Principles from Rom 8:3: The Law Demanded Perfection but Provided Rebound; Condemned at Birth: a Masterstroke of Grace: Imputation of Adam’s Original Sin

Independence Day Reading: Excerpts from an article by:
Lossing, B. J.  “John Adams.”  In Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence.  New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, Publishers, 1848.  Reprint, Aledo, Texas: WallBuilder Press, 2007, 27‑32.

19.	Here are some principles that we can draw from 	verse 3:
1)	The Law was the revelation to Israel of the divine standards to which each person was held accountable.
2)	These standards were absolutes: they did not vary, adjust, conform, or bend to accommodate human deviations from them.
3)	The Law was therefore not designed or intended to provide a means of salvation; it was designed to present a stark contrast between the thinking of a righteous God and that of fallen humanity.
4)	Therefore, the Law itself is not weak but was made weak by the fact that sinful flesh is incapable of keeping it.
5)	Thus the duty of the Law was not to provide salvation but rather to point the way to salvation.
6)	In the sight of perfect God all of us have both spot and blemish which means we are condemned by the righteous standards of the perfect God of the universe.
7)	To illustrate our imperfections and to emphasize the necessity of a perfect substitute that could be sacrificed on our behalf, the Law included Levitical offerings.
8)	Among the salvation offerings, the burnt and peace offerings required an animal sacrifice and the Law stipulated that it be “without spot or blemish.”
9)	The phrase “without spot” is the Hebrew word <ym!T* tamim and means “perfect.”  The “spot” references “sin” and when the animal was “without spot” it was considered perfect.  The word “blemish” is the Hebrew word <Wam m’um and refers to defects and therefore it was to be “without defects.”
10)	The doctrine taught by these requirements is that the Messiah would be without sin, and therefore impeccable, and without defect, and therefore perfect.
11)	By placing his hands on the animal’s head the one bringing the offering understood that his sins were symbolically transferred to the sacrificial animal.
12)	This communicated that Messiah would be made sin by a judicial imputation.  The slaying of the animal taught that the offerer’s sins would be judged in Messiah.
13)	So what the Law was unable to do because of the weakness of human flesh, God did through the substitutionary, sacrificial, spiritual death of His Son.
14)	The impeccability of Messiah was an imperative if salvation was to be accomplished, therefore, we learn that He entered history in the likeness of sinful flesh but without the genetically formed sinful nature or the imputed sin of Adam.
15)	God made a critical decision in eternity past that at first glance seems harsh but in retrospect is a masterstroke of grace: He decreed to impute to every person at physical birth the original the sin of Adam.
16)	Since we are Adam’s direct descendants then we were seminally in Adam when he sinned.  Therefore, since we are condemned by the imputation of Adam’s sin then our personal sins may be imputed to Jesus Christ.
17)	This is an extremely important doctrine that helps explain the reason for making rebound available as a problem-solving device for sin recovery.
18)	Our sins were judged in Christ, yet since we commit them they must be dealt with by divine justice and this is accomplished by confession followed by forgiveness.