Original Sin
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3, 23In
Catholic teaching, original sin is a sin contracted rather than a sin
committed. To say that all people are "guilty of original sin" is
inaccurate. This idea implies that everyone is born guilty in a morally
responsible sense and is blameworthy for having contracted this stain of sin.
But the only sins we are morally responsible for are our own personal sins. The
guilt of original sin should be understood in a legal sense, meaning that in
our fallen state we are all liable to punishment for our sins which we are
naturally inclined to commit. And because we normally do sin and freely choose
to sin against God, we are morally liable to Him. Adam's personal sin is not
imputed to us as if we are morally responsible for his actions. Original sin does
stain our souls when we are conceived and born but through no fault of ours.
However,
since we all are inclined to sin because of our innate selfishness, we can say
that we are implicated in the sin of Adam. None of us is born more innocent
than the other. We are equally born under the condemnation or curse of the law,
for each of us will certainly violate it at some point in our lives (even at
least once if it were possible) on account of our inbred selfishness,
weaknesses, and disordered desires which constitute the state of original sin.
Adam’s
personal sin demonstrates what it means for each human being to offend God of
their free will. Through temptation we lose our trust in God’s will for our
true well-being and happiness; we aspire to be like God, but apart from God and
against God’s will. And so, we abuse our free will by disobeying God,
preferring that which we feel, or judge, is better and more personally
beneficial to ourselves, thereby acting on our errant inclinations. Thus, original sin is a state of guilt
insofar as all human beings are “deprived of the original holiness and
justice.” And, according to Catholic teaching, “it does not have the character
of a personal fault” in any of us who have descended from Adam. [Catechism
of the Catholic Church n. 405].
With the
view that all humanity is implicated in the sin of Adam by being biological
descendants of his, the Council of Trent declares that the “guilt of original
sin” contains the “whole of that which belongs to the essence of sin,” viz.,
the deprivation of justice and sanctity. Baptism does not merely legally
“remit” or “cancel” this contraction of sin, but fully “takes it away.” With
respect to our personal sins, we read in Isaiah 1, 18: ‘Though my sins are like
scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be
like wool.’ And in Isaiah 43, 25: ‘I am He who blots out your transgressions
and forgets your sins.’ In other words, God is so powerful that He brings about
a genuine change in us through his efficacious grace through the redeeming
merits of Jesus Christ.
God blots
out (exalipho/ἐξαλείφω) our sins by the healing power of the Holy Spirit
(cf. Col 2:14). Sin is eliminated, albeit its remnants, and not merely covered
up ( See Rom 4:3 elogisthe). God does not simply declare us to be
righteous but makes us personally righteous no less than Jesus is righteous in
his humanity, though not absolutely because of his divinity, by His sanctifying
and justifying grace ( 2 Cor 3:18; 5:17). This same principle applies to the
stain of original sin. The sacrament of baptism completely blots this stain out
from our souls by God’s sanctifying and justifying grace, though the penalties
of original sin – suffering and death – remain part of our natural condition
along with our faults and weaknesses. Although the moral ill-effects of
original sin remain, viz., the concupiscence of the eyes and of the flesh, and
the pride of life, the grace of baptism sanctifies the soul rendering it
justified before God. We forfeit the sanctification of our souls by the
commission of mortal sins.
God
reveals what He has decreed to accomplish in us through the prophet: I have
swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sin like mist (Isa
44:22). We mustn’t deny that God has the power to “create a clean heart” and
“put a pure and right spirit” within any of us. With the forgiveness of sin and
the removal of guilt comes cleansing and washing which we initially receive
when we are baptized (Ps 51: 7-10; cf. Ezek 36: 26-27; Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 6:11;
Eph 4:22-24). The remission of sin is coupled with inner cleansing and healing.
Our justification and regeneration form two sides of a single coin.
If we
aren’t simply declared righteous, though still dead to sin, it’s because the
soul is sanctified and thereby justified. According to the Council of Trent,
sanctification is the formal cause of justification. Paul uses the two terms
interchangeably. Prenatal and infants have no past personal sins that need to
be remitted, so morally they aren’t culpable for any actual sins of their own.
But they are deprived of the original justice and holiness which is forfeited
by our human condition. Given the chance to develop morally, they will most
likely sin by having been conceived and born as a child of Adam. Anyway, there
is a distinction between original sin and actual sin. Essentially the former is
a primeval state of moral corruption which by nature we are imbued with but by
no fault of our own.
Thus, we
are not personally guilty of original sin. The sin of Adam is no more imputed
to our account than the righteousness of Christ is when the stain of sin is
blotted out in our souls. Actual sin is a deliberate rejection of God by which
we personally do incur moral guilt upon ourselves by abusing our free will. The
stain of original sin renders us guilty by association. The Psalmist laments our
fallen condition and implicitly appeals to God to consider our common wounded
state in His mercy, but he takes full credit or moral responsibility for his
own transgressions in his act of contrition:
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in
thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy
judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me (Ps 51:4-5).
Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for
all,
so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.
For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,
so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5, 18-19
As a
result of original sin, our desires can become insubordinate to the dictates of
reason since there is a tendency in our human nature to sin. This condition of
ours is what the Catholic Church calls concupiscence in the strict negative
sense of the word. Because of original sin, our sensitive appetites are often
spontaneously directed to what our imagination portrays as pleasant and away
from whatever it deems as painful or unpleasant against God’s will for our
wellbeing. This natural condition of ours includes pride and the unruly
inclinations of the will such as envy, greed, and lust: sins of the flesh.
There are two basic forms of concupiscence in Catholic theology: of the eyes
and of the flesh.
Concupiscence
and the guilt of original sin, however, are distinct from each other. Original
sin doesn’t mean original guilt since original sin is a sin contracted and not
a sin committed. Baptism cures us of original sin but not concupiscence which
is a lasting effect of original sin. Despite the lasting effects of original
sin, which also include physical suffering and death, despite our being
baptized since we are inclined to commit sin and shall sin, we still receive
the initial grace of justification and forgiveness when we are baptized by no
just merit of our own (Eph 2:8-10). On account of what Christ has merited for
us by his blood, spiritual death is no longer an absolute certainty for all
eternity. This is because we have been initially justified and sanctified by
our baptism notwithstanding our inbred sinful inclinations and tendency to sin
because of Adam, or the Adam in us who have ever been conceived in the womb,
and born, except the Blessed Virgin Mary by the intervening grace of her
Immaculate Conception.
We might
ask how original sin is a sin though not something we have personally
committed and are morally responsible for. Original sin may be taken to mean in
a Catholic sense the consequence of the first sin ever committed by Adam and
the hereditary stain or trait we have all received from our primordial parent.
St. Augustine writes: “The deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of
original sin” (De nupt. et concup., II, xxvi, 43). When we personally
commit a mortal sin, the result is spiritual death. And since we are born with
a tendency to sin and do, in fact, sin without exception because of the effects
of original sin, as descendants of Adam, we enter this world spiritually dead.
His sin isn’t imputed to us, but he has “transmitted sin to us with which we
are all born afflicted, a sin which is the death of the soul” (CCC. n.403).
For this
reason, infant baptism is imperative in the Catholic faith, as well as in
mainstream Protestantism. Again, original sin is a sin contracted but not
committed. We are not the “cause” of original sin but are affected by it in our
standing with God. By our nature, we fall short of His glory inasmuch that we
all have sinned through our indeliberate contraction of original sin.
Meanwhile, we mustn’t hold God morally responsible for having created this
state of affairs. God has given each one of us sufficient grace and strength to
direct our will toward what is good and to resist evil temptations. When we sin against God, our selfishness or inordinate love of self is to blame. St.
Paul assures us: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to
man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you
are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you
may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13). St. James concurs: But each one is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings
forth death (Jas 1:14-15).
God asked
Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen 3:11). The answer is what his
conscience told him. Adam and Eve knew of the existence of good and evil and
that they were not to experience and judge for themselves what was good and
evil for them. Yet they did. They should have simply put their faith in God’s
judgment and obeyed His command rather than making themselves out to be like
God. The couple felt ashamed of themselves all of a sudden knowing that they
had done wrong. Their conscience condemned them, for they acted against God of
their own free will.
“Your
word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Ps 119:11).
David knew the difference between right and wrong and understood that he should
abide by God’s word. But not unlike our primordial father Adam, he succumbed to
temptation and fell from God’s grace by committing two mortal sins: adultery
and murder (2 Sam 11:1-26). He was just as much personally responsible for his
sins as Adam and Eve were for theirs, all because of a selfish desire and
putting himself before God. God could certainly be faulted if He left us all
alone in our natural state without instructing us on what we should or should
not do and then punishing us for doing what we shouldn’t. But God has written
His law in every human heart and has given us a conscience to warn us when we
contemplate a sinful act and condemn us when we choose to violate His law.
David lamented over what he had done and implored God’s forgiveness with a
humble and contrite heart that rendered his sin offering pleasing and
acceptable to God (See Psalm 51.).
The
following excerpt is taken from the Council of Trent, Session V,5:
“If anyone denies, that, by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the reatum of
original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which has the
true and proper nature of sin is not taken away; but says that it is only
razed, or not imputed; let him be anathema.”
Dr.
Taylor Marshall tells us that many English translations of this anathema
inaccurately read “the guilt of original sin is remitted”, which obviously may
confuse people. The original Latin of the Council reads “reatum originalis
peccati remiti.” This is important for us to note since the term reatus does
not mean “guilt” in the strict sense. In Roman law, reatus means liable to or
indicted, or a penal sentence. Alternatively, the Latin word culpa means an
actual act of wrongdoing. Reatus refers to the state that accrues because of a
culpa. The following two terms have been adopted by the Catholic Church: Reatus
culpa is guilt associated with the sentence (that is, culpability). Reatus
poena is the penalty of the sentence (the word penalty comes from poena).
Receiving only the penalty of sin (reatus poena) by definition of the Church is
the loss of sanctifying or justifying grace and the preternatural gifts,
suffering, and death because of original sin.
If a
person commits armed robbery, the reatus culpa would be his intentional,
personal act of robbing someone. He could be declared guilty of committing a
felony. The reatus poena would be the penalty or sentence passed by the judge
associated with the gravity of the crime. In this case, he might end up serving
ten or more years in prison. Regarding Adam and Eve, they incurred both the
personal guilt (reatus culpa) of original sin and the penalty (reatus poena).
All their descendants from the time they are conceived in the womb are not
guilty of eating the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve consumed, but they do
receive the penalty (reatus poena) of this sin. Human beings are not penalized
for the personal sins of Adam and Eve. But once they attain reason and are
morally responsible for their actions, they universally do in fact commit sins
and incur personal guilt (reatus culpa) by being descendants of Adam with his
hereditary traits.
Now,
there are Catholic theologians who use the word culpa when referring to
original sin. But the word is usually qualified as culpa contracta which does
not mean personal guilt, but guilt by association. All babies who are born are
naturally capable of committing their first sin and countless other personal
sins once they have attained the age of reason and moral responsibility. It is
this state of nature that we have inherited from Adam and Eve that alienates us
from God and incurs divine justice. This is the middle ground between total
innocence and total depravity. Infants and young children under the age of
moral reason do suffer the penalties of original sin, including premature
death, though they aren’t mature enough to deliberately sin and be held liable
for it.
However
paradoxical it may sound at first, there is a subtle distinction between being
personally guilty of having committed a grave sin with full knowledge and
consent and being guilty by implication. Yet original sin is a state of guilt
insofar as the soul is deprived of the original justice and holiness forfeited
by Adam, and thus it cannot ever see God unless this stain (not act) of sin is
remitted and removed by the cleansing and regenerating water of baptism by the
power of the Holy Spirit in and through the saving merits of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ who ransomed us from sin and death by the outpouring of his
most precious blood.
Early Sacred Tradition
“He
stood in need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove; even as
He submitted to
be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such things,
but because of the human race,
which from Adam had fallen under the power of
death and the guile of the serpent, and each one of
which had committed
personal transgression. For God, wishing both angels and men, who were
endowed
with freewill, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened
each to do,
made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself,
He would keep them free from
death and from punishment; but that if they did
evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 88:4
(A.D. 155)
“Everyone
in the world falls prostrate under sin. And it is the Lord who sets up those
who are cast down and who sustains all who are falling. In Adam all die, and
thus the world
prostrate and requires to be set up again, so that in Christ all
may be made to live.”
Origen, Homilies on Jeremias, 8:1
(post A.D. 244)
“Through
him our forefather Adam was cast out for disobedience, and exchanged a Paradise
bringing forth wondrous fruits of its own accord for the ground which bringeth
forth thorns. What
then? Some one will say. We have been beguiled and are lost.
Is there then no salvation left? We
have fallen: Is it not possible to rise
again? We have been blinded: May we not recover our sight
We have become
crippled: Can we never walk upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise
again? He that woke Lazarus who was four days dead and already stank, shall He
not, O man,
much more easily raise thee who art alive? He who shed His precious
blood for us, shall Himself
deliver us from sin.”
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 2:4-5
(A.D. 350)
“Adam
sinned and earned all sorrows; likewise the world after His example, all
guilt. And instead of considering how it should be restored, considered how its
fall should be pleasant for it. Glory to Him Who came and restored it!”
Ephraem of Syria, Hymns on the Epiphany, 10:1
(A.D. 350)
“And
further, above this, we have in common reason, the Law, the Prophets, the
very Sufferings of Christ, by which we were all without exception created anew,
who partake of the same Adam, and were led astray by the serpent and slain by
sin, and are saved by the heavenly Adam and brought back by the tree of shame
to the tree of life from whence we had fallen.”
Gregory of Nazianzen, Against the
Arians, 33:9
(A.D. 380)
“How
then did death come in and prevail? “Through the sin of one.” But what
means, “for that all have sinned?” This; he having once fallen, even they that
had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal…From
whence it is clear, that it was not this sin, the transgression, that is, of
the Law,
but that of Adam’s disobedience, which marred all things. Now, what is the
proof
of this? The fact that even before the Law all died: for ‘death reigned’ he
says,
from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned.’ How did it reign?
‘After the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of Him that
was to
come.’ Now this is why Adam is a type of Christ …[W]hen the Jew says to thee,
How
came it, that by the well-doing of this one Person, Christ, the world was saved
thou mightest be able to say to him, How by the disobedience of this one
person,
Adam, came it to be condemned?”
John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans, 10
(A.D.
391)
“Evil
was mixed with our nature from the beginning…through those who by their
disobedience introduced the disease. Just as in the natural propagation of the
species each animal engenders its like, so man is born from man, a being
subject to passions from a being subject to passions, a sinner from a sinner.
Thus
sin takes its rise in us as we are born; it grows with us and keeps us company
till
life’s term.”
Gregory of Nyssa, The Beatitudes, 6
(ante A.D. 394)
“This
grace, however, of Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can be
saved, is not rendered for any merits, but is given gratis, on account of which
it
is also called grace. ‘Being justified,’ says the apostle, ‘freely through His
blood.’
Whence they, who are not liberated through grace, either because they are not
yet able to hear, or because they are unwilling to obey; or again because they
did not receive, at the time when they were unable on account of youth to
hear, that bath of regeneration, which they might have received and through
which they might have been saved, are indeed justly condemned; because they
are not without sin, either that which they have derived from their birth, or
that
which they have added from their own misconduct. ‘For all have sinned’
whether in Adam or in themselves–“and come short of the glory of God.’”
Augustine of Hippo, On Nature and Grace, 4
(A.D. 415)
“But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the
heart,
and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
Matthew 15, 18-20
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