I wrote:
>> I also strongly lean toward the view that Adam was a
>> representative head (in a way parallel to Christ's headship
>> of the church)
>> and not the ancestor of all living humans.
Adrian responded:
>Which I disagree with. I have trouble reconciling this with Romans 5, for
>starters.
How is Christ's righteousness imputed to us? - by grace through faith.
There is some act of the will on my part involved. I must willingly accept
that offer of grace. What if we make a parallel with the transmission of
sin? When I am born I am innocent (I do not mean righteous). However, at
the first opportunity I choose to be disobedient - I sin and come under the
curse of Adam which is spiritual death. Thus, Adam's curse is imputed to
me by my sharing in his sin, just as Christ's righteousness is imputed to
me by faith. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,
and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all
sinned" (Rom 5:12). My reading is that there are none who are without sin
except Christ, thus there are none who are morally righteous yet still
condemned by Adam's sin. We are condemned because we sin. Therefore I do
not understand that sin itself is something that is passed on thru direct
descent.
The question then is, why do we all sin? This is where my views get even
more speculative. It has been suggested by some that our physical desires
and drives, which were part of God's good creation enabling us to survive
and flourish as a species, became aspects of our humanity that God called
us to overcome as His image bearers. In other words, God desires that His
character be developed in us through our encounter with and overcoming of
temptation and trial (Gen 2:15-17; Gen 4:6-7). And He has not left us in
that process without providing us with His gracious power - if we choose to
accept it. This provides, I believe, a useful basis for working out a
theodicy of pain and suffering. I have found the book "Evil and the God of
Love" by John Hick to be very helpful to me in thinking through theodicy
issues.
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.edu
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
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