What is the meaning of federal headship?

How could Adam's disobedience plunge all of us into sin? Theologians from all the major branches of the Christian Church agree that Adam acted as "federal head of the human race." That is, he represented all of us, and his initial act of sin had consequences for everyone, for all time. In his letter to the Romans, Paul sums it up by saying, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Because Adam was our representative, God counted us guilty because of his sin."

The Covenant of Works is a covenant God made with Adam before the fall that promised life to him if he was obedient to Him in it. Adam failed in his obligation since he disobeyed, and broke the covenant. He sinned therefore, and brought in condemnation and death to all mankind who he had represented.

Covenant theology is based particularly on Romans 5:12–21 where Adam and Christ are compared (and contrasted) as heads of their respective races [4] . There is seen in it a unity between Adam and his race which is to be compared with that of Christ and those who are His. The Covenant of Works, it is said, was made with Adam as federal head and involves all his posterity as being in union with him. Hence, unregenerate men stand as one with Adam and therefore sinned in him, and his first sin, his disobedience, is imputed to them. This is often called ‘original sin'. By direct comparison with this, it is claimed that, through the Covenant of Grace, the righteousness of Christ, His obedience, is imputed to those (the elect) united to Him by faith. This is based on a wrong exegesis of Romans 5:18–19.

The first man was thus in a very real way the representative of his race; not indeed by any formal covenant for his posterity, of which Scripture has no trace; but by his being the divinely constituted head of it. As the father of men, he necessarily stood as charged with the interests of his posterity; from his fall, a corrupt nature became the heritage of the race, and thus death and judgment their appointed lot, the final issue no uncertain one. Thus in a real way he represented them before God; but, as I have said, not by any formal covenant on their behalf. His representative-character was grounded in what men call natural law, which is nothing but divine law, and which is both evident in nature and asserted in the plainest possible way in Scripture. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," expresses the law. "What is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." The Lord's words in the gospel fully and emphatically confirm these sayings of saints of old: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." What men now call, The principle of "heredity," is thus affirmed, and it is the whole scriptural account of the matter. The theories of a covenant with Adam for his posterity, and the imputation of his sin to them, are simply additions to Scripture, and as such, not only needless, but an obscuring of the truth, as all mere human thoughts of necessity are.

This term is often used by theologians, but they are not agreed as to its signification. It is not found in scripture. Man has derived an evil nature from Adam, but his sins are his own. Death passed upon all men because of Adam's sin, but all have sinned. Rom. 5:12.

"Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." By one man, the first Adam, sin entered into the world (not sins, but sin). And death followed, which is physical death. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," and this death has passed upon the race because of sin. The margin of the authorized version contains a statement which is responsible for a very unscriptural teaching. The margin states "in whom all have sinned"; upon this it has been taught that the guilt of Adam has been imputed to all. This is not correct. We are not responsible for the sin of Adam nor are we held responsible by God for a sinful nature; we are responsible for the outworking of that nature, that is for our own sins. The wicked dead, those whose sins were not taken away, because they believed not, will not be judged for having had a sinful nature, but solely according to their works (Revelation 20:12). Death comes upon us on account of our sins, as it is stated in this verse "death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.

187 You ought to know that many Christians do not believe in the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin to other men as forming part of original sin, and only believe in transmitted consequences through their birth of Adam's race.

The distinction between imputed transgression, and indwelling corruption, Mr. N. proceeds to illustrate as follows: "The children of an exile in Siberia, though innocent of rebellion themselves, might yet be involved in all the penalties of their parent, and be punished for, and on account of him. Even so, the one transgression of Adam in the garden, exposes all his posterity to be treated by God as transgressors, on account of him. The penalty of death would still have impended over them, even though they could have been born pure as angels in themselves."

Combining this with the inference from Hosea in Romans 5:14, Adam's first sin, it is argued, is imputed to the race because of their oneness with Adam. Therefore, on the basis of the Covenant of Works, in Adam all men have broken the law. In a comparison made with Hebrews 7:5, all sinned in his loins. It is perfectly true of course that Adam sinned and had fallen before he had any descendants, but the point is that the whole of his race is identified with him as being in the same sinful state that he was now in after the fall. The law, rightly applied, proves this as a fact (see e.g. Rom. 7:7). Please read 1 Timothy 1:7–10.

1865 264 Christ is righteousness, and it is imputed to us, for it is not our own doing. But the point which is always avoided is, that imputing righteousness has the sense in Scripture of accounting the man righteous (and not seeing this is at the root of the fallacy of all they say), not of something done which is imputed. It might be in that way or not; but it does not say this; it is not in its meaning. It is not somebody else's righteousness imputed to me, but my being accounted righteous. Many being constituted sinners by one man's disobedience is not saying that the individual's sin was imputed to them, but that they by him all entered into and stood in that standing before God into which he got by that one sin. All are looked at as in his loins, and as alienated, and in sin before God. It is really the opposite of imputation of a particular act, as far as this passage goes.