March 18^th, one week from next Tuesday, is Primary Election Day in Illinois. If this year is like most “off year” primary elections, about 1,600,000 citizens will vote. This is about 22.5% of the 7,300,000 registered voters in our State.

Pat Quinn will be the Democrat candidate for Governor; and, either Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard, Bruce Rauner, or Dan Rutherford will become the Republican nominee. Both Democrats and Republicans (and a few Independents) will elect candidates to run for several other Offices.

Have you ever thought how great it would be if you could elect a person who would represent you perfectly? Someone who is for everything you are for and against everything you are against; someone who thinks exactly like you think and will always vote exactly the same way that you would vote on every issue.

Impossible? Of course it is… unless, God Himself would design that person to represent you.

In the case of Adam, that is exactly what God did! God created Adam and designed him to not only perfectly represent you; but, to perfectly represent every human who would ever live!

Why did God do this? HE did this because HE chose Adam to be the “Federal Head” of the human race. “Federalism” is the idea of government where one person is chosen to represent others. Our National government was originally designed to operate as a Federal Republic.

Have you ever wondered how our founding Fathers chose that system of government? They got that from John Calvin who reorganized the government of Geneva Switzerland to operate on that principle. Where did John Calvin get that idea? He got it from the Bible – and specifically from the Federal Headship of Adam over the human race.

Genesis 3:11-12

¹¹ “He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

First, we must understand the biblical doctrine of Federal Headship:

Here is the deal: (listen carefully) we are all sinners because Adam voted to sin on behalf of us all; and, Adam sinned because he perfectly represented us – and we are all sinners!

That is why the Bible says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1^st Corinthians 15:22)

And, the Bible also says,  “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12)

Give me a minute here – this is really important stuff!

God created Adam as the Federal Head of the Human Race and when he was tempted to sin he did exactly what every human would do. We would have sinned; therefore, he sinned. God immediately passed the sentence of death upon all people because all have sinned.

By our very nature, we do not like this! This is God’s design and decree and the fact that we do not like it demonstrates how perfectly Adam represented us!

BUT! Remember that 1^st Corinthians 15:22 also says, “so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Just as the guilt of Adam’s sin was imputed to us, in exactly the same way the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to us and that is how God can declare us innocent and still be holy and just.

Jesus is the “Second” or “New” Adam; and, therefore HE represents us on the cross and our sins are put to death in HIM and we are made the righteousness of God in HIM! We are not; are not; are not saved because we are righteous – we are not – we are saved because HE is righteous.

“Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1^st Corinthians 15:45)

IMPUTATION: our sins are accounted to Jesus; and, when we repent of our sins and trust HIM as our Savior HIS righteousness is accounted to us.

Second, we must understand the biblical doctrine of Original Sin:

(Ligonier.org) “The doctrine of original sin teaches that people sin because we are sinners. It’s not that we are sinners because we sin, but rather, we sin because we are sinners; that is, since the fall of man, we have inherited a corrupted condition of sinfulness. We now have a sin nature. The New Testament says we are under sin; we have a disposition toward wickedness, so that we all do, in fact, commit sins because it is our nature to commit sins. But that’s not the nature that was originally given to us by God. We were originally innocent, but now the race has been plummeted into a state of corruption.”

(CARM.org) “Original sin is not a physical corruption, but a moral and spiritual corruption.  It could be compared to the Reformed Doctrine of Total Depravity which states that sin has touched all parts of what a person is:  heart, mind, soul, will, thoughts, desires, etc.”

Because Adam sinned, every one descended from him (and that is all of us) are guilty of sin from the moment we are conceived:

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalms 51:5)

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.” (Psalms 58:3)

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”             (1^st Corinthians 15:22)

* We know that humans are already sinners in the womb because some humans die in the womb and death is the penalty for sin!

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12)

¹³ “for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Romans 5:13-14)

 So what?

We are sinners because Adam, our perfect representative, sinned!

We can be saved because Jesus, the “Last Adam” represented us when HE died on the cross and took upon HIMSELF the guilt of our sin!

When we repent of our sins and trust Jesus as our Savior, the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us and we are declared to be innocent because the penalty of our sins has been paid!

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2^nd Corinthians 5:21)

Amen! I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!