The enjoyment of this blessed state could only be retained upon conditions. God laid down a law or commandment for man to obey. The penalty attached for breaking this law was, death, and a forfeiting of that blessed state which he held and enjoyed. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."-Gen. 2:15-17.
But by listening to the subtle reasoning of the Devil, man disobeyed and broke the commandment of God. And just as God had said; he died. Not a literal death of the [17] body, but a spiritual death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."-Ezek. 18:4, 20. The very moment a man sins, it separates him from God, and he dies (spiritually).
All who transgress the law of God are said to be "dead in trespasses and sins."-Eph. 2:1, 5. Thus man lost the divine image in which God had created him, and fell to the plane of sin. As a result of this, since that time, people are born in this world in man's likeness and image. See Gen. 5:3. That is, a depraved nature was inherited from our fore parents, which has passed upon the whole human family.
"The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."-Gen. 8:21.
"The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."-Psa. 58:3.
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."-Psa. 51:5.
"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one."-Job 14:1, 4.
"And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."-Eph. 2:3.
Now if a man is sinful from youth, birth, and even from conception, it is evident that he is born with the germ of sin in his heart. It is sin in "nature"-sin as a moral element, or bent to evil. If then humanity is sinful by birth, in whom could the degenerate nature have started, but in him through whom the human family fell?
Adam is the medium through whom all sin has entered the world. "Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world."-Rom. 5:12. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."-Ver. 14. "Through the offense of one many be dead."-Ver. 15. "The judgment was by one to condemnation."-Ver. 16. "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners."-Ver. 19.
Observe also that in 1 Cor. 3:1-3, Paul shows that carnality (the Adamic nature) remains in the heart after spiritual birth, which is positive proof that it is inherited; for justification removes all acquired sin. This inherited nature is styled in the scriptures, "besetting sin" (Heb. 12:1), "body of sin," the "old man" (Rom. 6:6), "flesh" (Gal. 5:17, 18; Rom. 8:7-9), "carnal mind" (Rom. 8:7), "carnality" (1 Cor. 3:1-3), "works of the Devil" (1 John 3:8), "uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1).
Sins, in the plural, are those actual transgressions which men commit from the years of accountability on. David cried unto the Lord, "Blot out my transgressions." From the foregoing we clearly see that sin exists in the world in two forms: inherited sin, and actual transgressions.