As discussed above, man was originally created “very good” and therefore had original righteousness. Adam and Eve then directly disobeyed God’s command in eating the forbidden fruit and thereby committed the first sin. The serpent temps them by saying they can become like God, but the original sin was disobedience.
Genesis describes the direct impact to Adam and Eve for their disobedience. For Eve, this includes painful childbirth and to be subject to Adam’s rule. For Adam, this includes a difficult life of hard labor. God also say to Adam, “For you are dust, And to dust you shall return” (Gn 3:19). Some understand this to mean that Adam and Eve were not subject to physical aging and death before the Fall, but with the Fall came the inevitability of death.
The creation stories make no mention of original sin, the loss of original righteousness, or the impact of the Fall on future humanity. However, Paul teaches us about the impact of the Fall in several verses:
- “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned” (Rom 5:12); and
- “So then, as through one offense the result was condemnation to all mankind, so also through one act of righteousness the result was justification of life to all mankind. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:18-19).
The first passage states that sin entered the world through the original sin of Adam and therefore all are now sinners. The second verse is similar but adds that the original sin of Adam resulted in the condemnation of all of mankind. Virtually all agree that this condemnation means that everyone is born spiritually dead and with a sinful nature, referred to as original sin. More controversial is that everyone is guilty of Adam’s original sin, referred to as original guilt. The argument for original guilt is that Adam is the head of all humanity and therefore all of humanity shares Adam’s guilt. The argument against original guilt is that someone cannot be held morally accountable for an action unless they had the power stop the action. Since nobody except Adam or Eve could have stopped the original sin, nobody except Adam and Eve (it can be argued) can be guilty of the original sin.
The issue of original guilt is of no practical importance to adults since all have sinned and are therefore condemned before God regardless of original guilt. But this is not the case for infant salvation. If one believes in both original guilt and infant salvation, one must also believe that original guilt has no practical consequence. Charles Hodge described the Reformed position as follows, “All who die in infancy are saved … All the descendants of Adam, except Christ are under condemnation; all the descendants of Adam, except those of whom it is expressly revealed that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God, are saved.” The salvific implications of this statement are discussed later in the chapter on salvation.
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