Original Sin

Original sin is the doctrine that every human being is born guilty and corrupt because of Adam's first disobedience. It matters because it explains why the world is the way it is, why the law cannot save anyone, and why grace through Jesus Christ is the only hope. Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and Matthew Henry all teach that this inherited sinfulness is not a minor flaw but a deep, inward corruption that leaves every person spiritually dead, guilty before God, and unable to please him apart from sovereign grace.

The universal guilt of Adam's race

All three authors agree that Adam's sin brought guilt and condemnation on the entire human race. Matthew Henry explains that Adam acted as a public person representing all his posterity, so his actions and what happened to him are counted as theirs (Romans 5:14). He writes that all humanity sinned in Adam because he represented his descendants by God's appointment and by the natural law of propagation (Romans 5:12). This means the guilt of Adam's sin spread to all his posterity, showing the powerful and spreading poison of sin (Romans 5:19).

Henry adds that by Adam's sin many were made sinners through a judicial act, meaning all his posterity were legally constituted as sinners (Romans 5:19). The result is that judgment has come to condemnation upon all who were made sinners by Adam's disobedience, and all mankind lies under a recorded sentence of condemnation in heaven (Romans 5:18–19). Spurgeon agrees, saying all people fell into guilt through Adam's fall and were justly given over to the vengeance of the law, unable to pay their own ransom (Romans 3:24).

Edwards sharpens the point by noting the charge against Adam and his descendants is twofold: breach of covenant and disobedience to God's rule. He argues that the gospel finds all men, infants and adults alike, under condemnation from Adam's breach of covenant, which can only be removed by sovereign grace uniting Christ to the soul. Henry provides a striking proof of this universal guilt: death reigned from Adam to Moses, proving original sin, because even infants who never committed actual sin died (Romans 5:14). He insists the death of infants who never committed actual sin is strong proof of original sin, since their suffering cannot be reconciled with God's justice unless they are guilty through Adam (Romans 5:14).

The inward corruption of human nature

The authors do not limit original sin to legal guilt. They teach that every human heart is inwardly corrupt. Spurgeon says the law reveals that sin is not merely outward but is a deep inward corruption, seated in the very heart and nature of man (Romans 5:20). He insists every human heart is sinful and alienated from God, though the outward expression of sin differs from person to person (Romans 3:23). Henry agrees that every human heart by nature contains the seed and potential for all these sins, which should humble us in the sense of our original corruption (Romans 1:29–31).

Henry describes the corruption as lying in the understanding, which is blinded and perverted, so that sinners are fools who do not understand (Romans 3:11). He adds that no one naturally seeks after God or has any true regard or desire for him; the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 3:11). Spurgeon makes the same point in vivid terms: in their natural state, no one is righteous, no one understands, and no one seeks after God (Romans 3:10–12).

Edwards emphasizes the spiritual deadness of the natural man. He argues that a carnal man cannot be the immediate cause of his own vital union with Christ, because the carnal mind is hostile to God and spiritually dead (Romans 8:7, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Ephesians 2:1). Henry adds that before conversion people are void of all good and of subjection to God, and they wrongly call this freedom, though it is the worst slavery (Romans 6:20).

The infinite heinousness of sin

Edwards makes a distinctive contribution by stressing the infinite guilt of sin. He argues that sin is properly of infinite heinousness, and this infinite guilt makes it unsuitable for God to accept any excellency in an unjustified sinner. Because our guilt is infinite, the loveliness of our virtue bears no proportion to it and counts for nothing before a strict judge.

This does not mean all sins are equally heinous in outward form. Spurgeon acknowledges there are real differences of character among unregenerate people, from the outwardly respectable to the openly wicked (Romans 3:22). He also says some unconverted people have amiable, religious-seeming dispositions, while others are naturally rebellious and wicked (Romans 3:22). Yet he insists all people have sinned and forfeited any claim to personal righteousness (Romans 3:23). Henry agrees that all people are under sin both as a legal sentence binding them over to ruin and as a dominating power enslaving them (Romans 3:9).

And this appears from the infinite guilt that the sinner till justified is under; which arises from the infinite evil or heinousness of sin Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Because we are infinitely guilty before him; and the loveliness of our virtue bears no proportion to our guilt, and must therefore pass for nothing before a strict judge Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

The law's inability to cure sin

A major theme in these authors is that the law, though good in itself, cannot heal original sin. Spurgeon explains that the law, instead of cleansing the heart from sin, actually revives, strengthens, and increases sin in the soul, because it reveals and forbids sin but gives no power to subdue it (Romans 5:20, Romans 7:9, 1 Corinthians 15:56). He adds that the law lets light into the dark heart, making sin visible and apparent, so that the offense is seen to abound (Romans 5:20).

Henry develops this further. He says the law, by commanding and threatening fallen man without offering grace to cure him, only stirred up his corruption and made his sin worse (Romans 7:5). He uses a vivid comparison: the law's restraints provoke corrupt human nature to desire what is forbidden, just as a weak medicine stirs up bodily humors without removing them (Romans 7:8). Since the fall, human nature leans toward what is forbidden, and the law quickens sin that would otherwise lie dormant (Romans 7:8).

Spurgeon describes the result: the law's work leaves the sinner spiritually dead and helpless, unable to repent, believe, pray, or feel grief over sin (Romans 5:20). The law brings the sinner to hear the condemning sentences of Scripture: condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins, and under the wrath to come (Romans 5:20, John 3:18, Ephesians 2:1). Henry agrees that the commandment that was meant to lead to life proves to be death through human corruption, just as the same sun or heat produces opposite effects depending on what it acts upon (Romans 7:10).

this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) from sin, doth revive, Romans 7:9, put strength into, 1 Corinthians 15:56, and increase it in the soul, Romans 5:20, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for that doth not give power to subdue Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

When Moses smites the sinner he bruises and mangles him with the first blow, but at a second or a third, he falls down as one dead. I myself have been in such a condition that if heaven could have been purchased by a single prayer I should have been damned, for I could no more pray than I could fly. Moreover, when we are in the grave which the law has digged for us, we feel as if we did not feel, and we grieve because we cannot grieve Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

The law's true purpose: exposing sin

Though the law cannot cure, it serves a necessary purpose. Spurgeon says the discovery of indwelling sin through the law makes a person loathe himself and abandon salvation by works as impossible (Romans 5:20). Henry explains that the natural man is blind to original corruption until the Spirit uses the law to reveal it, making the law a schoolmaster that opens the wound to prepare it for healing (Romans 7:7).

Henry notes that Paul came to know the sinfulness of inward lust and corrupt desires through the tenth commandment, understood in its spiritual sense (Romans 7:7). The law requires inward heart obedience, not merely outward conformity, and any inward failure ruins a person (Romans 3:27). Spurgeon adds that morality may cover outward vileness but it does not change the fact that the heart is vile and the man is under condemnation (Romans 3:27).

Actual sin seems not half so terrible as in-bred sin, and at the thought of what he is, he turns pale, and gives up salvation by works as an impossibility Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

But if it were possible for you to keep the Law in its perfection outwardly, yet, remember that you would be required to keep it in your heart as well as in your external life.

One single motion of the heart from the right, one reception of even the shadow of a passing temptation, so as to become a partaker of sin, would ruin you Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Grace Exalted—Boasting Excluded”

The continuing presence of sin in believers

A point of agreement among these authors is that original sin leaves a lasting corruption even in those who are converted. Henry teaches that even in sanctified believers, indwelling corruption remains and daily breaks out in sins of infirmity that are consistent with a state of grace (Romans 7:14–25). He says indwelling sin remains in the believer throughout life, like the Canaanites dwelling among the Israelites under tribute (Romans 7:17, Romans 7:20).

Henry describes the believer's experience: the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another in the believer, so that he cannot do the things that he would (Romans 7:15–23). The believer's corrupt nature keeps him from attaining the perfect holiness he desires, so that he does not always do the good he wills but sometimes does the evil he hates (Romans 7:15, Romans 7:19, Romans 7:21). He adds that in the flesh, that is, in the corrupt old nature, there dwells no good thing, and that nature is incapable of performing any good duty (Romans 7:18).

Spurgeon agrees that self-righteousness remains in believers and must be watched against even in moments of spiritual success (Romans 3:27). Henry says the believer's corrupt nature is a continual grief and burden, like a dead body tied to him, causing him to cry out as a wretched man and long for deliverance (Romans 7:24). The remainders of indwelling sin are a very grievous burden to a gracious soul, making even an eminent believer account himself wretched and long to be rid of his corruptions (Romans 7:24).

Dwelleth in me, as the Canaanites among the Israelites, though they were put under tribute: dwelleth in me, and is likely to dwell there, while I live Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

It was as troublesome to Paul as if he had had a dead body tied to him, which he must have carried about with him. This made him cry out, O wretched man that I am! A man that had learned in every state to be content yet complains thus of his corrupt nature Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

The only remedy: sovereign grace

All three authors insist that original sin leaves no room for human boasting and no remedy except grace. Spurgeon says converted people have no ground for boasting, because whatever goodness they now have comes from grace, not from their nature (Romans 5:6). He adds that all people are guilty because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, yet they are justified freely by grace (Romans 3:23–24).

Henry agrees that if humanity had never sinned, obedience to the law would have been their righteousness, but having sinned, no works can atone for former guilt (Romans 3:28). He says no sinful human being can be justified in God's sight by works of the law, because corrupted human nature makes all our works defective (Romans 3:20). Spurgeon makes the same point: the law does not make anyone a sinner; all people are already sinners in Adam and were so practically before the law was introduced (Romans 5:20).

Edwards emphasizes that the remedy must come entirely from God. He argues that the gospel finds all men, infants and adults alike, under condemnation from Adam's breach of covenant, which can only be removed by sovereign grace uniting Christ to the soul. Spurgeon agrees that grace surpasses sin in its origin, because while sin traces its parentage to the human heart, grace traces its origin to God himself (Romans 5:20).

Sin shows us its parent, and tells us our heart is the father of it, but grace surpasseth sin there, and shows the Author of grace—the King of kings. The law traces sin up to our heart; grace traces its own origin to God Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

We are all guilty. Read the 23rd verse, immediately preceding the text—“ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There the verdict of guilty is brought in, and yet we are immediately afterwards said to be justified freely by his grace Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Justification by Grace”

the gospel finds men, as apostatized with Adam, in a state of condemnation; infants and adults alike are under the condemnatory sentence which is the result of a breach of covenant. This evil can be removed, and a restoration to favour be effected, only by an act of sovereign grace, whereby Christ becomes vitally united to the soul Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”