REEVES: I'd go to Romans 5 verses 12 to 21. And in Romans 5, you see that Paul puts all
of humanity under two men. This is how humanity works. He doesn't think that humanity consists
of a vast throng of individuals where each individual determines their destiny. That's
simply not how things work. He sees that you have an old humanity under the headship of Adam.
And so, when Adam sins, all his family who are found in him, who are of his seed,
they share his destiny, they share his status, they share his character. And so, all who are born
in Adam are born guilty, are born with a tendency like Adam to sin,
meaning that you simply don't have the ability to try to act your way out of that problem. Your
only hope is for you to be born again under the headship of the other man, the last Adam, Christ.
And when you are born again, united to Christ, you find now
you share His status. You have His Spirit in you who brings you to share His character.
So, I think this idea of each individual determining their own destiny is a very modern
individualistic reading of ourselves that doesn't square with the Bible. And
Augustine brought up something excellent on this where he having to debate on this issue
over Pelagianism, and he said if you imagine that humanity is a vast throng of individuals,
that sin is not an inherited thing in any sense, then what do you do with the child who is born
with HIV or who's born handicapped? If we're not inheriting anything, a child is born blind, then
you have to say if we're not inheriting anything, that child is born blind because of its own sin,
which is a malicious thing to say. Instead we see ... no, no, the very origins of the problems
of humanity stem back to Adam and we're reaping the consequences of Adam in our lives every day.
NICHOLS: I think the headship in the federal role of Christ is very crucial to seeing that question,
and I also think it's fascinating in that description it's also the "how much more"
in Christ. And so, if the question in terms of, you know, Christ's death is enough to
account for all of our sins, there is the person ... this goes back to that wonderful
medieval text of Anselm's, Why the God-Man, and helping beloved Boso,
great name to pick for a counterpart if you want to show your view to be, you know, the better one.
But just that walking him through patiently showing who Jesus was as the God-Man. And so,
when Paul expresses it think with that beautiful expression, "Yes,
this is our condemnation, guilt, sin. death by being in Adam. How much more in Jesus Christ!"