In this chapter, we are going to look at little further at what sin is and how it affects the human condition. This will include a consideration of original sin and what is referred to in Reformed Theology as Total Depravity.
What is sin?
A number of words are used to refer to sin in the Bible. These include the ideas of lawlessness, trespass and transgression, so that sin is concerned with a wandering away from God like lost sheep by breaking his covenant law and living as though it does not exist. We also see in Romans 3:23 that we “have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.”
It is perhaps best to look again at the first example of sin. Romans 5 tells us that it was through Adam and Eve that sin and, through sin, death entered the World. Adam and Eve had been commanded by God to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. However, when tempted by the serpent (Satan), they desired the fruit and its false promise of deification. So, they broke the command resulting in shame and guilt. Sin is concerned with that which brings guilt and shame. It is about choosing to listen to lies from the tempter to desire what is not ours now and to seek to acquire it in the wrong way at the wrong time. Sin is about seeking the position of God, it is rivalry to him. Sin is about disobeying God’s clear commands. Sin therefore is about hostility and rebellion against God. In that we listen to other voices and prefer our desires, sin may also be seen as closely linked to idolatry.
Original sin
Original sin is the idea both that sin originated with Adam’s sin and that we are all culpable for that sin, that we sinned in Adam. In terms of the first part, the basis for this is seen in the record of Scripture. At the start of Genesis 3, God has evaluated his creation as “very good” and Adam and Eve are in a state of innocence, they do not know good and evil. They have no experience of guilt and shame. It is only after they take the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that sin is present in the World. They have chosen to rebel against God and so they and creation come under judgement. In Romans 5:12-14, Paul says:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned –
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Notice that neither sin nor death were present before Adam’s act. Further note that there is a kind of “now and not yet” context from Adam’s sin until the giving of the Law. The Law is not there to identify, describe and condemn sin and yet sin is still present.
Adam’s sin and Christ’s righteousness are compared to each other with Adam’s sin bringing death and Christ’s obedience bringing life. The penalty of sin falls upon all humanity because of Adam’s sin. Note that at this point, we might best talk about “original death”, we all die “in Adam” and so that curse is upon us. Romans 5 does not explicitly say that we “sinned in Adam.”
Nevertheless, it is appropriate, in my opinion, to talk in terms of us sinning “in Adam”. There are several reasons for this. First, justice would require that in some way we share in the culpability if we are to share in the punishment. We own Adam’s death because we own his sin. Secondly, it is helpful to think in terms of the concept of “federal headship”, both Romans 5 and the similar passage in 1 Corinthians 15 point to Adam as a kind of representative for all humanity. Indeed, there is a sense in which we should think of the human race as a single or interconnected entity.[1]
I believe that this is further confirmed by the striking wording of 1 Corinthians 15:49.
“49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.
We are not just made in God’s image but born in Adam’s image. This surely means not that we are made in his human image but specifically in his fallen image. We inherit “a corrupt nature by means of natural generation.[2] Adam was identified as a sinner, a law breaker, a rebel, an idolator and so are we. It’s not that we are sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. Finally, then, given the comparison between Adam and Christ, if we think of our life and identity now being in Christ, it seems reasonable to talk about our life prior to conversion as being “in Adam.”
Total Depravity
Original Sin causes us to think about sin in terms of its external extent whilst Total Depravity refers to its inward extent. Depravity can be a difficult concept as the word is used often these days in the context of particularly heinous and revolting acts and thoughts. We talk about people being depraved to indicate that they are as bad as possibly can be, maybe even worse than can possibly be imagined. As Letham puts it:
“The modifier total denotes that sin affects every facet of our nature. It does not mean that everyone is as bas as he or she possibly could be. Nor does it mean that fallen humans lack a conscience. It means that there is no part of the personality that is not corrupted; the mind, the emotions, or the whatever. In Shedds words, it means ‘the entire absence of holiness, not the highest intensity of sin.”[3]
The Reformed Doctrine was intended not to distinguish out different types of sin or to suggest that we are bas as possibly can be. Rather the point of the Reformed Doctrine is that if “depravity” refers to “sinful fallenness”, then the totality of our being, our feelings, thoughts, words and actions, is affected by this depravity. There is not one person that is untouched by sin and there is not one part of any person untouched by sin.
The doctrine is significant not least because of the way it cut across the Roman Catholic understanding of what it means to be human. This will become significant later as we seek to understand our ongoing relationship to sin, desire and temptation. The dominant worldview at the time of the Reformation saw humans as divided into a higher and lower self. The lower-self amounted to our base animal instincts, made from the dust of the ground. When God’ breathed life into Adam, grace was added or “super-added” creating the higher, spiritual self, that was what it meant to bear God’s image.[4] Bavinck traces this idea to two beliefs, first that believers are “elevated by Christ” to a state of glory and second that good works have merit.[5]He says:
“From these two ideas, the mystical view of man’s final destiny and he meritoriousness of good works was born the Catholic doctrine of the ‘superadded gift’ (donum superadditum). The first to formulate it was Alexander of Hales. The heavenly blessedness and the vision of God, which is man’s final destiny – and was so for Adam – can be merited ex condigno only by such good works as are in accord with that final destiny. In other words, like that destiny, they have a supernatural character and hence proceed from a supernatural principle infused grace. The righteousness that Adam possessed as a human earthly being by virtue of creation was not of course sufficient to that end. So for Adam to reach his final destiny he too needed to be given a supernatural grace.”[6]
The consequence of the Fall was that this super-added part was removed leaving behind the base, lower self. This lower, natural self could not achieve the attended state of glory but was also in effect at least neutral “humankind in the purely natural sense, without supernatural grace, is indeed sinless.”[7] This helps us to understand how Catholic soteriology and sanctification works. In Catholic thinking, the sacrament of baptism leads to this super added grace being received again. This has substance like quantities and can increase, so that some people, those identified as saints might have a surplus of grace but also reduce. In effect through good deeds, sacraments and through receiving/borrowing grace from others such as dead saints or holy people living today your own grace can be topped up. Whilst this amounts to a layman’s sketch of Catholic anthropology, we might consider that such thinking can find its way into protestant and evangelical thinking and practice too. This is particularly so when we find ourselves seeking to add to our salvation by what we do through legalism or when we seek mystical experiences to in effect top us up spiritually.
There are numerous problems with this outlook, not least that it finds no place in Scripture and its tendency towards legalism and mystical experience with all the potential for control and abuse which is exactly what the Reformers encountered in the medieval church. Bavinck also notes that it assumes a faulty eschatology whereby we look forward to “a mystical fusion” of our souls “with God” and where we must wait until “the state of glory” to be bestowed with “all the benefits that Christ has acquired for us”[8] When Scripture points to those spiritual benefits being for this life as well as the next.
The Reformers with their doctrine of Total Depravity cut through this. We were made as holistic, unified or embodied spirits and The Fall affected every aspect of who we are. Indeed, this is best summed up by the concept of original death. We were dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). Now death as opposed to sickness affects the whole person, not just one part of them. So, the penalty of death renders us completely helpless.
[1] This reflects the realist view of original sin, see Letham, Systematic Theology, 377-378.
[2] Letham, Systematic Theology, 378.
[3] Letham, Systematic Theology, 397.
[4] On the Donum Superadditum see The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 374-79.
[5] Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 538.
[6] Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 539-540.
[7] Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 541.
[8] Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 542.
