The Doctrine of the Sin Nature

For ease, I will also use a KJV Bible, as published below: http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org...1) Defining Original Sin Genesis describes the world before the Fall as a world in harmony; Gen 1:31 “ And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” The earthly desires of Adam were sublimated to his reason and will. Gen 2:25 “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” The state of man is drastically altered by the first sin. When Adam and Eve disobey God, their nudity becomes unbearable to themselves and to each other Gen 3:7. Man becomes fearful of God and hides himself from the Lord. What the account in Genesis shows is that Original Sin resulted in a fall from grace of the entire race of man. Man lost his special relationship with God and doomed himself to a weakened state. The sin nature is a loss of grace- an inability to perfectly sublimate his desires to reason and the law of God. The sin nature is the weakened state of man.I do not agree with Pro's description of sin nature; his description is a strawman.2) The World Around Us The sin nature is evidenced by our experience in the world around us. Augustine was driven by the dilemma of a world filled with sin but created by God and declared good. Only through man’s fall from grace can we understand that our world is not the world before the Fall. Man’s sin nature explains why all men sin.3) Original Sin and Personal Sin From the above analysis we can see that Original Sin is not the same sort of sin as personal sin. Original Sin is related to personal sin in that both result in a separation between man and God or man and man. Unlike personal sin, original sin is not a personal fault earned by an individual but a state of being inherited by virtue of Adam’s loss of grace. The two are analogous and share similarities but are not identical. This distinction between Original Sin and personal sin is important to bear in mind when undergoing Biblical exegesis.4) Original Sin and Free Will The misconception exists that the sinful nature of man obliterates personal responsibility for his actions Original sin does not bind the will of man. We are free to make our own decisions, and we all are able to refuse the temptation of sin. But still the temptation of sin does exist, and therein is the evidence of our sin nature. Our sin nature results in the constant temptation that all humanity is subject to, it is the cause of the eternal battle of good and evil over the soul of man. Our capacity to resist sin is diminished, but not destroyed.5) The Resurrection of Jesus and Original Sin Any claim that original sin is somehow unfair, that we should not be culpable for the sins of Adam is flawed on two counts. First, our sin nature is not an instance of us being “held accountable” but of our inheritted separation from God and lack of grace. It is not a punishment but a fact of our nature caused by the first sin. Second, the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus is symmetric to the fall from grace of Adam. Jesus’s sacrifice atones for all of mankind and gives us far more than was lost in the Fall: 1 Cor 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 6) Romans Chapter 5 In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes the shared burden of Adam’s sin and the need for Jesus’ sacrifice and grace clear: Rom 5:15-20: “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” 7) Problematizing the Denial of Original Sin Denying Original Sin is a problematic position for a Christian to hold. Without Original Sin, the Christian has a challenging time answering the following questions: How do we reconcile the sin in the world with the Biblical account of creation before the Fall; an account in which God declares the world to be good and finds no fault in it? Why do all men sin? If we are not born with a sinful nature, is it not possible that some men may never sin and thus would have no need of salvation or Jesus?