THE NATURE OF SIN (Ritch)



Anthropology and Hamartiology — Lesson 3

The Definition, Origin, and Nature of Sin

Discussion: One of my professors divided the class into groups of five and asked us to decide which of the following three individuals had the most freedom:

(1) A person who is not able to sin

(2) A person who is both able to sin and able not to sin

(3) A person who is not able not to sin

Less than five minutes into the discussion, my group had concluded that the person who was both able to sin and able not to sin (person #2) had the most freedom. We correctly eliminated option #3 since a person who cannot help but sin is really in bondage. But the unanimity of the decision and the ease with which it was arrived at caused us to suspect that something was wrong. Why would we be asked to “discuss” such a “simple” question in a graduate seminar?

We had made two serious errors in our deliberation: we did not take into account the biblical meaning of “freedom” and we did not fully appreciate the nature of sin. Like most people, we thought freedom was the ability to do what one wanted to do — whenever, however, and wherever one chose to do it. Consequently, we reasoned that the person who had the most choices automatically had the most freedom. When I wondered out loud whether we really believed that a person who could sin had more freedom than God, who cannot sin, we found out why we needed some time to discuss the question.

Biblically speaking, freedom is the ability to function the way God designed us to function. This is the reason why freedom and truth are so intertwined; we need to know what our purpose and design are before we can exercise the freedom to fulfill our mission on earth. That is also true of things we ourselves make. A meticulously manufactured Ferrari which, I’ve been told, is a marvel on the road, is completely useless in the ocean. A hammer functions at its best when it is pounding nails, and a multi-million dollar piece of equipment made for space travel is useless to us unless we know its purpose. Similarly, we function at our best when our lives measure up to our Designer’s specifications. It is true that God’s purposes can be fulfilled even through people who reject Him, but true freedom is found only in Him.

Misunderstanding the kind of freedom Christ offers leads to a distorted view of the nature of sin. Some find it hard to give a good reason why sin is prohibited by God. Don’t God’s prohibitions limit our freedom? Wouldn’t some acts, at least, be harmlessly enjoyable if God, for some curious reason, did not brand them “sin”? The answer to both questions is no, and the reason is that sin is a serious defect in humanity, not a virtue. It will eventually turn those who relentlessly cling to it into grotesque distortions of God’s original intent for them. Anything that impedes our progress towards our true identity and calling diverts us from our journey to freedom, even when no one else finds out.

That is why it is not quite true to tell people that knowing the truth will set them free. That phrase is part of a very instructive discipleship statement in John 8:31-32 which reads, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” Did you notice the conditional nature of the freedom proclaimed here? Only by holding to the teaching of Christ in the context of purposeful discipleship can true freedom be found. James 1:25 tells us that practicing God’s perfect law gives us freedom. Without a clear understanding of our call to freedom in Christ, our thirst for righteousness and passion for the lost will be seriously hindered, for we will secretly think that the requirements of righteousness are really deprivations.

No, I am not advocating works salvation. We are saved by grace through faith alone, but in the process of growth as believers, the light of the gospel must gradually shine on those areas of our lives that hold us back from fulfilling our true calling. When the gospel of Christ begins to chip away at those holdups, we learn what it means to be truly free and why it is prudent to hate sin. John Witherspoon was right. In his sermon on the first Thanksgiving Day called after the war for independence in the U.S., he declared, “A republic once equally poised must either preserve its virtue or lose its liberty.”(1) Whether for an individual or a sovereign nation, truth and virtue are the rails upon which the wheels of freedom roll.

J.M. Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) As quoted by Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1981), 33.

Man is most free in heaven, where he is morally unable to sin. True freedom isn’t freedom to sin, but freedom from sin…

“Biblical freedom is the freedom to do what is pleasing to God and this freedom from sin is granted in the redemptive work of Christ.” – John Hendryx, Eleven Reasons to Reject Libertarian Free Will

“Freedom should not lead to corruption. It is given to us by the Word of God here that our freedom is controlled by the fact that it does not allow us to indulge the flesh. It is not freedom to do what you want. It is not freedom to do your own thing. Christian freedom is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.” – John MacArthur, The True Meaning of Christian Freedom

Augustine: Grace Creates a Truly Free Will

I. The Definition of Sin

In response to the question, “What is sin?” The Baptist Catechism of 1689 answers, “Sin is transgression of the revealed will of God which teaches that we are to act in perfect holiness from a heart of faith to the glory of God.” (Scripture: 1 John 3:4; Romans 5:13; 14:23; 1 Peter 1:16; Matthew 5:48; 1 Corinthians 10:31)

Comment Simplified: Sin is any attitude or desire or action that explicitly breaks a commandment of Scripture, or comes from a heart of unbelief or is not done for the glory of God.

Susanna Wesley, mother of nineteen children — two of them the great Methodist preachers John and Charles Wesley, was asked once by one of her children for the definition of sin. This is what she said:

“Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

Grudem (pg 490), “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature.”

Michael Horton: What Ever Happened to Sin?

A. Sin is any transgression of the Law of God

1 John 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Romans 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.

Romans 5:13-14 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

James 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18),” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery (Ex 20:14, Deut 5:18),” also said, “Do not murder (Ex 20:13, Deut 5:17).” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

God’s standard is absolute and true for all circumstances … this is a “hard” standard.

Illustration: Rahab’s lie. She had the right motive, but the wrong action.

Sin is always defined in reference to God. Sin has no meaning outside the person of God. Yet man delights in defining sin in reference to himself. (cf. Psalm 51:4)

Question: What other foundations does man try to create ethics of right and wrong? Why are these foundations faulty?

Illustration: Community standards do not carry weight for a Christian. The community may say evil is good. Or the community may say good is evil.

B. Sin is rebellion against God … “a frame of mind.” Sin is both an attitude and an action. Man sins when he makes his own rules to live by rather than submitting in heart attitude to God’s rules.

Illustration: Coveting is sin of heart attitude. Consider the Sermon on the Mount.

James 4:4-6 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says (Prov 3:34), “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

C. Sin is a disregard for God’s glory. Sin is more than doing what is wrong.

Romans 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

It is possible to complete a right action for the wrong motive?

Illustration: Preaching for the approval of men.

James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Four categories of sin:

1. Right motive; wrong action

2. Right action; wrong motive

3. Right motive; no action

4. Wrong motive; wrong action

Question: Are you responsible for sins that you are unaware of? Psalm 19:12, Ezekiel 45:20, sacrifices for “sins of ignorance”: Lev 4:2, 5:15, Num 15:27

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse or a defense.

“What makes sin sin is not first that it hurts people, but that it blasphemes God. This is the ultimate evil and the ultimate outrage in the universe. The glory of God is not honored. The holiness of God is not reverenced. The greatness of God is not admired. The power of God is not praised. The truth of God is not sought. The wisdom of God is not esteemed. The beauty of God is not treasured. The goodness of God is not savored. The faithfulness of God is not trusted. The promises of God are not relied upon. The commandments of God are not obeyed. The justice of God is not respected. The wrath of God is not feared. The grace of God is not cherished. The presence of God is not prized. The person of God is not loved. The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom 11:36) — who holds every person’s life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) — is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe.” – John Piper

II. The Origin of Sin

Origin of evil begins before the first couple sins with rebellion of Satan. Sin among mankind begins with Adam and Eve.

R.C. Sproul on the origin of sin: The Mystery of Iniquity (article), What Is Evil & Where Did It Come From? (conference message)

The Baptist Catechism asks, “What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?”

Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit. (Scripture: Gen 3:6, 12-13, 16-17)

Adam willfully sinned

A. Sin is included in the divine plan

(However, we are careful to observe that God does not sin and is not to be blamed for sin. The responsibility and guilt for sin rests solely upon man. James 1:13; Job 34:10)

God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. – Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. 3.1- Of God’s Eternal Decree

Banner of Truth article: Did God Foreordain Evil and Evil Doers?

1. Not dualism — dualism insists two powerful opposites in eternal existence. The Bible insists that evil is temporary. It had a beginning, and it will have an utter defeat.

2. God was neither surprised nor defeated by the entrance of sin God ordained for sin to come into the world even though he did not delight in it.

Revelation 13:8 — “slain before the foundation of the world”

“Jesus was not an afterthought to the fall! God planned to magnify the mercy and grace and patience and kindness and goodness and wrath and justice of His Son before Adam ever existed.” – John Piper, sermon excerpt (video 4:26)

3. Why did God include sin in His plan?

a. God’s desire for worship and love

Luke 7:47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

b. The illumination of God’s holiness

c. The display of grace

Ephesians 2:7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

d. The greatest glory would accrue to God through the entrance of sin

Romans 9:22-23 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory

Note: “willing to show his wrath”; “endured with longsuffering sin and sinners”; “in order to make known the riches”

“God created all things and gave to them the abilities for fulfilling the ends which he has determined. Indeed, all things which come to pass fit within God’s plan and purpose, including human sin. And yet, God is neither the author of sin, nor its primary cause, the creature is. For sin entered the world through Adam’s fall, so that we are not only guilty for Adam’s sin, we are guilty for our own acts of sin. Therefore, sinful acts deserve God’s punishment, and are truly sinful, even if God has included them in his plan and purpose. But God can and does use sinful human acts to bring about good. In faith, we must believe that God can and does do this in the midst of human tragedy. He did this with Joseph. He did it with Jesus. Finally, we must humbly admit that a great mystery remains, not as to the fact of divine concurrence, but as to the precise means by which God works out his purposes without being in any sense the author of human sin. After all, he is God and we are creatures. The secret things belong to him alone.” – Kim Riddlebarger, Human Sin and God’s Purpose

Recommended resource: John Piper sermon series — Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ

B. The context of the Garden of Eden

“Sin may be a part of God’s plan and purpose, but sin does not enter the human race until Adam violated the terms of his probation in Eden.” – Kim Riddlebarger

1. The test — will human beings do the will of God?

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Note the sense of prohibition (see Genesis 2:16-17). Note the questioning of the truthfulness of God’s word and the goodness of God.

Key issues: What is good? What is true?

: If God knew that Satan would rebel and Adam and Eve would sin, why did He create them?

2. The Place — a garden (a real sin in a real place by real people)

Genesis 3:1-3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

3. The people

Where was Adam?

Note the unconfirmed holy innocence of the two.

4. The tempter

Who is it?

Note the offer of an attractive counterfeit. All sin is irrational!!

Genesis 3:4-5 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Note the emphasis on the present time (contrast with Genesis 5 and 50:26)

Note the historical truthfulness of the record is very important. Romans 5:16; 2 Corinthians 11:3

The Baptist Catechism asks “Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first sin?”

Answer: All mankind, descending from Adam by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first sin. (Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:21-22; Romans 5:12, 18-19)

Comment: God considered all mankind as being in Adam so that when Adam went bad we all went bad in him. The nature that we have by virtue of belonging to Adam’s race is morally corrupt. We are under the wrath of God “by nature” (Ephesians 2:3) from the time we were conceived in the womb. This is why conversion and salvation must be much more than a “decision” for Christ. It must be a new creation, a rebirth, an exchange of hearts.

“Into what condition did the fall bring mankind?”

Answer: The fall brought mankind into a condition of sin and misery. (Scripture: Psalm 51:5; Rom 5:18-19; 7:18; Isaiah 53:6; 64:6; John 3:6-7; Eph 2:1-3; 1 Cor 2:14)

C. The Definition of “Original Sin” — This term refers not to Adam’s first sin, but to our condition after his sin.

“The sinful state and condition into which all are born, including the guilt of sin and the corruption of our nature.”

J.I. Packer: Original Sin - Depravity Infects Everyone (from Concise Theology) 

We are not morally neutral people who do some acts that are pleasing to God and some that are not pleasing to God. We are conceived and born in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). The scripture likens us to venomous snakes (Psalm 58:3-5). We drink iniquity like water (Job 15:16). The whole bent of our heart is not toward good, but towards evil.

Listen to the Lord’s indictment of mankind in Noah’s day: Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

--Two distinctions

1. The guilt of sin follows both by immediate imputation of Adam’s sin and by personal acts of sin

Imputation = God counted Adam’s guilt as belonging to us.

Question: Is this just? (Grudem, 495)

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Ephesians 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

“Original sin is both the consequence of Adam’s sin and the punishment for Adam’s sin. We are born sinners because in Adam all fell. Even the word fall is a bit of a euphemism. It is a rose-colored view of the matter. The word fall suggests an accident of sorts. Adam’s sin was not an accident. He was not Humpty Dumpty. Adam didn’t simply slip into sin; he jumped into it with both feet. We jumped headlong with him. God didn’t push us. He didn’t trick us. He gave us adequate and fair warning. The fault is ours and only ours. It is not that Adam ate sour grapes and our teeth are set on edge. The biblical teaching is that in Adam we all ate the sour grapes. That is why our teeth are set on edge.” – R.C. Sproul, Adam’s Fall and Mine

2. The faculties of man’s person are corrupted from conception

Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

“Original pollution,” even before David was born he had a disposition to sin.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:29-32 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Prior to the fall, Adam had the posse peccare (the ability to sin) and the posse non peccare (the ability not to sin) for God cannot sin. Adam by god’s grace was enabled to be free of sin, but not compelled to be free of sin. God possesses the non posse peccare (the inability to sin). In heaven, we will possess this as well. In creation Adam possessed the possibility of not sinning, but not the necessity of not sinning. After the fall, man possesses the non posse non peccare (the inability not to sin).

R.C. Sproul: Radical Corruption (addresses the [non] posse [non] peccare)

“It is this corrupted, depraved nature which is passed along from parent to child. The children to whom we give birth do not come forth with the pure, unsullied nature with which God created man in the beginning. In elementary high school biology, one of the first rules which the student learns is that ‘like begets like.’ Just as the parent transmits to the child certain physical and mental characteristics, so the parent transmits to the child his spiritual condition. Thus the Word of God declares that we are born in sin and conceived in iniquity; that is, the corrupt nature of the parent is transmitted to the child.” – Gordon Girod

Question: Are we sinners because we sin OR do we sin because we are sinners?

Question: What is the difference between sin and sins?

(Matthew 1:21 - “sins,” John 1:29 - “sin”)

III. The Nature of our Sinfulness

On his deathbed, Martin Luther offered these last words: “We are sinners, it is true.”

The Baptist Catechism asks “What is the sinfulness of that condition into which all mankind has fallen?”

Answer: The sinfulness of the condition into which all mankind fell is the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the lack of original righteousness, and the corruption of our whole nature (which is commonly called original sin), together with all actual transgressions which come from this nature. (Scripture: Rom 5:19; 3:10; Eph 2:1; Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 51:5; Matt 15:19)

Comment: The Bible says that “in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22) and that “one transgression yields condemnation for all men” (Rom 5:18) and that “one man’s disobedience made many sinners” (Rom 5:19). These statements lead us to conclude that God, in a way beyond our comprehension, established a unity between Adam and his posterity which makes it just for us to receive the imputation of his guilt and corruption. He was in some sense our representative head. We sinned in him and fell with him.

What is the misery into which all mankind fell through Adam’s first sin?

Answer: All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. (Scripture: Genesis 3:8, 24; Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 3:10; Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41-46; Psalm 9:17)

Comment: Keep in mind that “liable to” means that these miseries will indeed befall all people unless a special work of God’s grace intervenes.

A. Man is totally depraved. This is not the elimination of the image of God in man. The image of God is effaced, but not erased. This does not mean that man is as bad as he possibly could be.

“I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it is terrible.” – Russian author Turgenev

Extensive total depravity verse list

Extended Study of total depravity: Ra McLaughlin — part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Brief overview of total depravity: William Payne – Total Depravity

B. The corruption of sin extends to all men and to all parts of all men so that there is nothing within the natural man that can give him merit in God’s sight.

It is a total inability to merit God’s approval.

“The apple of our best works, while rosy and attractive on the outside, is always inhabited by a worm that has destroyed it from within.” – David Wells

Isaiah 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

1. The inability of the mind. Ephesians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4

2. The inability of the conscience. 1 Tim 4:2; Titus 1:15

3. The inability of the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-23

4. The inability of the body. Romans 6:13; 7:23

5. The inability of the will. Ephesians 2:1; Romans 3:11-12; John 6:44

Distinguishing Between Moral and Natural Inability - James Montgomery Boice, Philip Graham Ryken, from The Doctrines of Grace (free pdf), p. 85-86

Illustration: Lion in front of hay.

Illustration: Edwards story of two prisoners.

C. The corruption of sin totally alienates man from God.

1. Man is an enemy of God in attitude

- Toward the person of God. Romans 5:10; 8:7; 3:18

- Toward the truth of God. 2 Timothy 3:8; Romans 3:11a

- Toward the righteousness of God. Romans 3:10; 12-17

2. Man is separated from God in relationship

- No union with God. Eph 2:1, 12; Gal 4:8; 1 Thess 4:5; Luke 19:10

- No communion with God. 2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 1:9

Question: Are there degrees of sin? See Grudem, 501ff.

C. Michael Patton: all sins equal in God’s sight?

APPENDIX: Four theories about how sin corrupts man

Question: How does Adam’s sin affect the human race?

A. Pelagian view (Pelagius - British monk in 5th century)

1. It directly affected Adam

2. It provided a bad example

3. Human depravity is the result of personal sin

“… that which in our circles today is often considered ‘Arminianism’ is really Pelagianism.” – Michael Horton, Pelagianism: The Religion of Natural Man

Response:

For how this contradicts scripture see:

Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Ephesians 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

R. Scott Clark: Pelagianism

R.C. Sproul: Augustine and Pelagius, The Pelagian Controversy

B. The Semi-Pelagian view

1. Depravity is not inherited but is a natural inability or weakness

2. Since it is merely an inability, humans should not be reckoned as guilty merely on this account.

3. This does, however, obligate God to act.

4. At some point of consciousness, God impresses upon each individual enough of an influence to offset this inability — if the person will obey.

5. All persons have the ability to cooperate with this prevenient grace.

“The contemporary idea today is that there’s some residual good left in the sinner. As this progression came from Pelagianism to semi-Pelagianism, and then came down to some contemporary Arminianism. … So that the sinner, unaided by the Holy Spirit, must make the first move. That’s essentially Arminian theology. The sinner, unaided, must make the first move.” – John MacArthur

Response:

1. This theory denies the Fall. We sin because of weakness? So did Adam!

2. This theory denies depravity. Is man dead and depraved? Or alive and well (Pelagian)? Or alive and sick (Semi-Pelagian)?

3. This theory denies the organic connection of the human race.

R.C. Sproul: The Pelagian Captivity of the Church (article), lecture of the same

John Hendryx: What do the terms “Pelagianism,” “Semi-Pelagianism,” and “Arminianism” mean, and how do they relate to each other?

Scott Christensen: Prevenient Grace and Semi-Pelagianism

C. The Federal Headship Theory

1. God made a covenant with Adam in which Adam was appointed to represent the human race (sometimes, therefore, this is called the representative theory)

2. God imputes to all the sin of our representative head.

Responses:

1. Where in scripture is this covenant articulated?

2. Adam’s sin only caused God to treat us as sinners, not that we truly are sinners. But see Romans 5:19.

3. No organic connection to the human race

D. The Realistic Theory

1. All actually became sinners as a result of Adam’s sin. A person is not a sinner because he is reckoned so; he is reckoned a sinner because that is what he is.

2. Every human soul descended from Adam possesses the attribute, “sinner.”

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Objections:

1. This theory implies a material existence and division of the soul

- Only if we actually sinned in Adam — a better way to say it is that we became sinners as a result of our ancestor, Adam.

2. It contradicts consciousness because a person does not remember sinning at conception

- BUT inheritance is what is required, not memory. We participate in Adam’s nature, not in Adam’s sin. (Interesting question—what if Adam and Eve had had children before sin? Would they have inherited Adam’s sin nature?? Apparently not.)

3. The realistic theory implicates Christ

- Yes, if not for the virginal conception! Note Anselm’s four ways to make a person.

- Christ was not “in Adam.” He did not inherit a soul from either Adam or Eve (or Mary). No new person was created at the virginal conception.

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