Galatians 4:4-6 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!”
We have already seen that everyone born into the earth is born of God and has the life and light of God in their spirits. But at the same time however, everyone born into the earth is also born under the law. Someone said but I though only the Jews were under the law. The Jews were under the Law of Moses, but the whole world is under the law of God. If you read the context of the above quoted passage of scripture you will see that the apostle Paul is writing to gentile believers, not Jewish believers. And so we see in this passage that Paul reveals to us that all of us were under the law, Jews and gentiles alike, and that Jesus has redeemed all of us who were under the law, so that all of us might receive adoption as sons.
Romans 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as through one-man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-- (13) For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. (14) Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
In order for sin to be accounted there must be a law that is transgressed. This truth is confirmed in the above quoted passage of scripture, for in this passage the apostle Paul teaches us that sin is not imputed when there is no law. In this same passage Paul also teaches us that death can only enter through sin. He concludes therefore, that sin was in the world even before the Law of Moses, because death reigned in the earth from the time of Adam. Paul goes on to say that the men who died before the Law of Moses was introduced could not have committed the same sin as Adam i.e. eat the forbidden fruit, because they no longer had access to the Garden of Eden. Paul is therefore implying that in order for sin to be in the world and for death to be able to reign, there must have been another law in place that men were transgressing.
Genesis 3:1-24 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" … (4) Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. (5) For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." … (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. … (22) Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- (23) therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. (24) So, He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
So the question is asked, what law did Jesus redeem us from and what law did Paul refer to, which existed even before the Law of Moses? The answer to that question is that the law that was in place from the time of Adam was the law of man’s conscience. Before Adam sinned, the eyes of his conscience had not yet been opened, and so he had no knowledge of good and evil. As revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, when Satan tempted Eve he mixed a lie in with some truth. The lie that he fed her, was that they would not die when they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The moment they ate that fruit however, their spirits died, just as God said it would happen. The truth that Satan fed her was that when they ate the fruit that their eyes would be opened and they would then have knowledge of good and evil. We know that this part was true, because in this passage God said that after man had eaten the fruit he had become like God, knowing good and evil. It was the eyes of man’s conscience that were opened on that day, because man’s conscience is given to him to know to choose good and reject evil. And so we see that whenever man chooses to disobey his conscience, he transgresses the laws of God. This is why God’s laws were in place from the time of Adam. This is why man sinned even before the Law of Moses, and this is why death has reigned in man from Adam until now, even over those who have no knowledge of the Law of Moses.
Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture God told Adam that he would die in the day that he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that’s exactly what happened. Both Adam and Eve’s spirits died on the day that they ate of the fruit. I want you to notice that Adam and Eve were not under grace, but rather they were under law i.e. the law quoted above. And so we see a spiritual truth revealed in this passage, i.e. when sin is committed under law it instantly produces spiritual death. We have already seen that the whole world is born under law, and so the same principle applies to everyone, i.e. the moment they commit sin their spirits die. It is important to note that spiritual death can only occur when one commits sin. There is no such thing as spiritual death inherited through the original sin that Adam committed. And so the reason that death ultimately spread to all men, is because all men sinned. The Holy Spirit clearly teaches us in the earlier quoted passage that the reason death spread to all men is because all sinned, not because one man sinned. Sin entered the world through the sin of one man and death through that sin, but nevertheless death could only spread to men that sinned.
Michael E.B. Maher
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