Why are all people sinners and separated from God?
All people are sinners because they are born of Adam’s lineage, not merely because they commit sinful acts. Having fallen short of God’s glory, the whole human race is spiritually dead and separated from God by a vast gulf, a condition inherited from Adam and requiring Christ’s sacrificial death.
Les teaches that this is a concept many people do not like to face: all have fallen short of God’s glory, are sinners by virtue of having been born from Adam, and are separated from God. There is a vast gulf between man and God, all because of Adam. It is not that we are sinners because we sin; it is what we have done that does not make us sinners. Rather, we sin because we are sinners, and we are sinners because we are born of Adam’s lineage. Christ died not just for Saul or Israel, but for the whole human race. Since the whole human race needed His sacrificial death, it follows that the whole human race was dead in sin. Those who try to make eternal life theirs by works deny this, refusing to admit they are totally separated from God and dead spiritually, still thinking their efforts will merit favor with God.