Original Sin is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith and yet so many Christians today either reject this truth or simply don’t understand it. In this article I want to look at original sin and its effect on salvation. It is impor­tant to understand that to get the doc­trine of original sin wrong, will affect other important doctrines such as man’s fallen nature, the atonement, sovereign grace, the Gospel and its presentation. Original sin means that due to the fall in the Garden of Eden, God legally imputes to us Adam’s guilt and we inherit his corrupt consti­tution.

This distortion of original sin was started by a man called Pelagius in the fourth century who in many re­spects is the founder of what we call, “universalism.” His basic argument against Augustine was that if God commands us to do something, then we must have the power and moral ability within ourselves to do it. In other words, a person’s obligation is relative to one’s ability. If God com­mands all those who hear the gospel to believe (obligation) then they must have the ability to believe. Since God calls on everyone to repent it means that everyone can believe­ everybody in their fallen state can receive the gospel.

Pelagius’ teaching has produced many other related positions, two of which are Arminianism and Amyraldianism. These positions basi­cally teach that Jesus died to save everyone. They hold to a position called, “universal redemption.” They teach that Christ paid a general ran­som for all; that He died to redeem all and every one, whereas the scrip­tures teach the opposite, namely that the cross secured the full salvation of all for whom Christ died. Basically, any universalist approach to salvation stems out of a wrong notion of original sin.

Pelagianism Summed Up⤒🔗

In a nutshell Pelagianism can be de­scribed as follows:

1. There is no hereditary principle of sin. Pelagius said that everyone is born in the same state of innocence in which Adam was created. In this con­text, sin is seen simply as a choice of evil. Pelagius said that there is no such thing as original sin. Adam’s sin affected Adam only. There is no transmission or transfer of guilt or corruption to the progeny of Adam and Eve. Pelagius believed that it was possible to live a life of moral perfec­tion without any help from the grace of God. He claimed that grace facili­tates righteousness. The word, “facilitate” means to help; to make a thing easier. It is this key, distinct term of “facilitation” that has both corrupted the doctrine of original sin and given birth to Arminian free-willism.
    
2. The unregenerate person has the ability to choose salvation for himself. The implication of this teaching is that the nature of sin consists only in de­liberate, and as it were, momentary choices of evil. This results in a denial of the absolute necessity for divine grace in human redemption.

To start with, we need to understand that original sin is not referring to the first sin of Eve, but rather to the result of the first sin. It refers to our inherent corruption. The Bible teaches that as a consequence of Adam’s fall, every person is in a condition both of depri­vation (the loss of original righteous­ness) and depravity (the existence of an evil principle). David says he was conceived in sin (Ps 51:5). We are not born in a neutral state of innocence, but we are born with a sinful, fallen condition and a natural bias for sin.

The Confession of Faith←⤒🔗

WCF 6.4. From this original corrup­tion, whereby we are utterly indis­posed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

The confession is saying that the natural man cannot respond to God in and of himself — he is utterly indis­posed and disabled! A “disposition,” as stated in the article, denotes a con­dition of the heart, out of which be­havior flows. Our sinful actions pro­ceed out of our innate sinful nature. We sin because we are born sinners. Concupiscence (the desire to sin) stems out of a fallen nature. The Bible calls us sinners, not merely because we commit sins, but because we are by nature sinful. Original sin refers to our moral condition from which all our actual behavior flows. The condition of fallen humanity is one that Augustine would describe as, the inability to not sin.

WCF 9:3. As a consequence of his fall into a state of sin, man has lost all ability to will any spiritual good related to salvation. In his unregen­erate state he is completely op­posed to that spiritual good, and dead in sin. Hence he is not able, by any strength of his own, to con­vert himself, or even to co-operate with God that he might be con­verted.

Original sin has rendered Adam’s race as spiritually dead — he has lost all ability to will any spiritual good related to salvation. This means that the sinner cannot co­operate with God or in anyway ap­ply himself to salvation. Like Laza­rus, the natural man is spiritually dead and the Holy Spirit has to res­urrect him. There is no place for some kind of synergism as the Arminian teaches.

The Source of our Faith←⤒🔗

The principle of sovereign grace is crucial to our understanding of sal­vation and is best highlighted in the answer to the following question­ — what is the source of our faith? Is it the God given means whereby the God-given justification is received, or is it a condition of justification, which is left to man to fulfill. In this connection listen to what world fa­mous evangelist, Billy Graham says, “God does ninety nine percent of it but you still must do that last one percent.” But this is plain error. It is not that we are offered salva­tion and that we will be born again if we choose to believe. This makes faith a condition. The sinner’s entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only. The principle of ‘faith alone’ can only be rightly under­stood if it is first anchored in the broader principle of ‘grace alone.’ Paul teaches that faith is a gift; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). The fact than God regen­erates us means that even the faith that receives Christ for justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God. A proper concept of original sin demands that the application of salvation be through God’s grace alone. It necessitates the effective calling of the elect, not by some arbi­trary procedure, but as a gracious activity by which the salvation pur­chased by Christ actually becomes the possession of those sinners to whom it pleased the Lord to grant salvation. Christ’s death ensures the calling and keeping of all those whose sins He bore. Christ died to infallibly secure the salvation of His people. The cross saved; the cross saves! This is the heart of true Evangelical faith. The truth is that we are 100% dependent upon the monergistic work of regeneration in order to come to faith and that faith itself is a gift of God; no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (Jn 6:44).

Semi-pelagianism (Arminianism) ad­mits that due to the fall, all parts of our humanity have been weakened, so much so that without the assis­tance of divine grace nobody can pos­sibly be redeemed. Yet it still allows for this 1%. Why this contradiction? Because of its universal emphasis on redemption. It still insists, that while we are fallen creatures, we are not so fallen that we don’t have the ability to accept or reject the grace when it is offered to us. It admits that the will is weakened, but denies that it is en­slaved. Arminianism says that all of humanity still have a core of right­eousness in them to choose and be­lieve on Jesus Christ.

A Crucial Doctrine←⤒🔗

Original sin is a critical doctrine for a correct understanding of the Gospel and cannot be compromised. A re­nowned theologian writes, “virtually every church in the historic world at some point in their history and in their creedal development articulates some doctrine of original sin. So clear is that to the biblical revelation that it would take a repudiation of the biblical view of mankind to deny original sin alto­gether.” (R.C. Sproul)

In case you miss the importance of this doctrine, listen to some other church confessions.

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will. 39 Articles of the Church of England, Art. 10

All men are conceived in sin, and born children of wrath, indisposed to all saving good, propones to evil, dead in sins and the slaves of sin, and without the grace of the regener­ating Holy Spirit they are neither will­ing nor able to return to God, to cor­rect their depraved nature, or to dis­pose themselves to the correction of it. (Articles of the Synod of Dort 3.3.) Original sin is a powerful biblical truth. The confessions rightly teach that man cannot co-operate with God to bring about conversion. It is man’s pride and sinful nature that causes him to suppose that he can contribute to his salvation. Whereas Arminian­ism assumes the sinner can co­operate with God by first exercising faith and then the Holy Spirit will give the person a new birth, Jesus em­phatically tells us (John 3) that regen­eration is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. A spiritually dead person cannot in any way respond or contrib­ute to his salvation. God sovereignly, first, has to make the person alive and give to him/her the gift of faith in order to believe.

Paul taught that through one man’s trespass death came into the world and that through Adam’s disobedi­ence all have died (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21–22). As a result of Adam’s sin, God imputes to his posterity his guilt and sin. Communion with God is bro­ken and the adamic race dies spiritu­ally and become wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

This defilement is called, “total de­pravity.” Total depravity doesn’t mean that the sinner is as bad as she/he can possibly be, but that every trace of moral rectitude has been lost in fallen humanity. Every part of man’s life is affected by sin. His will, mind, emo­tions and heart have all been contaminated by sin. Corruption involves moral and spiritual blindness, as well as hardness of heart and vile affec­tions (1 Cor 2:14; Eph 4:18).

Federalism←⤒🔗

The way in which original sin is dealt with in our salvation is through the principle that theologians call, “federalism.” Federalism emphasizes the representative character of Adam. As federal head, it means that Adam acted as the representative head for the human race. The WCF 6:3 states, “they being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation.” Paul says (in Rom 5:19) that, by one man’s disobedience many were made (constituted) sinners. Je­sus, the second Adam, likewise fills a representative function by enter­ing into solidarity with His people through the incarnation. In terms of His work on the cross, He is our substitute, standing in our place. The principle on which Adam’s guilt and punishment comes upon us is the same principle upon which the righteousness of Christ is charged to the account of those who believe on Him (Rom 4:6). To reject this principle of representation before God is to negate the representative redemption won for us by Christ.

The Vital Importance of this Doc­trine←⤒🔗

In closing, do not make the mistake of thinking that to err on original sin isn’t serious. It is! Let us remember that the Arminian view on original sin is the overwhelming majority report today in professing evangeli­cal circles. In a George Bama poll more than 80% of ‘professing evan­gelical Christians,’ in America ex­pressed the Pelagian belief that, “God helps those who help them­selves.” Put simply, the church is immersed in this false teaching be­cause it holds to a false notion of original sin.

Universalism, the idea that it is God’s desire to save everybody, stems from a defective understand­ing of the nature of sin in fallen man. It robs God of His grace and denies the absolute necessity for God to sovereignly save His people. To get original sin wrong will directly impact on the doctrine of human nature and will produce a gospel that merely says, “Jesus wants to save everyone,” or “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will give you a new birth.” What an obnoxious weed Arminian free-willism is! Pray God will deliver His church from this serious unbiblical error and renew our mindset according to the truth of His Word.