"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned---To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come." (Romans 5:12-14) Harry Ironside, the late theologian and author, explains verses 12 through 14 like this, "Adam was the first federal head of the old race. Christ risen, the second man, and the last Adam, is head of the new race. The old creation fell in Adam, and all his descendants were involved in his ruin. The new creation stands eternally secure in Christ, and all who have received life from Him are sharers in the blessings procured by His cross and secured by His life at God's right hand."
Paul says that men and women were sinners even before the law was given. Adam disobeyed a direct command from God when he ate the fruit of the tree. Ever since Adam disobeyed God, every man and woman has disobeyed God in some fashion. Some of us have broken part of the ten commandments. Some of us have broken the Mosaic law. Some of us have broken the spirit of these commandments and laws by failing to love our fellow man as we should, by failing to love God as we should, or by living in an attitude of stubbornness and rebellion. Before the law was given there were no specific penalties for the breaking of the law, but since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), Adam died. Because the wages of sin is death, and because we are all sinners, we have kept on dying. When Adam fell from grace the entire human race fell from grace. In Adam we all lost our right standing with God. But in this same way the Lord provided a Man through whom we could all obtain grace and regain our right standing with God.
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!" (Romans 5:15) Adam's actions affected us all. His sin had consequences in his own life and in the lives of every man and woman who has ever lived. (Genesis 3:17-19) God created Adam in His own image and He wanted better things for Adam than Adam wanted for himself. When Adam sinned he became something less than he was created to be. But the actions of Christ are far more powerful than the actions of Adam. Christ allowed Himself to be lifted up on the cross so He could lift us up out of the gutter and make us the sons and daughters of the living God. (Galatians 4:4-7)
Christ's work actually makes us more than Adam could ever have been, even if Adam had not sinned, because if we had never needed redemption I don't believe we could love the Lord the way we do. If we had not needed redemption I don't think we could have ever experienced the type of fellowship with the Lord that we are able to experience by worshiping Him as our Redeemer. If Adam had remained sinless, and if the human race had remained sinless, I wonder how often we would even think about or talk to the Lord. How much would He mean to us if we didn't have to depend on Him for salvation and for help in the hardships of this fallen world?
It has always been a great mystery to us just why God created man with free will. Creating us with free will made us capable of sinning, and then our sin brought a curse on the whole earth. We became something less than we should be, and the world became something far less than the paradise it was created to be. So why did God create us with the ability to fall? I think if we had not fallen we could not know the Lord the way we know Him, and we could not love Him the way we love Him, and we could not be His children, and we could not be joint heirs with Christ, and we could not be anything more than robotic beings who are perfect simply because we are incapable of being anything else. Would we ever have loved the Lord if we didn't need Him? The highest calling of man is to enjoy fellowship with his Creator, but how often would we have sought His company if we didn't need Him? It's my opinion that if God had not created us with free will, and if we had not used our free will to disobey Him, and if we had not needed redemption because of our sins, our souls would never have known the deep satisfaction that only comes from a relationship with the Lord. We could never have fulfilled the highest calling. We could never have been what God truly intended us to be. Our Creator wants the best for us, and the best for us is Christ, and we would not have needed Christ if we had never been given the ability to choose Him.
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