Man was created in the image of God.  Knowledge and perfect holiness were imprest upon the very nature and faculties of his soul.  He had constant access to his Maker, and enjoyed free communion with Him, on the ground of his spotless moral rectitude.  But, alas! the glorious diadem is broken; the crown of righteousness is fallen.  Man’s purity is gone, and his happiness is forfeited.  “There is none righteous; no, not one.”  “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  But the ruin is not hopeless.  What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ.  His blood redeems us from the bondage, and His gospel gives us back the forfeited inheritance.  “For if, through the offense of one, many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”  Let us consider, first, the corruption and condemnation of man; and secondly, his gracious restoration to the favor of his offended God.

I. To find the cause of man’s corruption and condemnation, we must go back to Eden.  The eating of the “forbidden tree” was “the offense of one,” in consequence of which “many are dead.”  This was the “sin,” the act of “disobedience,” which “brought death into the world, and all our wo.”  It was the greatest ingratitude to the divine bounty, and the boldest rebellion against the divine sovereignty.  The royalty of God was contemned; the riches of His goodness slighted; and His most desperate enemy preferred before Him, as if he were a wiser counsellor than infinite wisdom.  Thus man joined in league with hell against heaven; with demons of the bottomless pit against the almighty maker and benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to His command and the glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead of the creator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all the wicked and abominable passions.  How is the “noble vine,” which was planted “wholly a right seed,” “turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine”!

Who can look for pure water from such a fountain?  “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”  All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by sin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal; the conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear.  Man is a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking iniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go.  His heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy, covetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.