Covenantal headship, also known as federal headship, refers to a relationship in which an individual represents a larger group and the actions of the representative are imputed onto the larger group. This idea is central to Paul’s argument in Romans 5:12–21. In explaining covenantal headship to your members, it will be helpful to walk them through three closely related biblical truths: total depravity, the virgin birth, and substitutionary atonement.
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
We first come across the consequences of covenantal headship in the Bible in Genesis 3. As the federal head of mankind, Adam represented all of his posterity in the Garden of Eden. His obedience or disobedience to the command given to him by God would be credited to all who would descend from him. Therefore, when Adam sinned, all of Adam’s descendants “died through one man’s trespass” (Romans 5:15).
The principle of covenantal headship thus explains the doctrine of total depravity. Since all humans were “made sinners” (Romans 5:19) because of Adam’s sin, we’re not born tabula rasa but rather are “brought forth in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). And because the wages of sin is death, Adam’s single act of disobedience condemned all of his descendants to physical, spiritual, and eternal death.
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