03.07 - Chapter 18 - The Relation of Adam's Sin to Posterity

Chapter 18 THE RELATION OF ADAM’S SIN TO POSTERITY The Fact of Sin is Proved by the Bible The existence of sin is pointedly set forth in Scripture.

♦ Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart of man is deceitful above things and desperately wicked.”

♦ Psalms 14:3 “There is none that doeth good no not one.”

♦ Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

♦ Romans 3:9 “We have before proved both Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.”

♦ 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

♦ 1 John 1:10 “If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar, and the truth is not in us.” The Fact of Sin is Proved by Consciousness

Consciousness distinguishes between pleasure and pain; between happiness and misery; between perceptions and intuitions. So it also distinguishes between right and wrong. It thus bears testimony to the fact of evil. The fact of sin is universal conviction. All nations under all forms of religion are conscious of sin, and that sin is a specific thing different from all other affections of the soul. The heathen religions are so many witnesses to the facts of human nature, and all display a consciousness of sin and need of reconciliation with a Supreme Being. Every babe that was ever thrown into the fires of Moloch, or into the pit of a heathen temple or cat into the Ganges to feed the crocodiles, and every act of asceticism, or flagellation, or bodily humiliation, every altar that ever ran red with the blood of a victim is an outstanding confession of the consciousness of sin. The heathen religions are but the mighty efforts of the human spirit to express its religious convictions and solve the age long Question propounded by Job, “How shall a man be just with God?” Man everywhere feels himself subject to a law of right and knows that he ought to do the right and refrain from the wrong. He knows also that he has not done the right and has done the wrong. The testimony of consciousness goes farther, it leads to a personal God. The universal human heart feels responsible to a being higher than man and over all men, who commends or condemns him in conduct and character. The sense of obligation in men always relates itself to a being who may be pleased or displeased, and that being and his will constitute the law of right and wrong. Thus man’s innate being bears witness to sin. The Fact of Sin is Proved by Causal Observation

Sin is one of the most obvious and persistent facts in the history of the human race. It has filled the world with misery from Adam’s day till now. No one can escape the evidence of it. Every broken heart, every blasted home, every scene of carnage on the battlefield, every reeling drunkard, every felon behind the grated door of a prison presents the sad evidence of sin. It confronts us every day in every scene we look upon. No man can shut his eyes to it, nor shut the consciousness of it out of his heart. If any man denies his own sinfulness it will be quite sufficient to ask his neighbors. Mr. Moody said, “If any man claims sinlessness, I should like to ask his wife.” A missionary relates that he was once telling a company of heathen that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” when a heathen man arose and said, “I deny your premise; I am not a sinner; I have no sin.” The missionary was disturbed for a moment, he had never heard any one so categorically deny the fact of sin. He paused a moment to form an answer; but he had no need. A voice arose from the assembled crowd: “HO! he cheated me trading horses.” Promptly another voice shouted, “HA! he defrauded a widow out of her inheritance.” the boaster dropped his head, disappeared and never came back. It is not easy to deny the fact of sin. The Fact of Sin is Proved by the Need for Laws

All human government recognizes the fact of sin. Constitutions and laws are for the regulation of human conduct. It is only a perfect society that can dispense with civil government. The agitator who decries civil government should recognize that his cult is applicable only to a world that is perfect in character and conduct. All human governments are a testimony to the imperfection of the human race. Peter speaks of governors as, “sent by him [God] for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well” (1 Peter 2:14). The Fact of Sin is Proved in Literature

Literature is also a great witness to the fact of sin. So much of the writings of this world is tragedy and moral depravity. A Biblical Definition of Sin The Bible says that sin is failure to conform to the will of the Lord; it is the transgression of the moral law of God.

1 John 3:4. "Sin is the transgression of the law."

1 John 5:17. "All righteousness is sin." The true nature of sin is that it is contrary to God. “This is what makes sin to be sin—not limitation, nor selfishness, nor sensuousness, but discord with God. If there were no law of God there would be no sin, neither would there be any moral good.” (David Clark) The intent of sin is to live supremely for oneself at all costs. There is no ignorance involved in sin.

♦ John 9:41 "Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."

♦ James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

♦ John 15:22 "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin."

♦ John 15:24 "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father."

What Sin is not • Sin is not a slip. Sin is premeditated, deliberate, and treacherous (1 Timothy 2:4).

• Sin is not a corruption of the substance of the soul.

• Sin is not the mixture of some other substance with the soul. After the fall the soul of man was still a spiritual substance, or a spiritual substance inhabiting a body.

• Sin is a corruption of the faculties and especially of the moral character of the soul.

• Sin has relation to the law of God in that it is a departure from God and from His law.

• Sin includes pollution and guilt. Guilt embraces the two ideas of blameworthiness and liability to punishment. Christ in assuming our guilt took our liability but not our blameworthiness. An indulgence in Sin Individuals will pay a high price to indulge themselves in sin if only for a moment.

1. Adam and Eve, for one bit of luscious fruit when they were not even hungry, brought sin, suffering, shame, and death upon themselves and the human race (Genesis 3:1-24).

2. Lot’s wife, revealing her longing for the things that pertain to earth, took one look back at Sodom and became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:1-38).

3. Esau, to satisfy one hour of fleshly appetite, lightly esteemed his birthright and forfeited his right to the ancestry of Christ (Genesis 25:1-34).

4. Achan, for a garment he could not wear, and silver and gold he could not spend, paid with all his possessions, his family, and his life the spoils of sin (Joshua 7:1-26).

5. Samson, for the caress of a careless woman, lost his eyes, and finally his life (Judges 16:1-31).

6. David, wanting the wife of another man, left a legacy of adultery, shame, and tears (2 Samuel 11:1-27).

7. Ahab, coveting another’s vineyard, claimed it for his own after killing for it and heard his own funeral oration, "In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine" (1 Kings 21:1-29).

Original Sin The doctrine of Original Sin may be established.

♦ Baptist. “Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof, yet he did not long abide in this honor, Satan using subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given unto them, in eating the forbidden fruit, which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.” (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 1; study Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:12; 2 Corinthians 11:3). The Scriptures and Original Sin ♦ Psalms 51:1. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me."

♦ Genesis 8:21. "The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth."

♦ Matthew 7:16-19. "Do grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"

♦ Job 14:4. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?"

♦ Job 15:14. "What is man that he should be clean and he that is born of woman that he should be righteous?"

♦ John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

♦ Ephesians 2:3. "We were by nature the children of wrath even as others."

♦ Psalms 58:3. "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." The Universality of Sin

If Adam’s sin were nothing but a bad example, as the Pelagians hold, there would naturally be many that would escape that example. A sense of sin and guilt has always attended the human race. There is a consciousness of sin as innate and this consciousness as well as the practice of sin is universal. It can be explained on the ground of inborn depravity. There is proof of Original Sin in its early manifestation. Before observation, training, or example become effective the child manifests an evil nature. Psalms 58:3.

Personal Experience with Sin An honest evaluation of personal experience and consciousness in regard to sin leads the heart to conclude that the beginnings of sin cannot be limited, or ultimately traced, to a definite volition; but goes back to an internal bias in the nature that prompts the volition. There is in the soul what is termed an “immanent preference” for evil. This preference or bias constitutes character out of which choices spring. And, more often than not, the choices bring bondage.

Every person has discovered the hard way that, "The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." A. W. Tozer called upon people to be honest when he wrote, "All our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh." The Nature and Effect of Original Sin

“Is Original Sin part of the nature of sin?” Also, “Does Original Sin condemn the soul to an eternal death?” The answer to both questions is, “Yes.” Original Sin is indeed of the nature of sin and it does condemn the soul to an eternal death. John Calvin wrote, “We are on account of this very corruption, considered as convicted and justly condemned in the sight of God, to whom nothing is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity.” The Consequences and Characterization of Sin

Because of sin fellowship with God is lost. The souls is the object of His holy wrath and curse (Romans 1:32; Romans 2:14-15; Exodus 34:6-7). Sin has left souls susceptible to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. "You have heard," said C. H. Spurgeon, "of the Spartan youth who concealed a stolen fox under his garment, and although it was eating into his bowels, he would not show it, and therefore died through the creature’s bites; you are of that sort sinner, you are carrying sin in your bosom, and it is eating out your heart. God knows what it is, and you know what it is; now you cannot keep it there and be unbitten, undestroyed. Why keep it there? O cry to God with a vehement cry, God save me from my sin!"

Salvation is needed because sin constitutes the natural character as evil and leaves the soul in a state of spiritual death. Sin is the root out of which actual sin springs. The root cannot be better than the fruit, which it bears. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness.” But here is the problem.

"The nature of sin, as sin, is not only to be vile, but to hide its vileness from the soul. Hence many think they do well when they sin. Jonah thought he did well to be angry with God (John 4:9). The Pharisees thought they did well when they said, Christ had a devil (John 8:48). And Paul thought verily, that he ought to do many things against, or contrary to, the name of Jesus; which he also did with great madness (Acts 26:9-10). (John Bunyan) ♦ Romans 6:6. "Our old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed."

♦ Romans 7:5. "When we were in the flesh, sinful passions wrought in our members."

♦ Galatians 5:24. "They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh its affections and lusts."

♦ James 3:11-12. "The fountain and the tree produce according to their nature."1 ♦ 1 Corinthians 15:22. "In Adam all die."

♦ Romans 5:14. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s first transgression."

♦ Romans 5:16. "The judgment was by one to condemnation."

♦ Romans 5:18. "By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." The penalty of spiritual death falls on all including infants who have not actually transgressed. If one part of the penalty of Original Sin takes effect on all, it is logical to conclude that the other part does also.

Total Depravity The doctrine of total depravity does not teach that any man is as bad as can be, but that the whole person is depraved by sin. This depravity affects the totality of the faculties of man with two distinct effects: sin cripples the will and weakens the mind. The Pelagian View of Sin

Opposed to the doctrine of total depravity is the Pelagian view that teaches that sin consists in voluntary acts or deliberate choices of evil by individuals. However, there is no "original sin" imputed to others because of Adam’s transgression. Adam may have set a bad example but that is all. All are born as pure and holy as Adam at his original creation which means that all, by nature can do what is required by God to live a virtuous life. Individuals may live without sin, and often do. Salvation is man’s own act of choosing the right. In essence, man saves himself. The Semi-Pelagian View of Sin This modified position of the Pelagian view argues that individuals are not dead in sin though they are "sick" with it having been weakened by the fall. What is needed is the help of divine grace in salvation to complete and perfect the work of redemption. No, man cannot save himself but he can begin the moral movement towards reformation and then God will assist his efforts in the final work of salvation. The Arminian Doctrine of Sin The Dutch theologian Jacob Hermann (Latin, Arminius, 1560-1609), gave the world a system of theology known as Arminianism. The following positions are commonly held by Arminians.

• Sin consists in acts of the will.

• Adam’s guilt was individual and was not imputed to his posterity.

• Man’s depravity as a result of the Fall is not total for man has not lost the faculty of selfdetermination or the ability to choose the good.116 • The human will is to be viewed as one of the causes of regeneration (synergism).

• Faith and good works are a ground of acceptance with God.

• There is no imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

Remarks on Arminianism

Arminianism in general embraces much evangelical truth, but Scripture cannot support many things such as an alternative understanding of the nature of Original Sin.

Arminianism and the Nature of Original Sin The Scriptures teach that man’s moral inheritance from Adam is of the nature of sin, and that all men are under penalty of eternal death. Man is by nature the children of wrath. Man is condemnable for what he is as well as for what he does. The depravity of nature is as truly heinous in the sight of God as the actual transgression that springs from it. Arminianism does not fully recognize the evil inherent in human nature. Arminianism does not appreciate the fact that there are no small sins because there is no small God.

Synergism and Salvation In the end, the Arminian doctrine of salvation divides the effectiveness of salvation between the divine and human will. This mode of salvation is called synergism. The doctrine of sovereign grace assigns the efficiency to God’s will alone, and makes human co-operation the effect of Divine grace. “The dependence upon grace in the Arminian system is partial; in the Calvinistic system it is total” --William G.T. Shedd.