************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 15 ************
Doctrine: Original Sin
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on August 2, 1998
B.C. 15
Romans 5:12-21
"Original Sin"
Introduction
One of my most colorful acquaintances at Calvin College was Harold. Harold had some unusual ideas. One that still sticks with me was his plan for a perfect society. Harold proposed that it is the duty of all Christian parents to have as many children as possible – 10, 12, 14, even 16 of them. Christian parents, said Harold, will raise Christian children who, in turn, will become Christian parents. These in turn will produce Christian children who will become Christian adults who, in turn, will raise Christian children. In a few generations, said Harold, there should be far more Christians than non-Christians in our world. This will automatically make our world a better place and a happier place in which to live.
There is one flaw in Harold's proposal. It is the same flaw in the approach of the Pelagians mentioned at the end of Article 15 of the Belgic Confession of Faith. That flaw is the mistake of forgetting or denying original sin.
What we are discussing today is the transmission of original sin. We are looking at how those born after Adam become sinners. The last two babies born into our church family are Zackariah Chase Featherstone and Saskia Ann Dragt. We are looking at how these two little babies, with the rest of us, became sinners.
I Pelagius – Sinners Through Imitation
A Around the year A.D. 380 there lived a British monk named Pelagius. Pelagius taught that the human person, even after the fall into sin, retained a free will. We can will not to sin; if we want, we can be perfect like Christ.
According to Pelagius, there is no connection between Adam's sin and our sin. We don't inherit any original sin from Adam and Eve. There is no transmission of guilt from Adam to us, and no transmission of pollution either. Adam was created neutral: neither good nor bad. His sin was a matter of choice. The human person born today is born in the exact same condition as Adam: he or she is born neutral. Like Adam, they can make a choice between good or evil. This means that every human ever born replays the test of Adam and Eve in the Garden – every person has to decide for obedience or disobedience to God's commands. Sin, said Pelagius, is not a condition, but a choice. We are not sinners by nature; rather, we do sinful things.
B If Pelagius is correct, how come there is so much bad and so little good in our world. If Pelagius is correct, how come everyone seems to choose for evil? How does Pelagius account for the universality of sin?
Imitation. According to Pelagius, we choose for sin by imitation. Sin is universal because of imitation. We all imitate the bad examples of our parents, brothers, sisters, wives or husbands, friends and associates. If only we had good examples to follow we all would choose good rather than evil
Those two babies I mentioned earlier – Zackariah Chase Featherstone and Saskia Ann Dragt – will turn out perfect if only they have perfect examples to imitate. That's what Pelagius and Harold say.
C How do we respond to such a view? First, let me say that it flatly contradicts Scripture. Our passage from Romans 5 teaches us that no human is ever born neutral:
(Rom 5:12) ... sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--
(Rom 5:18) ... the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men ...
(Rom 5:19) ... through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners ...
Listen, also, to the words of the Psalmist:
(Ps 51:5) Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Instead of being born neutral, as Pelagius maintains, the Bible makes clear that we are conceived and born into sin and as sinners.
Second, the Pelagian view is contrary to our experience. Most Christian parents can see that sin exists in even the smallest of children.
Topic: Sin
Subtopic: Origin of
Index: 3339
Date: 7/1998.101
Title: Tomato Smashers
I experienced this first-hand a number of years ago while we were still living in Wisconsin. I went to my garden to pick some tomatoes and cucumbers. I was less than happy when I saw what someone had done: they ripped tomatoes off the plants, threw them around and smashed them into pulp.
I saw tracks and the imprints of little shoes leading to a neighbor's house. I knocked at the door, explained what happened, and asked the mother who answered the door to question her children.
A couple of minutes later my door-bell rang. Two white-faced boys stood trembling on my door-step. I invited them in. "We did it," they said. "We didn't mean to and we don't know why."
Well I knew why. They wrecked my tomatoes because they were conceived and born in sin. Because sin lives in them they did something bad.
By the way, after they confessed their deed they volunteered to work for me.
Third, bad examples do not invariably corrupt. Think of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The environment may lead to sin but it does not cause sin. The opposite, of course, is also true: good examples do not invariably lead to good behavior – why else do so many godly parents have such erring children?
Fourth, the problem of sin goes much deeper than bad examples.
Topic: Sin
Subtopic: Origin of
Index: 3339
Date: 10/1995.19
Title: Not Clocks Only
A good story is told of old Thomas K. Beecher, who could not bear deceit in any form. Finding that a clock in his church was habitually too fast or too slow, he hung a placard on the wall above it which read, "Don't blame my hands. The trouble lies deeper."
Similarly, when I do wrong, don't blame my hands, or my feet, or my lips, or my thoughts. The trouble lies deeper, much deeper. The trouble lies in my heart. The trouble is that we are conceived and born with original sin.
Why is someone a sinner? Is someone a sinner because they sin, because they do bad things? Those people in Corcoran Prison, for instance, are they considered sinners because they do such things as rape, kill, steal, embezzle, abuse, get drunk, do drugs, and commit homosexual acts? Are they sinners because they sin? If that is what you think, then you are wrong.
Why is someone, anyone, a sinner? We aren't sinners because we sin; rather, because we are sinners we sin. Sin is part of our fallen nature. It is something we are born with. All of us are conceived and born with original sin; all of us are conceived and born with the sin of Adam and Eve. That's why we are sinners!
II The Passing on of Original Sin
A Back to the question of the day. How is original sin transmitted to us? How do little babies – like Zackariah Chase Featherstone and Saskia Ann Dragt – become sinners?
Based on Scripture the Confession of faith speaks clearly to this. It says,
We believe
that by the disobedience of Adam
original sin has been spread
through the whole human race ...
It is ...
an inherited depravity which even infects small infants
in their mother's womb ...
Notice, we inherit original sin. We inherit it from Adam through our parents. The original sin of Adam and Eve passed on to their children, who passed it on to their children, who passed it on to theirs ... until eventually it became ours. It is hereditary. It can't be avoided. This means that even Zackariah Chase Featherstone and Saskia Ann Dragt are infected with Adam's sin. Little babies, together with the rest of us, are sinners through Adam or because of Adam. We all are sinners and we all sin because of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise.
There can be no doubt that this is the clear teaching of Scripture. Listen to these verses from our Bible reading:
(Rom 5:12) ... sin entered the world through one man ...
(Rom 5:15) ... many died by the trespass of the one man ...
(Rom 5:18) ... the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men ...
(Rom 5:19) ... through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners ...
B Why should the sin of the first man and woman affect us today? What is the connection between their sin and us?
Adam stands in a twofold relationship to his descendants: he is their natural head and he is their covenant head. As the natural head, Adam is the father of all mankind and Eve is the mother. Way at the beginning to time God placed a law that everything reproduces according to its own kind, that like begets like, that every creature produces offspring in its own image or likeness. In the case of Adam and Eve this means that their descendants, like them, are sinners.
Adam is also our covenant head. Another way of putting this is to say that he is our federal head, our representative. You all know about the shooting deaths of the two guards on capitol hill. President Clinton spoke on behalf of all Americans when he praised the officers for their "quiet courage and uncommon bravery" for giving their lives. President Clinton is our federal head and what he does and says as President, he does and says on behalf of all Americans. In the same way, Adam is our federal head or covenant representative. When he sinned, he sinned as our representative, and hence we were all involved in that sin.
III The Effects of Original Sin
A What are the effects of original sin on the whole human race?
The first effect is "a corruption of all nature." Sin has affected not only the will of man – making him unwilling and unable to do that which is good in God's sight – but it has also warped man's whole being and every human enterprise. Every aspect of human life is touched by sin. On account of this man cannot do anything to make himself right with God; on his own he is unable to change his natural preference for sin and evil. The theological terms we use here are total depravity or pollution.
B The second effect of original sin – the sin we are born with – is actual sin. The Confession says that original sin is "the root which produces in man every sort of sin." As you know, it is the roots which hold up a plant or a tree and provide it with nourishment. If the root is bad the tree cannot help but bear bad fruit. Within man is a root – original sin – that causes us to bear the bad fruit of sin.
The Confession also compares original sin to a contaminated spring or fountain. A number of years ago on a trip across the United States, my family and I stopped overnight at a campground with sulphur hot springs. The hot, smelly water came from deep in the earth and bubbled up hour after hour and day after day. In the same way sin bubbles forth in the lives of man hour after hour and day after day from the cesspool of original sin.
C The third effect of original sin is condemnation or guilt. Original sin is "so vile and enormous in God's sight that it is enough to condemn the human race." In Adam we are all reckoned as guilty before God. We aren't considered guilty in the sense of personally eating of the forbidden fruit. But because Adam is our federal or covenant head his guilt becomes our guilt. To this guilt we add the guilt of our own sin. Therefore we stand doubly condemned or damned before God: for the sin we are born with as well as for the sin we actually commit.
IV God's Grace and Our Struggle
A In our Scripture reading Paul discusses our fall in Adam. Over and over again he drives home the point that Adam is our representative, our covenant or federal head. The Apostle Paul talks about Adam as our representative because he wants to talk about the representative acts of the second Adam, Christ Jesus. He writes Romans 5 to assure us that just as we are lost in Adam, so are we saved in Christ. Just like all fall in Adam, so all who believe are saved in Christ. In both instances, the lot of the many was decided in the deeds of the one. The position of Adam helps us to understand the position of Jesus. Both are representative heads of humanity. We may be united with the first Adam in original sin, but if we are united with the second Adam we are set free from corruption, sin, and condemnation. Listen to what our Bible reading says:
(Rom 5:15) For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
(Rom 5:16) The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
(Rom 5:17) For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
(Rom 5:18) Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
(Rom 5:19) For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
B This is also the teaching of baptism. In baptism we are reminded that we and our little ones are corrupt, we are sinners, we are guilty. And we are also reminded that because of the death and resurrection of Christ we are treated as being righteous, pure, and innocent. But, as the Belgic Confession of Faith puts it, this does not mean that original sin is "abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism." In this life, in this body, and on this earth original sin continues to be something we must struggle against so that we groan "to be set free from the body of this death."
Conclusion
High school students were asked what they saw as the number one problem facing mankind today. Things mentioned were: acid rain, pollution, crime, poverty, nuclear energy, the arms race, terrorism. Not one of these students mentioned the real root or cause of man's woes; not a single student pointed at sin as the real problem facing the human race.
Sin is man's real problem. It is only because of sin that all other problems exist. And, it is only when we deal with sin that we can deal with everything else that is wrong with our world.
At the root of all our problems lies the problem of sin. And, as Christians, we all know the solution to that problem:
(Rom 5:19) For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.