That's one of the reasons I cannot accept the idea that this text is teaching that all of mankind is born sinful because of Adam.
There is no denying that only those who believe in Christ are made righteous by Him.
That would mean that His obedience is less effective than Adam's sin, if indeed everyone is born sinful, but only some are made righteous. (Only those who believe)
You are actually arguing with the doctrine of imputation, and seem to be misunderstanding of it as well.
When Adam sinned, that sin was imputed to his offspring, and thus corrupted all of mankind through sonship. Man became in a state of depravity and his nature was deemed sinful by God.
What I am getting from your posts is that you believe each man willfully chooses to sin, and thus becomes a sinner. The problem with such a doctrine is that you are completely looking over the internal and judging everything by externals. The internal state of a man always precedes the external, and is what produces fruit in a man's life. Because Adam sinned, we see in everyday life that the fruit produced by man is sin, it is not of innocence, which is what Adam's nature consisted of before the fall. Romans 3:9-18 tells us that all men, Jew or Greek, are
under sin. The word "under" infers that we, by nature, conform to the law of sin, which would point towards a nature of sin. Because we inherited the nature from Adam, we all conform to that nature, and produce sin. We cannot choose to sin before we incline ourselves towards that sin, and the reason we are able to do so now is because that inclination was given to us by birth through Adam, and we are all sons of Adam, as stated in Romans 5:19.
The idea that everyone is gulity because of Adam is actually contrary to Scripture.
Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him."
Your hermaneutic here is quite poor. This has nothing to do with inherent sin, but of personal sin. It is correct to say that I will not be sent to hell because Adam ate of the fruit. For his sin is his alone when it comes to the judgement of God. But in no way does this nullify the fact that his sin was the cause of the sin of the entire world. I would be sent to hell for my own personal sin, if it was not for the imputation of Christ's righteousness to my account. But Adam was the root in causing my sin and the sin of the whole world.
Isaiah 53:6 "We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all."
Once again, you are taking personal responsibility out of the text. We are all held individually responsible, no one is denying this. This text has nothing to do with the imputation of Adam's sin to the rest of the world. For we are not judged by his sin, but by our sin which comes from the nature in which we inherited from him.
Psalm 22:9-10 "Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.
From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God."
I would like to know the purpose in this quote...If you are trying to say that David was not born with a sin nature then this text really does nothing for you. David had the Spirit of God in him, and was chosen by God. In no way does this nullify that he was corrupt and in need of God and atonement for his sins?
Matthew 18:3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
(How could this be if we are born sinful?)
Here you are giving all responsiblity to man and leaving no room for the Spirit. Is it not possible, that through this passage, the Spirit could work in a life and regenerate them, that they may become children of God?
Ephesians 2:1-3
1And you were
dead in your trespasses and sins,
2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3Among them we too
all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
We are, by nature, sinful.
One thing I think you are missing is the idea of being a son. We are sons of Adam. We were born of Adam, and thus inherited his sin. You can draw a parallel here to prove this. By the washing of regeneration, we were "born again". This is why we may call ourselves "sons of God", because we were born unto Him. Thus, we now have to wills, two natures warring at eachother inside of ourselves.
If you deny the doctrine of imputation, in that we are sons of Adam and inherited his sin nature, then indirectly, you are denying the parallel, that we are sons of God, and have inherited His nature. I know you do not disagree with inheritance of the nature of God, so why do you disagree with the inheritance of the nature of Adam? It is the most logical and biblically-agreeing view of sin.
