To one accustomed to read the scriptures, the words, “original sin” have a strange sound. There is not only not such an expression in scripture, but also, strictly speaking, it is not a correct expression. Original sin would imply sin as the original condition of a creature as created; indeed it would charge it as the work of the Creator. We need scarcely say this is not the case.
Even as to Satan, this was far from being so. lie is described under the figure of king of Tyrus, thus: “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.....Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.....Thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God..... Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness” &c. (Eze. 28:12-1712Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. (Ezekiel 28:12‑17).) Whether we look, then, at Satan, or at man, both were perfect as created of God. Satan used his very beauty and perfection for his fall.
We will now look, not at Adam as originally a sinner, but at the way in which sin was introduced by Satan; or, the way by which man became a sinner.
In Genesis we have no account of the creation of Satan or of his fall, but how he deceived the woman, and thus introduced sin and evil to the human race.
Here we would notice, as has often been observed, that it was not God that gave up man for the trifling thing of eating an apple; but just the opposite, man gave up God for an apple, on the ground of what Satan said: or, in other words, the woman listened to, and then believed, Satan the father of lies, and distrusted God. The serpent suggested unkindness in God, that He was withholding what was for man’s good. The woman listened to this foul lie. Then the serpent, point blank, denied the truth of the word of God—“Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.”
The woman believed Satan; sin thus entered—it conceived, and brought forth all its fruits. She lusted for the fruit: she took it, she ate; and she gave to Adam, and he did eat. Oh, how terrible the consequences! They were naked—they knew it. They might try to hide it from themselves—they could not hide it from God. They had given up God for the lie of Satan, and they were afraid of God. They tried to hide themselves from God. But had God given them up because they had so sadly sinned? Nay, He came to seek them, He said, “Adam, where art thou?” Nay, it was not until God had given the germ of the promise concerning the woman’s seed in the sentence on the serpent; and not until the Lord God had made coats of skins, and clothed them, both Adam and his wife, that He then really drove them forth from the garden of Eden. “So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” That is, it was real mercy thus to prevent man, in his now fallen, sinful state, from eating of the tree of life, and living forever.
Surely we must see, however man had sinned against God, yet God is love, and what God did to man was love; but not love at the expense of righteousness. What a change in Adam! And notice, there was no promise of any improvement or restoration to Adam. What promise there was, all pointed to the Seed of the woman.
Here, then, is God’s account of the fall, and the introduction of evil into this world; and there is no other account in existence worthy of a moment’s notice.
Neither can it be denied that the whole human t׳ace is in the very sinful state here described. The same distrust of God, the same doubt as to His goodness to man, the same effort to hide man’s shame and sin from God, and the same tender love of God come down to seek him, saying, “Where art thou?” And though God has devised, and is righteous in providing, a perfect covering for man, yet it is a fact that man in his natural state, as descended from Adam, is not in Eden; he is driven out, and he, as a child of Adam, cannot live in the body forever. “Dying, thou shalt die;” and dying, he does die. This is, to say the least of it, a remarkable fact, that the account given to us in Genesis exactly describes the condition of the whole of Adam’s posterity, or the human race.
How is this? Another scripture will explain. “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12).) It is not correct to do as some do, alter the end of this text, and say, “in whom all have sinned.” “For that all have sinned” is the unanswerable proof of the extent of the fall. Sin, then, was not man’s original condition; but we have seen how it entered into the world, and we have seen, as to man, how death came by sin. It is also a fact that death so passed upon all men; and all the wisdom, and efforts, or unbelief of the whole world, can neither do away with sin, nor shut the mouth of the all-devouring grave. Every policeman, and every funeral we meet, is a proof of this—nay, almost everything and person you meet is proof of this. The doctor, the magistrate, the mourning dress, &c, all tell of sin and death.
And what are all the places of man’s amusements, but proofs of his desperate effort to hide from God? And what are all the efforts of these same men to work out some sort of a religion to cover their sin and shame? Is it not the story of the fig-leaves over again? Oh, that men did but know the love of Him who still says, “Where art thou?” Yes, the God of love, who is rich in mercy to such as were €t fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Read Eph. 2:2-42Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:2‑4).)
What is man’s state by nature (called the flesh), that in which he is born? Let another inspired writer answer: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:55Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5).) Ye have seen how sin came into the world, how it passed upon all men; we know, too, that all have sinned—this proves it is so. But here, in this psalm, we have the exact statement how it affects us at our very birth.
Now the law could not improve this sinful nature, called flesh. “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.” “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Such, then, is the result of Adam’s sin to Adam’s race—such is the sinful condition of every child horn in this world. Such have we all found it to be as we have grown to years of knowledge. Such we are born, such we are by nature. To say it is not so, is a most serious fundamental mistake.
What is meant, then, by the term, “original sin” is not that man was made, or created, a sinner, but that, having become a sinner, all his posterity are born in sin—sin is their very nature. We will use the expression in this sense.
Now it is evident this cannot mean that we have committed sins before we were born, which would be impossible and absurd. That is a thought evidently connected with the old Eastern idea of transmigration of souls.
We now, with these remarks, ask attention for a moment to that strange delusion, that original sin is washed away in baptism. First, the child is baptized for the remission of sins it never has committed. Then it is held “that all that which has the true and proper nature of sin” is taken away by baptism; and thus the baptized are made innocent, immaculate, pure, harmless, and beloved of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ. It is almost impossible to believe that the professing church could have fallen into such error—but it did, and also cursed all who did not agree with this strange delusion. It could not, however, be denied that, when the child grew up after baptism, a sinful nature—call it what we will—still existed; but the professing church flatly contradicted the word of God, and said that though the apostle called it sin, yet it [the church] did not understand it to be properly sin in those born again by baptism, as they called it. (Rom. 7:88But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. (Romans 7:8).) See the full statement in Council of Trent, sec. 5:5. This was pretty bold work, to curse all who said what the apostle taught was true.
But we must go a little further than this delusion of the dark ages of baptismal regeneration; and ask, Do the scriptures teach that in truly being born anew, original sin, or the sinful nature in which we are born, that that has the true and proper nature of sin in us, is taken away? Where is this taught? Does the Lord, when speaking of the new birth, say that which is flesh is taken away, or improved, or made pure? He says the opposite: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And the apostle distinctly recognizes this evil nature—the flesh—in the believer. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot [or may not] do the things that ye would.” It may be said, This cannot possibly mean that the believer, who is born of God, still has sin in him! The apostle John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” Does it not, then, follow, that if we say sin was taken away by baptismal regeneration, and that we—the baptized—have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us? Nothing can be more certain than that if we hold that doctrine the truth is not in us.
But is it not equally so if we hold that the death of Christ, or the work of the Holy Spirit in being born anew, has taken away original sin, or our sinful nature, and that therefore we have no sin? In this case also the truth is not in us, equally as in the former case. We are assured that many who understand pretty clearly that we have forgiveness of sins committed, through the blood of Jesus: yet are in great confusion as to original sin, or sin the root in us. We know the common thought is, that in some way this root may be pulled up, sin may be eradicated, so that the sinful flesh is changed, and made holy—yea, in some sinless. There is no such thought in scripture, no such fact in experience down here. If we say so, we simply deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Nothing is more common than this mistake, that the new birth means a change of the old man; or, if not so that sanctification will perfect the change, and altogether change the original sinful nature in which we were born. What a sad mistake! Does not the man who is born of God find that nature still in him? though he can say, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,” &c. Here, in the quickened soul, there are two distinct natures. And the lesson must be learned, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
And cannot the law, or our efforts to keep it, help us in this dilemma, when we find, after all, there is still sin in us? Not in the least. “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (or lust). What pen can describe the misery of thousands thus seeking in the flesh to keep the law; or, by the law, as a rule of life, seeking to improve the flesh? “What, then” said a person the other day; “Is sin still on the believer all his life here, after Christ has died for him, and he is born of the Spirit?”
Let us look into the scriptures for the remedy and the answer. C. S.
You never really get rid of yourself except in the presence of God.