Romans 5:12-14 The greatest gift parents can give to their children is a righteous legacy
Romans 5:12-14 The greatest gift parents can give to their children is a righteous legacy
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Background
Adam was created as a son of God, but through his disobedience he was relegated to the caste of sinners—those destined for death and destruction. Consequently, all his descendants without exception were born into this same realm of sin and death. This did not occur because they inherited a defective spirit from Adam, but because they were shaped by his corrupted example and the fallen pattern of life that flowed from him. Parents inevitably leave behind a legacy that profoundly affects their descendants. Through a family’s value system, lifestyle, and spiritual orientation, a generational pattern is formed. Because the future of our children is deeply influenced by the legacy we pass down, the greatest gift we can give them is a righteous and godly inheritance.
Observation
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned
“Death” in this context refers not merely to bodily death, but to spiritual death—a state of stagnation in which a person cannot grow into the perfect image of God. How, then, did sin enter the world? It entered fundamentally through nurture—through the influence of those who raise a child. Parents possess significant authority to shape the moral direction, emotional health, and spiritual environment of their children. Yet it is important to understand that, according to Scripture, parents do not create the spirit of their newborn.
Zechariah 12:1 states that God “forms the spirit of man within him.” Likewise, Jeremiah 1:5 declares, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” These passages affirm that the formation of a person’s spirit is a divine work. Parents contribute the biological material of the body, but they do not generate or transmit a spirit. Each human spirit is directly created by God—whether at conception or in the womb—and is created good and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Because of this, no one can ultimately blame God or their parents for the moral decisions they make. While parents influence, they do not determine the nature of the spirit. God creates each person with dignity, moral agency, and the capacity to respond to His law and grace. Thus, responsibility for one’s choices—whether righteous or sinful—rests with the individual.
However, in Adam’s case, the legacy he passed to his children involved more than biological inheritance. Through nurture, Adam conveyed a corrupted pattern of life—a bent toward self-rule, independence from God, and rebellion against His command. Thus, his descendants inherit not a defective spirit from God, but a corrupting environment and example that inclines humanity toward sin from its earliest days.
This reality traces back to God’s original command:
“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
—Genesis 2:16–17
Adam’s sin was the desire to be like God—to determine, choose, and rule apart from Him. For this reason, all humanity is considered sinful not because we inherited Adam’s spirit, but because we were all nurtured under Adam’s corrupt pattern—the pattern of a humanity that sought independence from God.
As a result, sin and death spread throughout the human race through the very process of nurture. In a solemn irony, God’s original mandate to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), intended as a blessing to fill a good creation with godly image-bearers, became the avenue through which sin and death multiplied across humanity.
13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Before the Law was given through Moses, humanity’s sinfulness—and the actions arising from it—were not yet legally indictable, for (sin is not imputed when there is no law). In that period, sin could not be formally charged under any divine or human legal framework. Yet from Adam to Moses, sin and death still reigned, not through explicit violations of a written code, but through the corruption passed down by Adam through nurture. Thus, even before the Law was instituted, the universal consequence of sin remained: the reign of bodily death over all humanity.
Another dimension of this “death” was spiritual death—spiritual stagnation in which humanity’s growth was stunted, rendering mankind unable to mature toward the likeness of God. Though the image of God remained, the capacity to grow into that image was darkened and suppressed.
Before Christ conquered death through His resurrection, even those determined to follow God inevitably faced bodily death. Without exception, death reigned over all—even over those who strove to obey God’s commands while continually struggling against their sinful nature. Abraham, though counted righteous by God, could not transcend his place within the caste of sin and death. Unlike Adam, whose offense was the desire to be like God—to live and rule independently of Him—Abraham did not sin (sinned in the likeness of the offence of Adam). Although born into the same fallen order, Abraham set his heart to live as a true son of God.
Adam is considered a type of Christ — “a type of Him who was to come” — because he stands as the representative apex of humanity, just as Christ does for redeemed humanity. As the first apex, Adam’s single act of disobedience resulted in innumerable souls being born into the caste of sinners, bound under the reign of sin and death as they await final judgment.
Truth
The greatest gift parents can give to their children is a righteous legacy.
The Apostle Paul taught that the children of believing parent(s) are sanctified (see 1 Corinthians 7:14). What does it mean by “sanctified” or “made holy”? It means being set apart as belonging to God’s family. That said, it does not mean that they are guaranteed a place in God’s kingdom. Just like Adam, who was born a son of God, who chose the path of sin, our children must make their own decisions.
Indeed, a child who is born into a family of believers has access to divine gifts and revelations that are ordinarily inaccessible to non-believers. These divine gifts and revelations are made available through the righteous legacy of parents. A righteous legacy is transmitted through the way parents live:
– they exercise genuine love, generosity, honesty and fairness when dealing with people
– they are perpetually joyful and faithful to God and to each other
– they exercise divine guidance, wisdom and Godly reverence when making decisions
– they exercise faith and courage when facing challenges
– they exercise divine authority and spiritual gifts as a lifestyle
– they are passionate about God’s kingdom vision
When children observe their parents, they internalise and adopt their values and lifestyle. It is often misconstrued that children of bible-believing families automatically inherit a righteous legacy. But all too often, we see these children become more sceptical than children of non-Christian families. For they have observed in their parents a jarring dissonance between what they profess to believe and how they actually live.
That said, believers are called to build a righteous legacy for the next generation. Jesus did not have children of His own, but He fathered countless spiritual children after His legacy.
Jesus is our hope in the face of injustice and corruption.
During the period between Adam and Moses, bodily death functioned as the only means of restraining the spread of sin and its destructive acts. Thus, by the time of Noah when human wickedness had reached unprecedented levels, God curtailed the unrestrained proliferation of sin by bringing death upon humanity through the flood. The souls swept away in the flood were imprisoned in hades, awaiting the day of judgment.
Even though the people of Noah’s generation committed grievous sins, they were not judged according to the full measure of divine wrath, for the Law had not yet been given. Nevertheless, when Christ came in the flesh, died, and was raised, He went to the spirits who belonged to that ancient era—those who lived before the Law—and proclaimed to them the reality of God’s righteous standard. Those who remained unrepentant were consigned to their final judgment, while those who responded with repentance were given a second opportunity to align themselves with God’s righteousness.
Thus, even in times when the Law is absent or unenforced because of corrupt judges or culture — whether in a family, a community, a nation, or the world—Christ remains the ultimate Judge over all, in the past, the present, and the future. Indeed, no one can evade or escape the righteous justice of Christ.
The Bible promises that God will ultimately punish corrupt judges and restore justice to all. As the psalmist declares:
Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side—
leaders whose decrees permit injustice?
They gang up against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord is my fortress;
my God is the mighty rock where I hide.
God will turn the sins of evil people back on them.
He will destroy them for their sins.
The Lord our God will destroy them. – Psalm 94:20-23
Therefore, we are called to exercise patience while walking in divine wisdom and authority over our circumstances. We seek God’s wisdom to discern how to deal with corrupt judges, and we exercise divine authority through His angels to help establish His justice on earth. Indeed, God is our hope and refuge in the face of injustice and corruption.
Application
Write down on paper a list of what you want to include in your legacy. List them down in order of importance. Pick an item from the top and be intentional to work it out for one month. In the next month, work on the next item. By beginning with yourself, you build a legacy and your family will eventually catch on.
Dear Lord, you have established your righteous legacy for me to follow. Help me perpetuate your legacy of love, wisdom and faith. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.
Are you facing unjust treatment from corrupt people? Remember that God is the ultimate Judge who will bring about justice promptly. The parable of the persistent widow teaches us to pray and never give up (Luke 18:1-8). How do we pray? We ask for God’s wisdom to know how to navigate the complexities of the system. By Jesus’s authority, we send out the angels to restore justice promptly.
Dear Lord, I praise you for you are the God of justice. I send out the angels in your name to thwart all injustices meted out against my family and me. I speak restoration in the areas that I have suffered injustice. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.