Although Luther's over-all emphasis in preaching was evangelical, with a focus on the love of God in Christ, he did not hesitate to include in his sermons the Biblical notion of divine wrath against human sin and depravity. Perhaps more than any other reformer he brought his hearers face to face with God's law, which he believed, must be preached "in its entire force, in order that the Gospel of free grace and pardon might be proclaimed in all its sweetness." Man must realize God's great anger against sin and his own utter lostness, in order that, in his helplessness, he might flee to and trust solely in Christ for help. The Gospel of grace comforts only such as through the divine law have learned to know their total corruption and utter inability to save themselves. From this viewpoint Luther taught both original and actual sin with their just punishment: eternal damnation.

Original sin, the chief sin, and source of all actual sins, is the total corruption of man (brought about through Adam's fall) in all his higher and lower powers, so that by nature nothing good inheres in him. This was Luther's repudiation of Pelagianism.

Original sin to Luther, therefore, means man's total depravity or corruption, inherited from Adam through his natural generation, so that by nature man is under God's wrath, spiritually dead and blind, and incapable of contributing even the least part to his conversion or regeneration. In its negative sense, original sin is man's total lack of the righteousness and holiness, in which he was created. Luther writes: "After man has fallen into sin, his will and all natural powers have become corrupt ... Man has lost his right judgment and goodwill toward God; he judges nothing rightly concerning God but everything perversely."

In its positive aspect, original sin, according to Luther, is man's concupiscence, that is, his constant inclination to evil, joined with hateful opposition to God and His will. This perverse disposition of natural man Luther calls a "furious tyrant," from which he cannot free himself by his own powers. The horrible corruption of natural man manifests itself above all in unbelief over against God's law and Gospel. Says Luther: "The chief perverseness of natural man is unbelief." "As nothing justifies except faith, so also nothing sins except unbelief."

In view of its heinousness, Luther calls original sin the "radical sin," the "real chief sin," the "nature sins," the "fountain of all actual sins." Original sin embraces not only hereditary corruption, but also imputed guilt, that is, God imputes to every man by nature Adam's guilt, as Paul teaches in Romans 5:12-21. Luther does not attempt to rationalize this imputed guilt, but asserts it as a "stubborn fact" taught in Scripture; and he declares that if anyone denies the imputation of Adam's guilt to his descendants, he must deny also the imputation of Christ's righteousness by faith. For both the imputed guilt and the imputed righteousness are set forth side by side in Romans 5:12-21. According to Luther, moreover, man's original corruption and imputed guilt do not make God the cause of sin and man a helpless crea­ture, fatalistically forced to sin, for man does not sin by coercion, but of his own free will in thought, desire, word, and deed.

Man is free, however, only in the sense that he is at liberty to act according to his depraved nature. Original sin is not a "quiescent quality," but a "restless evil." By nature, man therefore is lost and condemned and helplessly lying in the kingdom of Satan, who is the "prince of sin and death." He is spiritually separated from God, and unless he is brought to faith in Christ, he will be eternally separated from God in hell. God's very wrath and condemnation proves man's imputed and actual guilt.

There is therefore no room in Luther's theology for any Pelagianism, Arminianism, or synergism (the notion that man can co-operate with God in securing his salvation). There is room only for the Sola Gratia, salvation by grace alone, through faith in Christ. Luther's doctrine of sin and its corollary, the absolute need of divine grace, remains the lifeblood for the church today.

Sad to say, many of Luther's disciples, no longer hold his views on these and many other articles of the Christian faith, at least not with the same conviction and intensity. The same is true of many who trace their theological roots to John Calvin who fully shared Luther's views, certainly on the doctrines of sin and grace.

May we as Free Reformed churches never depart from these Biblical truths. May they continue to be preached, understood and experienced in their saving and sanctifying power until our Lord returns and gathers His wheat into His barn (Mat. 13:30).