The Christadelphian June 1921, C.C. Walker

The article by bro Robert Roberts from 1869 referred to is mis-quoted by those who would misrepresent bro Roberts views on the subject by selectively quoting him. See the original article by bro Roberts, "The Relation of Jesus to the Law of Sin and Death" (The Christadelphian March 1869) and his further explanation of his meaning as reproduced by bro John Carter. 

“The Nature of Man and the Sacrifice of Christ”

Brother P. writes:—Dear Brother Walker,—Some time ago there was placed in my hand a book entitled The Nature and Sacrifice of Christ, by J. J. Hadley. I was not aware at that moment of any difference on the part of any brethren on this great subject. But after I had read the book I was asked my opinion on it, when I replied, “I think The Slain Lamb, by brother R. Roberts, was in advance of it for truth.” But some of us have just had a copy of the following placed in our hands. It is an exact copy that I enclose. I might state that I am not contending upon this, but thought I would like to pass it on to you for your perusal and correction as editor of our monthly journal. I have been given to understand this was answered in brother Roberts’ younger days. Hoping that the time is not far distant for the last Adam to return.—Yours sincerely, P.

Was the Nature of Adam changed after he sinned in Eden?—A reply by brother Roberts to a correspondent who imagined there was a change in the nature of Adam after he sinned in Eden.—Taken from The Ambassador, March, 1869.

There is a misapprehension lurking under the proposition we are combating. Our firend imagines there was a change in the nature of Adam when he became disobedient. There is no evidence of this whatever, and the presumption and evidence are entirely contrary to it. There was a change in Adam’s relation to his maker, but not in the nature of his organization. What are the facts? He was formed from the dust a living soul or natural body. His mental constitution gave him moral relation to God. He was given a law to observe: this he disobeyed, and sentence was passed upon him, that he (the disobedient living soul) should return to mother earth. What was the difference between his position before disobedience and his position after? Simply this, that in the one case he was a living soul or natural body on probation for immortality; and in the other he was a living soul or natural body under sentence of death. He was a living soul or natural body in both cases.

The phrase, “sin in the flesh,” is metonymical (a metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word is put for another related to it, as the effect for the cause). It is not expressive of a literal element or principle pervading the physical organization. Literal sin is disobedience, or the act of rebellion. The impulses which led to this reside in the flesh, and therefore come to be called by the name of the act to which they give birth. In determining first principles we must be accurate in our conceptions. The impulses which lead to sin existed in Adam before disobedience as much as they did afterwards, else disobedience would not have occurred. The impulses are in their own place legitimate enough.

We can judge of this by experience, because the human nature under discussion is the human nature we have upon ourselves, and see in operation around us. There is no such thing as essential evil or sin. Evil and sin are relative terms. There is no propensity but subserves a good purpose in its own place. Sin is forbidden use; evil, interference with desired conditions as a punishment of sin, sometimes flowing out of sin itself. The difficulty is to keep the impulses in the legitimate channel. This difficulty is insuperable so far as a perfect righteousness is concerned. A child comes into the world with impulses, but no knowledge or experience to guide the action of them. The result is that folly is bound up in the heart of a child which the judicious administration of the rod will help to take out of him (Prov. 22:15).

For the same reason there liveth not a man that (at some time of his life) sinneth not. The reason is to some extent applicable to Adam. He was in a state of innocency or non-experience. Obedience seemed the natural thing till there was temptation. When good results were presented to his mind as the effect of disobedience, his want of experience left his mind a prey to the impulses excited by the prospect. Had he known by experience that the path of disobedience was a path of thorns and death he might have resisted the temptation.

Remarks.—The estate of Adam before he sinned provides a first-class theological battle-ground on which great wars of words have been fought, with singularly little resultant illumination of mind and comfort of soul. Brother Roberts became much more conservative on this matter in after years, and so does everyone who, like him, has a great respect for the Word of God. Some of his latest utterances on the matter are found in the record of his travels a year or two before his death. In Melbourne and Sydney there has been much controversy on the subject. In 1896 in Melbourne brother Roberts encountered a certain Mr. Cornish, and was moved to publish the following “Synopsis of the Spirit’s Teaching Concerning the Death of Christ.” It necessarily touches on the original estate of Adam and the entry of sin and death into the world. Here is the extract from The Christadelphian, 1896, pp. 339–341.

The Nature of Man and the Sacrifice of Christ

1.   —That death entered the world of mankind by Adam’s disobedience. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. 5:12). “In (by or through) Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22). “Through the offence of one many are dead” (Rom. 5:15).

2.   —The death came by decree extraneously to the nature bestowed upon Adam in Eden, and was not inherent in him before sentence. “God made man in his own image . . . a living soul (a body of life) . . . very good“ (Gen. 1:27: 2:7: 1:31). “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife . . . unto dust shall thou return” (Gen. 3:17, 19).

3.   —Since that time, death has been a bodily law.—“The body is dead because of sin” (Rom. 8:10). “The law of sin in my members . . . the body of this death” (Rom. 7:23, 24). “This mortal . . . we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened” (1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:4). “Having the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).

4.   —The human body is therefore a body of death requiring redemption.—“Waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). “He shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His own glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). “This mortal (body) must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53).

5.   —That the flesh resulting from the condemnation of human nature to death because of sin, has no good in itself, but requires to be illuminated from the outside.—“In me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). “Sin dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:20). “The law of sin which is in my members” (7:23). “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights” (James 1:17). “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts” (Matt. 15:19). “He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:8). “Put off the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22).

6.   —That God’s method for the return of sinful man to favour required and appointed the putting to death of man’s condemned and evil nature in a representative man of spotless character, whom he should provide, to declare and uphold the righteousness of God, as the first condition of restoration, that he might be just while justifying the unjust, who should believingly approach through him in humility, confession, and reformation.—“God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy that having the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14), “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body to the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Rom. 6:6). “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the World” (Jno. 16:33). “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

7.   —That the death of Christ was by God’s own appointment, and not by human accident, though brought about by human instrumentality. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). “Him being delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). “Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27). “No man taketh it—my life—from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (Jno. 10:18).

8.   —That the death of Christ was not a mere martyrdom. but an element in the process of reconciliation.—“You that sometimes were alienated in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death” (Col. 1:21). “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10). “He was wounded for our transgressions: He was bruised for our iniquity: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). “I lay down my life for my sheep” (Jno. 10:15). “Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, let us draw near” (Heb. 10:20).

9.   —That the shedding of his blood was essential for our salvation. “Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:9). “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even for the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). “This is the new covenant in my blood, shed for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (Jno. 1:29). “Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev. 1:5). “Have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14).

10. —That Christ was himself saved in the Redemption he wrought out for us. “In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:7–9). “Joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). “By his own blood he entered once unto the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect, etc.” (Heb. 13:20).

11. —That as the anti-typical High Priest, it was necessary that he should offer for himself as well as for those whom he represented—“And by reason hereof, he ought as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, etc.” (Heb. 5:3). “Wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer” (Heb. 8:3). “Through the Eternal Spirit, he offered himself without spot unto God” (Heb. 9:14). “Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’s: for this he did once when he offered up himself” (Heb. 7:27). “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens (that is, the symbols employed under the law), should be purified with these (Mosaic sacrifices), but the heavenly things themselves (that is, Christ who is the substance prefigured in the law), with better sacrifices than these” (that is, the sacrifice of Christ—Heb. 9:23).