to man-----both physical death and also that deeper tragedy of separation from God, which the Scripture call spiritual death.

The effects of that most serious of all wrong choices was most widespread in its influence for ill. The Word of God makes clear the tragic extent of that tragic choice. By one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Sinning, even in its most private forms, is like putting poison into a city’s water supply. Eventually everyone is worse for the pollution.