Nothing in life is certain but death and taxes. Given the human condition, however, this adage needs an upgrade: Nothing in life is certain but death, taxes, and original sin. Think about it. People are cruel to each other, say unholy things, and think unseemly thoughts. We know this about ourselves and we see it in others, in our relationships, on social media, in the news—everywhere. Someone once said, “The doctrine of original sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith.” An exaggeration, but a point well made.
The reality of sin pervades the biblical narrative. Already in Genesis 4, Cain killed his brother Abel out of envy (Gen. 4:9). Lamech, the bigamist, bragged about his sinful exploits (Gen. 4:23–24). Things got so bad in early history that God wiped out humanity with a flood—except for Noah and his family—because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and . . . every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Basically, the rest of Scripture displays God’s showing mercy to people who cannot stop sinning.
In the fourth century, a theologian named Pelagius disagreed. He claimed that some people in the Bible were sinless, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Job. Even the Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was sinless. However, Scripture says nothing of the kind. Abel could hardly be sinless if he offered sacrifices (Gen. 4:4), nor could Mary, who praised God as her Savior (Luke 1:47). Scripture’s consistent testimony is that “no one is righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10; see also Ps. 14:3). As Paul writes, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Like metastatic cancer, sin pervades each of us inside and out. In the Reformed tradition, this sinful disposition is sometimes called total depravity. It is not that I’m as bad as I could be, for that would clearly be untrue, but that no part of me is untouched by sin. This reality, in turn, implies a total inability: Apart from Christ, nothing I do is spiritually good. I can do outwardly “religious” things, or acts of civil righteousness, but I cannot please God without faith (Heb. 11:6). Our good deeds are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). We are dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1). This moral pollution in every human soul is one half of the doctrine of original sin—call it original corruption. You are not a sinner because you sin; you sin because you are a sinner. Every human being, except Jesus, sins because of original corruption.
For all the misery Adam inflicted on us, Jesus shines brighter with the gift of salvation and eternal life.
To understand why everyone has this original corruption, we must go back to Genesis 1 and 2 when God made the heavens and the earth. Everything He created was “good ” (Gen. 1:10, 12, 18, 21, and 25) and “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Given God’s holy character (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8), creation must have been free from sin at the beginning because it came from the Creator. Adam and Eve were therefore sinless, only to then disobey God’s direct command not to eat from a tree in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1–6; see also 2:17). This disobedience gave birth to original sin. In Paul’s rundown of the tragedy, “sin came into the world through one man,” namely, Adam (Rom. 5:12).
The key to understanding original sin is in Romans 5:12–21, where Adam’s fate and ours are irrevocably bound together. Paul is incessant on this point: “Many died through one man’s trespass” (Rom. 5:15); “The judgment following one trespass brought condemnation” (Rom. 5:16); “Because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man” (Rom. 5:17); “One trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Rom. 5:18); “By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Rom. 5:19). We all sin and die physically because of Adam’s first sin (1 Cor. 15:21–22).
But we can go deeper still. Notice that throughout Romans 5:12–21, Paul stresses the symmetry between Adam and Christ: Adam’s disobedience brings sin, condemnation, and death, while Christ’s righteousness brings justification, righteousness, and eternal life. What’s going on? Adam is a representative or “federal head” of humanity—as it goes for Adam, so it goes for all his descendants. This notion can be difficult for modern, Western individuals to accept over against many non-Western societies still inclined toward patriarchs and matriarchs. When Adam sinned, God counted all his descendants as guilty of the first sin; in other words, He imputed the sin to every human being. This imputed sin, sometimes called original guilt, is the other half of original sin. God considers us culpable for a sin that only Adam personally committed. Why would God do that? Because Adam acted as our federal head.
The doctrine of original sin—original corruption and original guilt—is deeply mysterious. It is difficult to wrap our minds around, but without it we are even more mysterious to ourselves. While it may feel depressing, it is in fact the very reason for the gospel. Original sin is the dark shadow, and Christ is the bright light. If we don’t like Adam representing us in sin, then we can forget about Christ representing us in righteousness! For all the misery Adam inflicted on us, Jesus shines brighter with the gift of salvation and eternal life. God counts all true believers as possessing Christ’s righteousness. The Father imputes His Son’s righteousness to us—as it goes for Christ, so it goes for believers (Rom. 5:12–21). Once we grasp how dire our situation was without Christ, God’s astonishing grace comes fully into view, like the sun rising at dawn.
