Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Death reigned. By the fall of the first Adam death reigned. Death came to all.
Death came to all the posterity of Adam. With death passed to all, what occurred inside each individual? What can we say of every man in regards to their ability to make themselves right before God? Look at the effects of sin.
1) We see the heart has been hardened.
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The heart is where our desires arise. We see the heart is both deceitful and is of stone. The heart in the natural man will always steer a man away from God in its deceit. The heart of stone cannot be penetrated with truth unless it is converted to a heart of flesh. All men find themselves in this predicament of the heart unless God sovereignly intervenes.
2) We see the mind of man darkened.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
2 Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The mind is where man’s thoughts arise. Man had walked in fellowship with God but now his thoughts were turned from God. His understanding was darkened and he was blinded from the truth of God. God looked upon man and saw only evil.
3) We see the affections of man as deceitful.
Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Man’s affections are what guide his leanings. His affections are what he is drawn toward. His affections are said to be inordinate. His affections are disorderly or unrestrained. God is a God of order and man is a creature of disorder. Man and God find themselves at odds with one another.
4) We see the conscience of a man is defiled.
Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Man had no conscience until the fall. The conscience is the part of man that discerns right from wrong. It is where we derive guilt. Man received a conscience in the garden in a fallen state. His conscience is marred by sin.