There have been many attempts made to understand the effect that Adam’s sin has had on us, and to discover whether or not we do actually still carry the guilt for Adam’s sin when we are born. I would like to take a brief look at four views, separate to the views of the Christians, which have developed in relation to these questions. The first of which is called Pelagianism; this school of thought put forward the idea that it was not the actual sin of Adam that had an effect on humanity, instead it was merely the bad example that Adam showed to us in disobeying God’s wishes, also that we can only be held accountable for our “actual sins”- the sins that we commit voluntarily, as an act of our own choosing. Another view was that held by Arminianism. Although it shared the same opinion as Pelagianism regarding our only being accountable for our own voluntary sins, they believed that God supplies us with sufficient grace to nullify the effects of Adams sin on humanity, allowing us to be fully obedient to God. The next view I would like to speak of is the Realistic view. This view claims that we were all present in Adam when he sinned, and so we all suffer the consequences of that sin. Every one of us as individuals were, at that time, localised and unified in him, and so we participated, as a part of Adam, in the disobedience of God. And finally there is the Federal view. This view concentrates on the covenant that God made with Adam. If Adam obeyed, we would enjoy eternal life, and if not, we would suffer condemnation and death. And the outcome is obvious.
The first two views that I discussed above are quite different to that of Christians, in that they undermine the effects that Adams sin has had on humanity. The final two, however, possess much the same fundamental ideas as Christians of today, and try to understand the effects that Adams sin has had on us. The Christian view on Original sin has its grounding in the scriptures, Romans 5.12-19, to be exact. This passage focuses on the damage that Adam’s sin has done to humanity, and closely connected it with that of redemption by Christ. In Adam we all sinned, Adam was a representative of the entire human race and due to his sin we are all suffering. However, Christ died on the cross for our sins and he, also as a representative of all people, has made our salvation possible once more. The effect of Adam’s sin is that we are all born sinners, we are all depraved, but through our Lord’s death on the cross we have been saved from condemnation. St. John contrasts the universality of death and sin with the universality of salvation in Christ. “Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.”
In a sense, human beings are stained by the sin of Adam; however, God does not see it as a personal fault in individuals. It is more a deprivation of the original holiness, goodness, and justice (sanctifying grace) that we would have been born with had Adam been obedient. It is the beliefs of many including the Reformers that original sin, even after Baptism, finds expression in our day-to-day personal sins. This is sometimes referred to as “sinful concupiscence”. It in some way leads us towards sin and makes it slightly more difficult for us to find the way towards doing what God wishes for us to do, and our fallen nature can only be recreated by our receiving grace from God. Luther even went so far as to say that this consequence of original sin removes human freedom. However, Luther’s idea was strongly rejected by the Council of Trent who insisted that the effects of original sin are wiped out by Baptism. Augustine claimed that free will remained an important part of human nature, but due to original sin, even after Baptism, there remained also a perverse disintegrative tendency in each of us that opposed the will of God. And so, man spends his life struggling to do what is right by God and to find his inner integrity.
Original sin affects every part of our beings; our minds, our bodies, our souls, our hearts, our will. Many people fail to understand the gravity of it’s effects. Original sin does not just show it’s ugly face when temptation calls on us and we decide to do what we know is wrong. Original sin is the capability that is in our nature to do what is evil; it is not just the action itself. It is only by the grace of God that human beings are not as sinful actually as we are potentially. And it is this potentiality for sin that shows the stain of original sin on our beings. Our propensity towards evil does not take away our ability to choose to do what it is right; it merely affects the way that we think about things and the way that we feel about things. It makes the evil option seem easier as our principals have been corrupted by sin and evil.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mk. 7.21-23)
“The intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Gen. 8.21)
The reason that every one of us does not become as evil as we are capable of becoming is due to the way in which we have the church, our families, our communities, our friends, our teachers and other people who are living along side us, as well as God’s own grace and mercy, to keep us from turning to total evil. God has put the protection of others around us to help us fight off sin as best we can. We need the help of God in order to do good. Humanity cannot redeem itself, and in the depraved state it is in it does not have the will to be redeemed. We cannot understand what needs to be done to save ourselves. The best we can do is to try our best to live according to God’s law, and pray for his grace and his love.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Original Sin.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm
ORIGINAL SIN AND ITS TRANSMISSION: by Peter. A. Kwasniewski
SIN: by Hugh Connolly.
British library cataloguing 2002
