Is "Original Sin" Biblical?

God considered Adam's sin a very serious matter. Adam, whose name means "man" in Hebrew, stands as the head of the human race as Jesus Christ stands as the head of the redeemed race (1Cor. 15:22). When Adam sinned in the garden, he made sinners of all mankind, for all men were now corrupted by one man's disobedience. Paul states clearly five times in Rom. 5:12-19 that Adam brought death and condemnation on the whole human race and that men were now constituted as sinners. Understanding Paul's detailed explanation of the fall in Romans 5 helps us to understand why Paul wrote earlier in Romans 3 that there was no one righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, and no one who does good, not even one (Rom. 3:10-18).

David understood that he came into this world as a sinner (Ps. 51:5), and Jeremiah wrote that the human heart was deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jer. 17:9). Even Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount referred to people as evil (Matt. 7:11). Jews who knew the law of God realized that people were born in sin (John 9:34).

The effect of sin is so serious that the Bible uses the strongest metaphors to describe it, metaphors that teach that sin leaves man without any moral ability. Paul writes that they were dead in trespasses and sins and were by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3). Sin makes us blind to the truth of God (John 9:39-40, 2 Cor. 4:3-4). It makes prisoners and slaves of us (John 8:34). The sinner has no life in him; he is unconceived spiritually (John 3:3).

We sin because we are sinners, because it is our nature to sin. In such a state, we cannot come to Christ, because we have no ability to come (John 6:44, 65). In the state of sin we cannot accept the things of God nor understand what God says to us (1 Cor. 2:14). Holy Scripture presents the case of man in his natural state in the worst possible terms: separated from Christ, excluded from God's promises, without hope, and without God (Eph. 2:12). Sin is indeed serious with a holy God! Original sin is an unpleasant reality! Humanism has always asserted that man is fundamentally good and perfectible; God's word has consistently taught that he is fallen, wicked, prone to evil, and lacking moral ability (Gen. 8:21). A study of human history and a careful look at current events will prove which view of man is true.

It is God and his active grace which enables fallen man to do good, to understand, to come to Christ, and to be saved. These are good gifts that bless mankind, and James tells us that all good gifts come from God, who, in accordance with his will, brought us to life (Jas. 1:17-18). James is pointing out the obvious fact that our goodness and our spiritual life have their source in God's free grace. Yes, man is fallen, but there is good news for those who put their trust in God's son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

(For more detailed studies on this topic contact Engedi Ministries. This subject is addressed in several recorded studies: "The Doctrines of Grace," "Justification," and "Christ Our Comfort.)