When Adam sinned, he stepped from the halls of light into a chamber of darkness. Though he was physically alive, spiritual life was gone. When the moment came for him to face God, he fled in terror to hide among the trees. He feared to meet the One who had given him all things, and whom he had disobeyed. Sin had done its work. Man had broken fellowship with his Creator, and feared to face Him. This is why men fear physical death. Written in our very being is the fact that physical death ends delay. The God who has been wronged must be faced. The reckoning day has come. Some men profess to believe that death ends all, but the majority are honest enough to admit that something lies beyond, and they are afraid of it. Epicurus expressed the thought of the former group in his letter to Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Grace: Romans 5:12–21 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1959), 31.

  Rom 5 v 13- 14 (CSB) 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.  "Paul proves his point regarding the imputation of Adam’s sin by surveying the landscape of redemptive history and dividing it into three sections: Adam Adam ➔ Moses  Moses ➔ Present day It is easy to understand why Adam died and why people after the revelation of the Mosaic law died: They all transgressed expressly revealed commandments of God. God explicitly told Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge lest God punish him with death. And Israel, like Adam in his state in the garden, received expressly revealed commands from God, who threatened them with death for violating them (e.g., Ex. 21:15–17). But what about the people who lived and died between Adam and Moses? On what bas...

  Adam had been appointed by God to be the representative of the race so that if he stood, we too would stand, and if he fell, we would fall with him. Adam did fall, as we know.  So death passed upon everyone. “But isn’t that terribly unfair?” someone protests. “Isn’t it cruel for God to act in this fashion?” ... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated.  Besides, it was the only way it would later be possible for God to save us once we had sinned. In other words, federalism is actually a proof of God’s grace, which is the point the passage comes to (vv. 15 ff.). It was gracious to Adam first of all. Why? Because it was a deterrent to his sin. God must have explained to Adam that he was to represent his posterity. That might have restrained him from sinning. A father who might be tempted to steal his employer’s funds (and would if only he himself were involved), might well decide not to do it if he kne...