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IS ORIGINAL SIN ORIGINAL GUILT?
ARE WE BORN DAMNED?

Some Christians teach that, because of the original sin of Adam and Eve (Gen 3), we are all born into this world already damned, worthy of God’s eternal wrath. These Christians interpret very literally not only the ancient stories of creation, but also St. Paul’s words that "through [Adam’s] transgression condemnation came upon all," and "through the disobedience of one person [all] were made sinners" (Rm 5:18f).

But how could a just God condemn us for something we did not do? We can only become alienated from God through our own free choices (Ez 18:21ff; Mt 16:27; Rm 2:6, 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10; Gal 6:7-9; Rev 2:23, 20:12f, 22:12).

Original sin is a doctrine that seeks to explain why evil exists in a world created by a good and omnipotent God. And evil does not merely exist out there, in the world around us; we experience evil within our very own selves. As St. Paul says so candidly:

I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.... For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I do not do the good I want to do; instead I do the evil that I do not want to do. Rm 7:15-19

We blame this inclination to sin, against which we all have to struggle, on the original sin of our first ancestors, traditionally known as Adam and Eve. But how could their sin affect us?

When St. Paul describes the effects of Adam’s sin on us, he is reflecting the belief of the Jewish people in the solidarity of the human family: all Adam and Eve’s descendants form, as it were, a single corporate personality. Today we might understand this to mean that, while we are not guilty of another’s sins, we do suffer the negatives consequences of each other’s sins, beginning with the immoral environment created by our first parents.

No one enters the world a sinner, but we all enter into a sinful world. Original sin is a way of saying that, right from the outset, we all become infected, are "made sinners," by a world diseased with sin. We experience love, but also what it is not to be loved, and we in turn become unloving. For example, if we are born into a materialistic society, we unconsciously absorb, as if by osmosis, a strong tendency towards unloving, materialistic ways. And insofar as our own actions do become unloving, we continue to spread the contagion of sin in the world.

Original sin is "sin" for us only in an analogous sense. We are "guilty" by association, with Adam. The shame of a disgraced father has been passed on to his children: "condemnation came upon all." However, we never chose Adam’s sin, and so we are not personally guilty of it and cannot be damned for it. But the effects of original sin on us are similar to the effects of our personal sins. Like our own sins, the evil milieu in which we originate makes us spiritually frail, predisposes us towards sin.

No, we are not born damned. On the contrary, we are born beloved, a child of God’s ongoing blessing of creation. But sin is in the world, and does enter into our hearts. The Good News is that Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God," also enters into our hearts and so "takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). We are made innocent by association, with Jesus. Faith unites us with Jesus and He removes our sins and our shame.

In his letter to the Romans quoted above, after St. Paul confesses that he is a captive to sin, he cries out: "Who will rescue me...?" Then he responds to his own question: "Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Rather than despair of ever doing good, St. Paul had to do what we must all do. Faced with his own pitiful weakness, Paul dug down more deeply within and experienced the power of Christ in his life (2 Cor 12:7b-10). Jesus frees us from the tyranny of sin.

Baptism formally incorporates us into "life with Christ" (Eph 2:5), into Christ’s body, the Church (1 Cor 1:12-27). We take Christ as our Savior. And we enter the family of the Church, where Godly values are nurtured to help us offset the corrosive influence of the sin of the world.

At our Easter celebration on Holy Saturday night, before baptizing new Catholics, the Easter candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ, is lit. The Exsultet is then sung, exuberant with joy at Christ’s resurrection. In the midst of this hymn, Adam’s sin is remembered. Then, incredibly, this original sin which has led to so much misery, led even to Christ’s crucifixion, is called "O happy fault...which gained for us so great a Redeemer!"

Since the time of Adam and Eve, "sin abounded" in the world. But, thanks be to Jesus Christ, God’s "grace abounded even more" (Rm 5:20).

Ronald Stanley, O.P.

Revised 12/00

For additional articles related to this topic see:

HAVE YOU BEEN "BORN AGAIN"?

QUESTIONING YOUR FAITH

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