Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin by Hans & Michael Reeves Madueme

Author:Hans & Michael Reeves Madueme
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: REL067030, Fall of man, Original Sin, REL106000, Adam (Biblical figure), REL006090
ISBN: 9781441246417
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-10-23T05:00:00+00:00

The Necessity of Belief in Originated Sin

We now move from the significance of a historical original sin to the significance of its being inherited. We will look at five key areas of doctrine that are affected by belief in (or denial of) originated sin: the doctrines of humanity, sin, salvation, Christ, and God.

Originated Sin and the Doctrine of Humanity

Sometimes well-meaning Christians have said that Scripture and theology are only concerned with metaphysical or religious matters, those matters that are ultimate, whereas the nontheological disciplines like the natural and social sciences deal with concrete questions about how things work and how to understand various aspects of our world. The Bible answers “why” questions, while science answers “how” questions. The well-known problems with this simplistic formulation quickly emerge when we consider the doctrine of originated sin and humanity. It is impossible to understand humanity aright apart from the reality of inherited sin. Indeed, the very nexus of sin and salvation hang on the identity of Adam as the father of humanity (Acts 17:26) and our participation in his primal sin (Rom. 5:12).

Note first that this problem of inherited sin, unique to Christianity, presupposes a common humanity. The Nigerian woman at the market, the Chinese businessman, the Icelandic teenager—each of us, in all our glorious creaturely diversity, no matter what ethnic or cultural or geographical heritage, are ultimately children of Adam, from that same original family. This reality abolishes the very basis of racism. It destroys polygenism, the nineteenth-century view—based on our physical and cultural differences—that the various human races are different species with separate, unrelated origins (many polygenists, of course, were racist slave owners).13 To confess that we have all inherited from Adam a morally corrupt nature is to assume monogenism, one origin to the entire human family.14

Inherited sin is a dark reality, but it is one with the widest silver lining. Gregory Nazianzen put it neatly when he wrote his famous maxim: “That which [Christ] has not assumed he has not healed.”15 He points to the crucial role played by the universal sinfulness we inherit from Adam. Because Adam first sinned, we all participate in that one sin, and as a result we are all in the same sinking boat, we all have the same problem. The promised Savior, the son of David, would become incarnate, human, like Adam, and would thus be able to save Adam and all his descendants. Since we have all inherited Adam’s sin, that puts us into that single class of people who need redemption—“for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22 NIV). In the wisdom of God, Jesus became incarnate as a physical descendant of Adam (Luke 3:23–38); he did not become incarnate as an angel, or a dog, or a dinosaur, or an orangutan. He became a human being, a man, precisely so that he could save humanity. But if we are not all descended from Adam, and if our moral depravity is not in substantive continuity with Adam, then salvation becomes a risky, disturbing thing.

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