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Original Sin

The main chapter to consider when looking at the doctrines of original sin and original guilt is Romans 5.12-21. Here Paul makes clear that because Adam sinned death came into the world, a death which has become the lot of every man. However interpretation needs to be made carefully.

The Roman Catholics believe that man is born, not only with a taint of sin but with fully fledged guilt because of Adam’s sin. That because the first man sinned we are all guilty and therefore deserving of punishment regardless of what we have or have not done. They would cite verses 16-18. Of course this then fits into their teaching that every child must be baptised to be cleansed from sin, and gives tremendous power to the church which is thus able to control man’s destiny. There is little backing for this in Scripture. Baptism is never seen in the Bible in such a literalistic way. Indeed Peter specifically states that baptism is ‘not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God’, while baptism is portrayed either as a picture of the pouring out of rain producing spiritual life (by John the Baptiser) or as a picture of dying and rising again in Christ (by Paul - Romans 6.4). The thought of washing is totally absent.

But what does Romans 5.12-21 specifically teach? It certainly seizes on the sin of Adam and the universality of death as connected, but v.12 points out that that is because all men sin. They do not suffer for Adam’s sin but for their own sin (compare Ezekiel 18.19-23). He does not deal with the question of the baby not yet in a position to sin.

He goes on to argue that by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners (v.19) but that may only be to argue that man’s disobedience has resulted in disobedient man. Sin now reigns over man (v.21). Thus man is no longer born in pristine purity, but with a tendency to selfishness and rebellion against what is good. And this is revealed in his outward life. It is a fact of history.

But can a man be punished for another’s sin? Ezekiel specifically repudiates such a thought. How indeed can someone be guilty of what someone else has done? This assumes a doctrine of the solidarity of the human race, of a sharing in guilt, which is foreign to the idea of freedom and individual responsibility. It is certainly nowhere clearly taught in Scripture. (We speak sometimes of ‘collective guilt’ but this results from the fact that men actually partake in that guilt either because of their actions or because of their failure to act when they should. They are individually guilty. But their babies are not!).

It appears to us that it is dangerous to take Paul’s language, which is using a general illustration (the universality of death and sin) to enable him to move on to a specific point, and press it to something that is beyond logic and reason. Righteousness in Christ is possible, not because He was a righteous man who can somehow pass on credit to us, but because He was the righteous God made man, Who in His manhood bore the judgment of sin, and as God takes us up into Himself. Adam was never this. He was indeed the first individual, but he was never more than an individual.

What Paul is stressing in Romans 5 is that there has now come One Whose impact on the human race can even be greater than that of Adam. The emphasis is on Christ not on Adam.

Another verse often quoted in this regard is Psalm 51.5. but here the Psalmist is using hyperbole, a vivid picture, to bring out his deep awareness of his sin. He is not expounding a doctrine but expressing a feeling of revulsion at his own sinfulness. Possibly he is also vividly portraying the taintof sin inborn - the fact that he is what he is because he is a member of a fallen human race, but it is his specific sin that he has in mind and for which he seeks forgiveness. He is not pleading a doctrinal position. He sees himself as needing forgiveness because he has actively sinned, not because he was born ‘sinful’.

So it would seem to us that the doctrine of original sin is a doctrine based on the historical fact that there is a tendency in all men that inevitably results in sin, and that Adam began it all, rather than a doctrine dealing with the question of why we face final judgment. The latter is because WE sin, not because we are born potential ‘sinners’.

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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

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