THE ORIGIN OF SIN
By C.D. Cole
This
is one of the most difficult questions in theology. Since God
made everything
good in the original creation, how did sin get
started?
How was a good creation thrown into rebellion against its
Creator?
By whom and how was sin originated? There is much we cannot
know
about the question. But there are some necessary inferences.
1. Sin is
not eternal; it had a beginning. The Gnostics believed
in two eternal principles: good and evil.
2. Sin
was not created by God. God created everything good; He is
not the Author of sin. Moral beings were without sin when
created. Satan was created a
sinless and perfect being "Thou
wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee" (#Eze 28:15). God made
man upright. "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made
man upright; but they have sought out many inventions"
(#Ec
3. Sin
was not the necessary result of finiteness. Some claim
that because God made man a finite being sin was inevitable.
But if this be true, men will always be
sinners for none of us
will ever become infinite. Infinity belongs only to God.
4. Sin
had its origin in a principle of negation, which means
that it is not the result of any positive force. Moral beings
were created good, but not immutably and independently good.
This would have made them equal with God; it would have
involved the absurdity of God creating another God. God alone
is immutable and independent. There cannot be more than one
God, self-existent and self-sufficient, sovereign and supreme.
Moral
beings, angels and man, were dependent upon God in remaining good.
A
sustaining power must continually go out from God if moral creatures
continue
as created. "Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our
feet to
be moved" (#Ps 66:9); "For in him we live, and move, and
have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also
his
offspring" (#Ac
that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were
created
by him, and for him: And he is before
all things, and by him all
things
consist" (#
glory,
and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of
his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right
hand of the Majesty on high:" (#Heb 1:3).
Now
this sustaining power is of grace and not of debt. It is not a matter
of
justice. God could exercise this grace or not as it pleased Him. He could
have
upheld and confirmed in holiness all moral beings. He could have
prevented
sin from ever getting started among the angels, just as He
graciously prevented it from spreading,
confirming in holiness those
referred
to as the elect angels: "I charge thee before God, and the Lord
Jesus
Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without
preferring one before another, doing nothing
by partiality"
(#1Ti
will not
do to say that because God made Adam a free moral agent, He could
not prevent
his sinning without violating the freedom of his will. God
withheld
Abimilech, king of Gerar, from sinning by not allowing him to harm
Sarah.
"And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this
in the
integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against
me:
therefore suffered I thee not to touch her" (#Ge 20:6).
So sin
had its origin in the withholding of that grace necessary to
sustain
moral beings in a state of holiness. If God had not permitted sin
there
could have been no display of some of His most glorious attributes.
There
would have been no display of mercy, for mercy must have an object of
misery,
and there could have been no misery apart from sin. There would have
been no
exhibition of wrath and anger and hatred, for these are the exercise
of
justice and holiness against sin. There would have been no display of
such
gracious love as is seen in God's gift of His Son, who was punished for
sinners
that they might not perish in their sins. Surely it is not too much
to say
that God permitted sin that He might overrule it "to the praise of
the glory
of His grace" (#Eph 1:6).
"Surely the wrath of man shall
praise
thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain"
(#Ps
76:10).
THE FIRST
SINNER
Sin
originated among the angels. That slimy, slippery, shining,
subtle
thing we call sin was hatched the day Lucifer, son of the
morning,
said, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will
be like
the most High" (#Isa
God in
government, and sovereignty was the bait he held out to man to
turn him
against his Maker. And in sinning, man has become the tool
and ally
of Satan.
Most
people have a woefully inadequate conception of sin. Sin is
the
abominable thing God hates. Sin is something more than a slight
misdemeanor for which God merely gives man a
scolding; sin is a
species
of high treason against the Almighty and thrice-holy God, and
is to be
punished by consignment to the lake of fire.
THE
ORIGIN OF SIN IN THE HUMAN RACE
In the
human race sin was derived from the first man: "Therefore,
as
through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin;
and so
death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (#Rom
Now
there are but two conceivable ways sin can pass from one to
another.
The one is by way of example, as Jereboam caused
sin, and
as Eve caused Adam to sin. The other is by partaking of the sin
of
another. It is obvious that our being sinners is not due to the force of
Adam's
example. Moreover, in the comparison between Adam and
Christ
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (#Ro 5:19), it
is
intended to show that sin came by Adam as righteousness comes by
Christ.
Now we do not become righteous by following Christ as an
example,
but by partaking of His righteousness. "But of him are ye in
Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and
sanctification, and redemption" (#1Co 1:30). This raises the
question
of Adam's relation to his descendants.
THE
HEADSHIP OF ADAM
Adam
was the head of the human race. This headship was both
natural and
federal---natural by the principle of generation (like begets
like);
federal by Divine appointment.
1. Adam
was the natural father or head of the race.
"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face
of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the
bounds of their habitation" (#Ac 17:26); "And so it is
written,
The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a
quickening spirit" (#1Co 15:45).
Every person was seminally
in Adam.
He begat children in his own moral and physical likeness, not
before
but after his fall. His children became heir to all his ills of
body and
soul. They inherited his moral depravity and physical
weakness.
His nature was imparted to his posterity.
2. Adam
was the federal head of the race.
This
means that Adam was appointed a public and representative
person.
He represented the race in the covenant of works. "But they
like Adam
have transgressed the covenant" (#Ho 6:7 R.V.). The federal
headship
explains why Adam's sin was imputed (charged) to his
posterity. "For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners"
(#Ro
5:19). Adam was acting for the whole race and what he did was
charged
to all his descendants. This is the only way to explain the
death of
infants. Infants die because of Adams' sin, or they die for
no reason
at all, since they have not sinned personally "Nevertheless
death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him
that was
to come" (#Ro 5:14). If Adam did not represent infants in
respect
to sin, then Christ did not represent them in respect to
salvation. If they were not guilty with Adams
guilt, they could not be
righteous
with Christ's righteousness. Babies go to heaven, not on the
grounds
of innocency, but on the ground of the blood of Christ. If
Christ
had not died the whole human race,
infants and all, would have
been
forever doomed. There will be nobody in heaven except those
redeemed
by the blood of Christ. Infants have the guilt of Adam
imputed
to them without their knowledge and consent. And on the ground
of the
death of Christ for them the Holy Spirit prepares their nature
(which is
sinful) for the enjoyment of heaven.
THE FIRST
AND LAST ADAM
In And
so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. The
first man is of the
earth,
earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven" (#1Co 15:45,47),
Jesus is
called the second man and the last Adam. This
is not in
respect of existence, but representation. He is not
considered personally but representatively.
Considered as an
individual. He was not the second man or the
last Adam. Individually,
there
were many men between the Adam of Eden and the Adam of Calvary,
and there
have been many men since Jesus. He is called the last Adam
because
there are but two public or representative men. God deals with
all men
through two men, and our destiny depends upon which of these
two men
we have our standing in before God. Believers are accepted in
the
beloved "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us
accepted in the beloved" (#Eph 1:6), and are complete in Him
"And
ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power:" (#Col 2:10).
GUlLT AND
DEPRAVITY
There
are two aspects or branches of sin:
1. That
which consists of the guilt of some deed committed:
2. Inherent
corruption or depravity of nature contracted by that
guilt. The sinner's standing is that of guilt before the law
of God; his state is that of depravity or corruption of
nature.
Two
things resulted from Adams' first sin:
1. He was
charged
with guilt and condemned by the law of God:
2. He
lost the likeness of God in holiness and became corrupt.
Now which of these, or did both of these branches of sin,
come from Adam? Some say the guilt of sin is imputed, hence
their baptism of infants lest they should go to hell. Others
say the corruption of nature was imparted. But we believe
that sin in its two branches was derived from Adam. Guilt was
imputed, and the corruption of nature was imparted or
inherited. In other words, depravity or corruption of nature
is one of the consequences of Adam's transgression. Does God
punish the innocent? The answer is a loud, No! Then we must
all have been represented by Adam in the transgression or we
would not be punished with a sinful nature.
THE FIRST
ADAM DISCHARGED
How
many of Adam's sins were charged to his posterity? Only
one for
it is written, "For the judgment was by one (sin) to the
condemnation, but the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification"
(#Ro
5:16).
Adam
could convey sin to his posterity only as long as he was a
public or
representative person. Immediately after his first sin, he was
put out
of office and another covenant was published "And I will put
enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel"
(#Ge
3:15).
And when
Adam exercised faith in the promised Redeemer, he
was
acting in a private capacity; otherwise, his faith would have been
imputed
as well as his sin. Let both writer and reader thank God for the
last Adam
who is a life-giving Spirit.