A. This article inquires into the reason for the universal phenomena of sin. That it is indeed universal and all embracive can be denied only by those who refuse either to recognize reality or take a dim view of the demands of God upon His creatures. For all of life is a stark and grim testimony of the fact of sin.

1. We may notice in the first place that this article speaks of this truth only from the point of view of the organic and spiritual ethical character of sin. It does not speak of original guilt as the juridical ground for original corruption.

2. But since this truth is quite important, we do well to notice it briefly in this connection.

a. The entire human race was created as a legal corporation, a juridical whole in Adam, And he stood as the representative head of all mankind. He represented all men before the face of God in a juridical and legal way. He stood in this capacity only in the state of righteousness, so that his first act of sin alone could be imputed to all men.

b. Adam’s sin of eating of the forbidden tree was therefore a representative sin. All men sinned in Adam, and all are responsible for his transgression.

c. The result is that the guilt of this one sin was imputed to all men. All men became guilty for this one transgression which Adam committed.

d. This legal bond between Adam and all men is the basis for Adam’s organic union to all men. Because he was representative head of the human race, the guilt of sin is imputed to all; and this universal guilt is the juridical ground for original corruption. (Cf. Rom, 5:12-14).

3. Thus Adam was also the organic head of all mankind. The whole human race was not only juridically in him, but also organically. Every human nature was principally found in Adam, He was the root out of which the tree of the human race sprang. He was the seed from whence proceeded all men. There is a living and organic connection between Adam and all men that are born, for they are all in his generations.

B. This is the explanation for the universal phenomena of sin.

1. When Adam fell, as we already noted in the last article, his whole nature became corrupt and depraved. Sin held sway as a master over his entire nature subjecting it to sin’s servitude. Adam died spiritually and became a spiritual and moral corpse. And the physical seeds of death were also consequently sown in his body so that presently he returned to the dust from whence he was taken.

2. The article describes original corruption as “a corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary disease, wherewith infants themselves are infected even in their mother’s womb, and which produceth in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof.” We may notice in this connection:

a. That because Adam’s corruption involved his entire nature, so also does that nature bring forth other natures equally corrupt.

b. Infants themselves een in their mother’s wombs, are conceived and born in this total corruption and pollution. (Cf. Ps. 51:5, Rom 3:10-18).

c. It can be compared with a hereditary disease which affects all who are born; or with a root which in each individual produces the full tree of his sin.

d. Yet Adam’s sin was a root sin in another way, It is the sin out of which grows every sin evidenced in the whole history of mankind. Each sin of each man is only a further development and other manifestation of Adam’s sin. So sin develops in the line of generations in harmony with man’s place in creation and use of it until it unfolds more and more culminating in the man of sin when the cup of iniquity is full. This is known as the development of sin: “Sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as water from a fountain.”

C. The errors condemned by this article.

1. The error of Roman Catholicism.

a. This error is referred to in the words, “Nor is it by any means abolished or done away by baptism.”

b. The Romish Church teaches that although there is indeed such a thing as original corruption, this is taken away by the water of baptism. The effect of baptism on a child is that he is freed from all original sin. The result of this doctrine is that the door is opened to Pelagianism, and a man is only accountable before God for the sins which he commits during life. This power to cleanse from original sin is found in the water of baptism itself.

c. But the article refutes this position with the words, “since sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as water from a fountain.” The real explanation of sin is, according to this article, that all our actual sins proceed from the corrupt fountain of a corrupt nature.

2. The error of Pelagianism.

a. This error is referred to in the words, “Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians, who assert that sin proceeds only from imitation.”

b. Pelagianism teaches that there is no such thing as original corruption. Every child comes into this world with a whole and clean nature. He is as a blank sheet of paper upon which is found no trace of evil deeds and corrupt actions. Sin is to be explained from the fact that people fall into evil deeds by imitating the example of others and coming under their influence. If one could be kept from birth on in a sinless environment, he would never sin at all.

c. This doctrine is as pernicious as it is false. It denies the reality of original guilt and pollution and leaves the way open for a denial of salvation apart from the grace of God. The Arminians of the 16th and 17th Centuries adopted this Pelagian view, although in a modified form.

3. The error of Anabaptism.

a. This is mentioned in the article in passing. The article states that original sin is not imputed to the children of God unto condemnation, but by God’s grace and mercy is forgiven them.

b. It goes on to say that this ought not to occasion a carnal security on the part of believers. The article takes note of the possibility on the part of some that, thinking that their sins are forgiven them, they would go on living in sin and enjoy it.

c. According to Scripture and the Heidelberg Catechism, this is absolutely impossible. One who truly knows salvation by grace will hate sin and flee from it, crying daily for forgiveness. Cf. Rom 6 and Lord’s Day XXIV, 64.

d. Nevertheless, believers ought to flee daily from sin and a profound sense of their corruption “should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death.”