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Truth about the Original Sin

The biblical doctrine of original sin should be understood as including the following truths from
Scripture:
1. All humanity is judicially condemned in Adam.
2. Each human is judicially guilty from conception but is not personally guilty until they knowingly
sin.
3. Each human inherits Adam’s sinful nature. This makes sin inevitable but never necessary.
4. God seems to give a special mercy to those who are morally unable to tell right from wrong. This
includes infants and the mentally incompetent.
5. The morally competent who do not respond to the Gospel in faith are condemned for breaking
the moral law which God has made known to them through nature.

The Results of the Fall.

God pronounced three curses as a result of Adam’s disobedience. The serpent was condemned to crawl
(Rom. 3:14). All the animal kingdom in fact was affected by the fall (Rom. 8:20). Satan’s kingdom would
forever be opposed (“enmity”) by Eve’s godly descendants (believers). Christ (a descendant of Eve)
would deal the death blow to Satan (“head”) on the cross, although Satan was allowed to cause Christ to
suffer (“heel”). This verse is the first revelation of the gospel in the Bible (v15).

Eve and all women would 1) always have pain in childbirth, 2) struggle with the
desire to rule over her husband (see “desire” 4:7) and yet, 3) be in a supportive
rather than ruling role. The New Testament confirms these effects (1 Cor. 11:3;
14:34: Eph. 5:24, 25; Titus 2:3-5; 1 Pet. 3:1, 5, 6).

Adam and all men would have a challenge to provide sustenance for living (3:17-19;
23, 24). The ground was cursed so that sustaining life would require difficult and
painful labor (3:17-19a). Man would now die (3:19b) and Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden
(3:23, 24).

All of mankind experienced a sense of guilt (“made a covering” 3:7) and a loss of fellowship with
God (“hid themselves” 3:8). Sin also brought death upon the race – both physical and spiritual (Eph. 2:3;
Rom. 5:12). Death meant that the laws of thermodynamics were fully enacted as a result of sin, especially
the 2 Law of Entropy. God’s creation began to “groan” as the systems in the bodies began to fail. Animals
nd
and plants began to die. Adam and Eve began to age and their bodies began to break down and become
weaker. Eventually their bodies ceased to function, and they died. They sinned, and passed the nature to
sin to all their progeny. Paul’s theology of sin principally appears in Romans 1–8. God is angry because of
sins humans commit against him and one another (1:18–32). Unbelief is the root of sin. The failure to
glorify or thank God leads to idolatry, foolishness, and degradation (1:21–25). 183

The Nature of Sin.

There are a number of definitions of sin. Sin is any violation of the perfect holiness of God. Sin is putting
yourself above others. Sin is doing what you want rather than what God wants. Sin is disobedience
against our Creator. It is doing what He says not to do, and not doing what He says to do.
Sin is falling short of the mark.

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