By Gary Ray Branscome
In understanding original sin, it is important to keep in
mind the words, God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it
was very good, and the words, By one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have
sinned (Genesis 1:31, Romans 5:12). Those words tell us that sin is not in
our nature because God made us that way, or because of what we are made of, but
because our nature has been corrupted. That corruption not only produces
blindness and ignorance of the truth, but actively fights against the truth. We
find that taught in the words, I see another law at work in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner to the law of sin
that is in my members, and in the words, The flesh lusts against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and they are opposed to each other
(Romans 7:23, Galatians 5:17).
The Bible tells us that the cause of sin is not God, who, Cannot
be tempted with evil, and does not tempt anyone, but the devil, and our first
parents who listened to the devil (James
Since this section deals
with the universality of original sin, I need to point out again that Christ is
the one exception. The words, For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; but one who was in all points tempted
just as we are, yet without sin, tell us that Christ had no sin
(Hebrews 4:15). And, the words, The Holy One who will be born of you will
be called the Son of God, tell us that Christ did not inherit a sinful
nature, but was without sin holy from the very beginning (Luke 1:35).