Think Wink.

Having covered Calvin’s previous definition of OS and how it originated in Adam and how it is transferred from one generation to the subsequent generation by the divine decree of a curse upon all creation rather than imitation, we can now examine Calvin’s fuller treatment of OS in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, focusing on ICR II.i.8 where Calvin tackles this issue most specifically.

For the best definition of OS in ICR I turn now to Calvin’s words, “So that these remarks may not be made concerning an uncertain and unknown matter, let us define original sin…Original sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God’s wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls ‘works of the flesh’ [Gal. 5:19].” So there we have it, Calvin’s full definition of OS from which he will work towards Christ as redemption. But he will take up the rest of this paragraph and the next three to draw out what he means by this definition of OS being hereditary–by God’s decree!–corruption of all of human nature that makes each person accountable to God’s wrath and works out in that person all of the sinfulness that Scripture speaks of and against.

Calvin goes on to clarify what he means in two points, “We must, therefore, distinctly note these two things. First, we are so vitiated and perverted in every part of our nature that by this great corruption we stand justly condemned and convicted before God, to whom noting is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity. For since it is said that we became subject to God’s judgment through Adam’s sin, we are to understand it not as if we, guiltless and undeserving, bore the guilt of his offense but in the sense that, since we through his transgression have become entangled in the curse, he is said to have made us guilty.” Once of the biggest objections I have run into recently is from Ezekiel 18 where God promises to judge each person by his or her own sin and not by the sin of their fathers. Hence, God does not condemn us for our parents’ sins, even those of Adam. But here Calvin argues that we are condemned for Adam’s sin, we do not incur God’s wrath against Adam upon ourselves because he is our father. Calvin denies that is what he is teaching.

Calvin goes on to say, “Yet not only has punishment fallen upon us from Adam [that is the curse from Adam‘s sin], but a contagion imparted by him resides in us, which justly deserves punishment. For this reason Augustine, though often he calls sin ‘another’s’ to show more clearly that it is distributed among us through propagation, nevertheless declares that at the same time that it is peculiar to each. And the apostle himself most eloquently testifies that ‘death has spread to all because all have sinned’ [Romans 5:12]. That is, they have been enveloped in original sin and defiled by its stains. For that reason, even infants themselves, while they carry their condemnation along with them in the mother’s womb, are guilty not of another’s fault but of their own. For, even though fruits of their iniquity have not yet come forth, they have the seed enclosed within them. Indeed, their whole nature is a seed of sin; hence it can be only hateful an abhorrent to God. From this it follows that it is rightly considered sin in God’s sight, for without guilt there would be no accusation.” The infant is not guilty of Adam’s sin. But they are guilty of the sin that they carry in themselves that they have yet to bring to fruition. God, seeing the contagion and what it means, finds them abhorrent. But they are not guilty of their father’s sin, namely Adam’s sin. They are guilty of their own sin that results from the contamination, corruption that they received by decree from Adam.

Then Calvin comes to point two, “Then comes the second consideration: that this perversity never ceases in us, but continually bears new fruits–the works of the flesh that we have already described–just as a burning gives forth flame and sparks, or water ceaselessly bubbles up from a spring.” OS isn’t just a corruption in the human soul that God hates and condemns, it is more than that. It causes us to willingly and continually bear the fruit that Paul refers to in Galatians 5:19-21 as “works of the flesh.”

Calvin continues, “Thus those who have defined original sin as ‘the lack of the original righteousness, which ought to reside in us,’ [i.e. Melanchthon] although they comprehend in this definition the whole meaning of the term, have still not expressed effectively enough its power and energy. For our nature is not only destitute and empty of good, but so fertile and fruitful of every evil that it cannot be idle.” OS isn’t just without that original standing that Adam had in the sight of God, it also brings forth in us “every evil” so much so that we are “so fertile and fruitful…that [we] cannot be idle.”

There is another position Calvin considers here as well, “Those who have said that original sin is ‘concupiscence’ [i.e. Augustine] have used an appropriate word, if only it be added–something that most will by no means concede–that whatever is in man, from the understanding of the will, from the soul even to the flesh, has been defiled and crammed with this concupiscence. Or, to put it more briefly, the whole man is of himself nothing but concupiscence.” In other words, the whole being of man is of this intense desire to engage in its lusts and sinful desires.

Calvin and Original Sin: Part 7

Calvin and Original Sin: Part 2

Calvin and Original Sin: Part 6