Q. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam extended to himself and his future generations since all humanity descended from him. All mankind has sinned in Adam and fell with him in his first transgression.
Commentary
The catechism now states one of the most important truths in all of Scripture, that Adam acted for more than himself. The covenant being made with Adam extended to himself and his future generations. When God entered into the covenant of works with Adam, He dealt with him not as a private person but as the head and representative of the whole human race. Adam stood in our place. Had he obeyed, the life he secured would have belonged to all whom he represented; because he sinned, the guilt and ruin of that sin fall upon all who descend from him by ordinary generation. This is called federal headship, and without it neither the fall nor the work of Christ can be understood.
So the catechism concludes that all mankind has sinned in Adam and fell with him in his first transgression. This is not merely that we imitate Adam’s sin, though we do, nor only that we inherit a corrupt nature from him, though we do that as well. Scripture teaches that we actually sinned in him, our representative, so that his guilt is reckoned as ours. As Paul writes, “death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12), and again, “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). The parallel he draws is exact: “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The same principle of representation that condemns us in Adam saves us in Christ.
Some recoil at this, thinking it unjust to be held accountable for another man’s sin. Yet the very principle that troubles us in Adam is the principle that rescues us in Christ. If we will not be represented by Adam, neither can we be represented by Christ, and we would be left to stand or fall on our own obedience, which has already failed. Far better to receive the testimony of Scripture, to confess our guilt in Adam honestly, and to flee to the last Adam, whose one act of righteousness brings justification and life to all who are united to Him by faith.
Scripture Proofs
“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).
“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18–19).
“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
6.2: Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.
6.3: They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.