· Anthropology ·

Lecture Forty Five:  Original Sin and The Fall

TH330 Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber

I. A Definition of Sin

“Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 490)

A. An Act

“You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.  You shall not steal.”  (Ex 20:13-15)

B. An Attitude

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  (Ex 20:17)

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.  …  [A]nyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  (Matt 5:22, 28)

“Therefore a life that is pleasing to God is one that has moral purity not only in its actions, but also in its desires of heart.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 490)

C. A Nature

“All of us also lived among them [the world] at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”  (Eph 2:3)

! II. The Sinfulness of Sin

Something is sinful not in that it hurts other people, it’s sinful because we sin against God…being contrary to God’s moral character.

III. The Origin of Sin

A. Where Sin Did Not Come From

1. God Does Not Sin, Nor Can God Be Blamed For Sin

“He is the Rock, his works are perfect and all his ways are just.  A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”  (Deut 32:4; cf. Gen 18:25)

“…Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong.”  (Job 34:10)

“…God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”  (James 1:13)

2. Sin is Not an Eternally Existing Power, Always Opposed To God

Dualistic view…always at war, unsure of who will win. Sin isn’t eternal. It was introduced to God’s creation.

3. Sin is Not Something That Occurred Outside God’s Decree

“… [God] works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”  (Eph 1:11; Cf. Dan 4:35)

B. Where Sin Did Come From

Gen 3:1-19.  “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’  The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’  ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman.  ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’  he answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’  And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’  The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’  Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’  The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’  So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush you head, and you will strike his heel.’  To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.  Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’  To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat of it,” Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.’”

1. Sin Attacked Adam and Eve’s Basis For Knowledge

2. Sin Attacked Adam and Eve’s Basis For Morality

Basis for morality is overturned..

3. Sin Attacked Adam and Eve’s Basis For Personal Identity

4. Excursus:  The Historicity of Genesis 3

“…[S]in entered the world through one man, and death through sin…”  (Rom 5:12; cf. 5:16-17)

“…Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning…”  (2 Cor 11:3)

“…Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”  (1 Tim 2:14)

C. The Consequence of the First Sin

Imago Dei was distorted, but not lost.

James 3:9.  “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.”

Gen 9:6.  “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”

Eccl 7:29.  “This only have I found:  God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

“After the fall, … we are still in God’s image – we are still like God and we still represent God – but the image of God in us is distorted; we are less fully like God than we were before the entrance of sin.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 444)

! D. The Doctrine of Original Sin

We inherited both guilt and corruption

1. Inherited Guilt

Rom 5:12-14.  “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world.  But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.  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 was a pattern of the one to come.”

Rom 5:18-19.  “…[J]ust 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.  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.”

“God regards the human race as an organic whole, a unity, represented by Adam as its head.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 495-496)

2. Inherited Corruption

Ps 51:5.  “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

Ps 51:1-4.  “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”

“David is so overwhelmed with the consciousness of his own sin that as he looks back on his life he realizes that he was sinful from the beginning.  As far back as he can think of himself, he realizes that he has had a sinful nature.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 496)

Eph 2:3.  “…Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”

IV. Total Depravity:  In Human Nature, There is a Lack of Any Spiritual Good

Everything that we are is affected with sin.

Rom 7:18.  “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Titus 1:15.  “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.  In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.”

Jer 17:9.  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?”

Isa 64:6.  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags, and we shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (cf. Rom 3:9-20)

1 Cor 2:14.  “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”