God’s law of justice is absolute. The law, itself, is without mercy. Deuteronomy 19:21, “Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” When God created the perfect man Adam, Adam was given a law forbidding him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If he ate that fruit, he would surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
Therefore, when Adam did eat from that tree, he lost his perfection and he (and all of his posterity) received the death sentence. Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.”
Being condemned and sent out of Eden, Adam could not produce perfect children. Therefore all of his children, at the moment of their conceptions, came under the same death sentence. In order to redeem Adam and his posterity from death, the law of justice would require another perfect man to take Adam’s death sentence upon himself. Jesus gave up his spiritual existence to become a human substitute for Adam. (Hebrews 2:7-9)
The one sin committed by Adam can never be forgiven. Justice holds claim on one perfect human life that was forfeited by disobedience. Jesus came into the world perfect. Being a perfect man, he had the right to everlasting life as was promised to Adam. Christ sacrificed his human perfection, the just (Jesus) for the unjust (Adam), and in doing so, Jesus ransomed Adam and his posterity from the grave.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Romans 5:18, “Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men (the living and the dead) unto justification of life.”
In order to satisfy the demand of justice against Adam, the man Christ Jesus sacrificed his humanity. Because he did this, he was given a new spiritual nature above all others. (Philippians 2:8-9) With this sacrifice (death), he also purchased all of humanity (Adam’s children) and has saved mankind.
This salvation will be made known in God’s time. I Timothy 2:3-6, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
