V.
Sin, Original and Personal
We believe that sin came into the world through the
disobedience of our first parents, and death by sin. We
believe that sin is of two kinds: original sin or depravity,
and actual or personal sin.
We believe that original sin, or depravity, is that
corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam by
reason of which everyone is very far gone from original
righteousness or the pure state of our first parents at the
time of their creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual
life, and inclined to evil, and that continually. We further
believe that original sin continues to exist with the new life
of the regenerate, until eradicated by the baptism with the
Holy Spirit.
We believe that original sin differs from actual sin in
that it constitutes an inherited propensity to actual sin for
which no one is accountable until its divinely provided remedy
is neglected or rejected.
We believe that actual or personal sin is a voluntary
violation of a known law of God by a morally responsible
person. It is therefore not to be confused with involuntary
and inescapable shortcomings, infirmities, faults, mistakes,
failures, or other deviations from a standard of perfect
conduct that are the residual effects of the Fall. However,
such innocent effects do not include attitudes or responses
contrary to the spirit of Christ, which may properly be called
sins of the spirit. We believe that personal sin is primarily
and essentially a violation of the law of love; and that in
relation to Christ sin may be defined as unbelief.
(Original sin: Genesis 3; 6:5; Job 15:14; Psalm 51:5;
Jeremiah 17:9-10; Mark 7:21-23; Romans 1:18-25; 5:12-14; 7:1—8:9;
1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Galatians 5:16-25; 1 John 1:7-8)
(Personal sin: Matthew 22:36-40 {with 1 John 3:4}; John
8:34-36; 16:8-9; Romans 3:23; 6:15-23; 8:18-24; 14:23; 1 John
1:9-2:4; 3:7-10) |
