************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 7-8 ************
Doctrine: Original Sin
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on March 26, 2000
Q & A 7-8
Genesis 3
"Original Sin"
Introduction
Why? Why did man fall into sin? It doesn't make sense at all. Man had everything to lose and nothing to gain by the Fall.
Man was created good and in the image of God (Gen 1:26,27,31). God placed him in a beautiful garden (Gen 2:8). The garden was filled with trees and plants that were pleasing to the eye and produced an abundance of delicious fruit (Gen 1:29; 2:9). Through the garden flowed a river with refreshing streams of cool water (Gen 2:10). Man lived there in harmony with the animals, the birds, and all beasts (Gen 2:19,20). God gave him a suitable helper, a partner, a woman, so he would not be alone (Gen 2:21-24). God gave man satisfying and fulfilling employment – to work in the garden and take care of it (Gen 2:15). Man was made ruler over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground (Gen 1:26).
It is a mystery that a man and woman with all of this would fall into sin. Yet, that is exactly what happened.
What went wrong? What happened? What wrecked man's perfect existence in the beautiful garden?
I The Fall Into Sin
A Genesis 3 tells us what went wrong. It tells us about the day when man first fell into sin and exiled himself from God and the garden. Stockbrokers and others can tell us all about "Black Monday" – that day in 1988 when the stock market crashed. Some of them lost millions. But far worse, and far blacker, was that day when man first fell into sin.
In his garden paradise man was told, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen 2:16b,17). Along comes Satan and sows doubt about this Word of God: "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Gen 3:1). He urged Eve to eat from the tree for "when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5).
We don't know for how long Eve listened to the lies and half truths of Satan. We don't know how long she struggled and wrestled with her conscience: maybe a day or even a month; perhaps C.S. Lewis is correct when, in his book Perelandra, he depicts the struggle as lasting for 3 years. Eventually, though, Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Adam also ate the fruit of that tree. This marked the start of man's misery. As Q & A 7 puts it, "man's corrupt nature comes from ... the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise."
B Man's purity was lost and his misery started when Adam and Eve fell into sin in Paradise. The origin of evil is not in genetics, the environment, or in some created flaw; rather, it began when our first parents disobeyed God.
In explaining the origin of evil in humanity we are always tempted to do what Eve did, namely, blame Satan: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (Gen 3:13). It is true that before sin erupted in the heart of Eve, it lurked in the heart of Satan. However, the Bible does not allows us to blame God or to get away with using the Devil as an excuse. The simple fact is that in a good and perfect universe made by a good and perfect God the origin of evil is not explained to us.
The Bible takes an entirely different approach. True knowledge of evil does not involve understanding where it came from or how it came to be. Rather, true knowledge of evil occurs when a sinner confesses her or his guilt before God.
C The question always arises why we should be punished for the sin of someone who lived 6000 plus years ago. The answer is that Adam and Eve sinned as "our first parents." Their sin was a representative act. The name "Adam," for instance, means "mankind"; the name "Eve" means "mother of all living." These names remind us that Adam and Eve acted on behalf of mankind. As such, they committed the entire human race to the way of sin. Adam and Eve functioned as ambassadors or representatives here – representatives and ambassadors of all humans.
The idea of representation is firmly embedded in the Bible. And it is not unknown to us. We have elected representatives in Washington, Sacramento, Tulare County Board of Supervisors, and Visalia City Hall who act on our behalf. We all know how the acts of parents, the sins of the fathers, for instance, affect the whole family for better or for worse for years to come. We know how the President or Governor can make agreements to which all of us are bound. From the Old Testament we remember leaders and kings who brought judgment to many or by whose godliness the whole nation was blessed. In all of these instances – and many more – we see the idea of representation.
The Bible also teaches representation when it comes to the Fall into sin:
(Rom 5:18-19) ... the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men ... (19) ... through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners ...
Paul says that all men sinned when Adam sinned. We were represented by our first father and mother. In them we sinned; with them we die.
Many object to this teaching because it leaves us no choice and it robs us of our individuality. But, we must not deny our oneness with all humanity. Nor, must we forget why, in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul discusses our fall in Adam. Paul talks about Adam as our representative because he wants to talk about the representative acts of the second Adam, Christ Jesus. Listen to how Paul puts this:
(Rom 5:18-19) ... the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men ... (19) ... through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
He writes Romans 5 to assure us that 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.
II Original Sin, Pollution, and Depravity
A How exactly has the fall affected us? The Catechism uses the word "poison" here. The fall has "poisoned our nature."
The Catechism here always makes me think of snakes – poisonous snakes. Take a cobra, for instance. When they bite they inject poison into a victim. Their poison is strong enough to kill a large rat in a couple of minutes. The poison enters the blood stream and very quickly circulates until every part of the body becomes infected and poisoned.
Adam's and Eve's fall into sin injected a poison into the human blood stream. That poison has infected every part of our being and has spoiled and distorted the image of God within us.
The technical term for the poison is "inherited pollution." The expression favored by our baptism forms is that we are "all conceived and born in sin."
People have asked themselves how this "poison" from our first parents was passed on to succeeding generations. The fact is, nobody knows how the fatal corruption is transmitted. The Bible has no theory on "inherited pollution" and no teaching that says how the poison is actually transmitted. In trying to describe to us the transmission of sin from one generation to the next our creeds and confessions use such images as disease contagion, hereditary disease, root/branch, source/stream, etc. But all of these are merely images; they don't tell us how the poison is transmitted from Adam and Eve to all following generations.
I should mention that from Adam and Eve we inherit not only poison/pollution/corruption but also guilt. Which means that in Adam and Eve we stand condemned. Or, to put it another way, from Adam and Eve we inherit a free pass into hell.
The two of them together – pollution and guilt – make up what we call "original sin."
B Original sin means "we are born sinners – corrupt from conception on."
Do you realize what this means? It means our actual sins do not make us sinners. It means we are sinners even before we actually commit a sin. A person sins because he or she is a sinner. It is not a case of a person becoming a sinner when or because he or she commits a sin. The last baby born within our church family is Hayden Gerald Houtsma. He is too young to have committed any sins. Yet, this does not mean he is not a sinner. He, and every new born, along with the rest of us, is a sinner.
Those without an understanding of original sin would go to Corcoran State prison or the Bob Wiley Detention Center and say that the murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers, child molesters, drunkards, addicts and homosexuals there are sinners because of the sins they have committed. We know better than to say this – or we should. We know that people commit crimes and sins because they are sinners. We don't divide the world into those who are sinners and those who are not. We know that all people are "conceived and born in sin." We know that all people inherit the pollution and guilt of original sin from our first parents. We know that people sin because they are born sinners. Therefore we ought to be careful when we talk about the heinous sins of others: it is only the restraining grace of God which keeps us from being behind prison walls for rape, murder, theft or assault. What we have to understand is that original sin is the seed and actual sins are the full grown weeds and thistles that result.
C Sin is much worse than we are inclined to think it is. We, according to the Catechism, "are so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil." The technical term here is "total depravity." With this term some unbiblical notions have sprung up. Total depravity does not mean that people act as bad as they possibly can. Most of the time, most of us do not act as bad as we possibly can. Nor does it mean that ordinary decent people cannot perform acts of kindness, helpfulness, courtesy, and so on.
By total depravity we mean that sin has affected or infected every part of every human being just like poison in the bloodstream circulates until all of the body is infected. Sin has infected all of our existence.
III God's Grace
A Original sin, pollution, corruption, guilt, poison, total depravity – these are not the only message of Genesis 3. God's Word in Genesis 3 does not end on this note. Three times the grace of God is mentioned. First, God came looking for man after man fell into sin. "Where are you?"
Second, God gives the promise of a Savior: He will crush the head of Satan (Gen 3:15), and the powers of sin, darkness and evil.
Third, God comes to His fallen creatures with graceful clothing (Gen 3:21). When Adam and Eve fell into sin they discover shame – shame before God, shame before each other, shame before themselves. So they attempt to cover up so they can no longer see their own shame. "They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" (Gen 3:7). And then a strange and wonderful thing happens. The God they have tried to replace comes to them with a gift. The God whose grace is deeper than our sin "made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" (Gen 3:21). God comes with better and more durable clothing for their shame. The Lord God made graceful clothing for guilty people.
B The Catechism too does not end on a negative note.
If you remember, pollution and guilt are the two parts of original sin. In upcoming questions and answers the Catechism will tell us about the blood of Christ which removes our guilt and the Spirit of Christ which removes our pollution. The Spirit and blood of Christ, we can say, are the antidote to the poison of sin.
C How do we get this antidote? This antidote can be ours if we, by grace, believe in Christ Jesus. That's the only way to receive the antidote.
If a child swallows poison you need to go to the hospital and a doctor in order to receive the antidote, the medicine, which counteracts the poison. Without the antidote the child will suffer irreparable harm.
To get the antidote for the poison of sin you have to go not to the hospital or the doctor but to Christ. Only Christ can wash away the guilt of our sin and give us the life-giving Spirit. And, without the antidote you will surely die – an eternal death for body and soul. It is so necessary to come to Jesus. Only Jesus can get the poison out of our system; only Jesus can get rid of the pollution and guilt of sin.