What does it actually mean for humans to be ‘sinners’?

‘For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cor. 15:22).

Imagine for a moment two giants standing astride the world. Each giant has a thick belt around his waist. From both belts hang billions of hooks. And on each hook is a human being – billions of men and women, girls and boys, from the unborn to the elderly. But the giants are very different. One giant is falling to destruction, and the people hanging from his belt are going with him. The other giant is standing strong for eternal life, and with him all those who hang from his belt.

That illustration comes from the Puritan pastor, Thomas Goodwin. He notes that in 1 Corinthians 15:47, Paul speaks as if there were only two men who had ever lived. There is Adam, ‘the first man’, and Jesus Christ, ‘the second man’. Both are what Goodwin calls ‘a common public person’, meaning that neither of them stands alone. They have been appointed by God as representative heads of a whole people. Adam is the representative head of all people born by natural descent from Adam and Eve. Christ is the representative head of God’s elect, those born again by water and the Spirit, ‘the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven’ (Heb.12:23). Because they are public persons, what Adam and Christ do affects all those they represent. All who are ‘in Adam’ die; but all who are ‘in Christ’ shall be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).