Directly Proportional Theology

Jesus Christ is the center of everything in Christianity. No orthodox Christian body denies that. But lurking at the very beginning of the history of mankind are things like the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, Satan's deception, the fall of man, and original sin.

It is no surprise to this ramblin' man that views on original sin and the fall of man are directly proportional to soteriology. How we view the fall of man has a direct effect on the view we have of mankind in general. Likewise, it also has a direct effect on how we view salvation.

Tony Jones

Original sin can be a tricky topic. There are some who outright deny it. This is heretical, of course. There are others who affirm it but not in its fulness. And there are yet others who hold the orthodox doctrine of it. So, we can group doctrines of original sin into these three divisions. We could assuredly come up with even smaller divisions if we wanted to, but these will suffice for us.

The first group we have are those who deny original sin. Pelagians are famous for this. Yet, we also have some folks in the postmodern Emergent Church movement who also deny it. Open (free will) theists don't by necessity deny it, but some do. Emergent Church pastor Tony Jones once quipped, "Original sin is a depraved idea." He thus dismisses original sin and the doctrine of depravity in one fell swoop.

Proponents of this view would assert that humans are born good and innocent. To put it another way, they are born in the same state as Adam was created in the Garden of Eden. This is to say, we are born good and then later learn to sin and choose to sin based on the negative influences around us.

It shouldn't surprise us then, that these proponents also are very weak on their view of God's grace. In Pelagianism, grace is nice, grace is helpful, but it's not necessary. One created innocent and sinless can attain salvation all by himself by perfect obedience. This is at least a possibility in Pelagianism, even if they would admit that it is not a practical reality.

Deniers of original sin tend to be very heavy on choices, works, and so on. In short, they're very synergistic at best. Their soteriology is dependent more so on their choices than it is on God's grace. After all, with their low view of original sin comes with it a high view of mankind. This makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

Sitting in the middle of things on this topic are bodies like the Eastern Orthodox Churches. They affirm original sin, but have a shallow view of it. Original sin, to them, is nothing more than the inherent desire for man to sin. In other words, you're still born sinless, but you have a nature that will lead you to sin sometime down the road.

Another way of saying this is that original sin does not convey guilt. Only actual sin does that. This means that infants, while properly sinful in nature, are still innocent because they have not yet acted on that.

The Orthodox Churches baptise infants, but it's not to forgive them of anything, because they have nothing to be forgiven of. It's rather to raise them in righteousness and give them Christ. All well and good, but that leads these churches as well to be very synergistic too. They properly insist on the necessity of the grace of God, but they also insist on our cooperation with it in order to be saved. After all, we don't have to act on that sinful nature and we're capable of cooperation with God in order to be saved.

The final group are bodies that fully affirm original sin; such as the Calvinists and the Lutherans. We affirm that original sin has corrupted the whole person: body, mind, and will. We are guilty in front of God by Adam's sin alone. In short, we are conceived as sinners, we are born as sinners, and we are sinners.

The indwelling sinfulness that we are conceived and born into is enough to condemn us. Infants too, are guilty, because they are what they are. And what they are is sinners.

Spurgeon

Because of our sinfulness, we are at enmity with God. We are by nature haters of God. He is the Light and we love the darkness. For this reason, theologies that fully affirm original sin tend to be monergistic. Our sinful nature will never even desire to cooperate with God or choose Christ. Thus, God chooses us. He comes to us in grace and saves us by Himself alone. The only thing we can do in this process is reject Him. The Old Adam still wars against God, even in the justified person. The great baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once said: "It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to dishonor God and to flatter man."

And that's just it. We get original sin wrong, and we end up flattering ourselves. We end up thinking we are capable of much more than we are in front of God. We attribute less to God and more to ourselves. The theological end game of this is Pelagianism and/or Open Theism. We deny original sin, we demand our right to earn things in front of God, we love our selves, and ultimately we make so much of ourselves that we start to denigrate God. First we reject the necessity and saving nature of His grace alone, then we progress to the point where He doesn't even know the future in order to protect our greatest attribute: our free will. Or so we think.

Original sin is a non-negotiable. Denial of it leads to a point that isn't even Christian. It's humanism masquerading as theology that throws the name of Jesus around sometimes.

So get it right. Original sin is true. It exists. You are a sinner, and as such, you are completely dependent upon God's grace. Thankfully, God has told us how He comes to us in grace and gives us this grace. It's found in Word and Sacrament.

Thanks be to God.