By Grace Are You Saved

For we know that the whole creation groaneth

and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only they, but ourselves also,

which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,

even we ourselves groan within ourselves,

waiting for the adoption, to wit,

the redemption of our body.

Romans 8:22–23 KJV

            Adam dared to show repugnance to the command of God by his incredulous to God’s words. By restraint to his affections Adam would have been led to cultivate righteousness by obeying God’s commands and then to know that the highest felicity was to be loved by God. This did not happen for Adam was carried away by his listening to his wife, who had been misled by Satan who’s very utmost was to annihilate the glory of God. Adam’s disobedience to God was more than a corruption of his physicality so that he would die; it was more than that for it was a corruption of his spiritual life, therefore this estrangement meant death of his soul. Adam’s sin was a perversion that perverted and corrupted the whole order of nature in heaven and earth and by his revolt deteriorated his race, and all creation. Man is the highest order of his creation who was given to whole universe for him to govern, cultivate, and enjoy, but now, due to Adam’s sin: “…the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together…” (vs. 22). Paul is making clear that the whole creation, not willingly, rather had forced upon it the corruption due to Adam’s sin, for Adam’s sin ruined what was given to him causing, without doubt that creation bears part of the punishment deserved by man for whom all other creatures were made. It was and is man’s fault that this curse was extended to the heavens and the earth, therefore it is not to be then doubted that this corruption, this perversion has been extended to Adam’s progeny. Man had been made by God, given by God the image of God with the attributes of God so man could communicate with God, but, by Adam’s refusal to remain faithful to God, to keep the single command, to not eat of the Tree of Good and Evil, the attributes were now withdrawn and replaced, substituted, by such as vanity, impurity, and unrighteousness and this perverted nature involved Adam’s posterity and plunged them into the same wretchedness. Original sin is what it is by means of this hereditary corruption, a depraved nature that was formerly good and pure. This doctrine of Original Sin has been of great discussion and debate due to the apprehension caused by this doctrine that the fault of one man should render all guilty and be guilty of a common sin. Men in an attempt to remove the guilt of sin from God by ensuring through their theologies so as not to make God the author of sin devised doctrines that seem good and acceptable but was not in conformity with Scripture. Pelagius was one such person who taught that the sin of Adam only affected Adam, but not Adam’s progeny. Others, the Semi–Pelagians, Jacobus Arminius attempted the same, to ensure that God would not be the author of sin, but this craftily designed theology is not what Scripture proclaims. Satan is good at his attempt to hide the disease of sin, and often men who take up such a position as to be found in Satanic doctrine are only attempting to render sin incurable by doing so. After a person who held to Arminianism, or Pelagianism found that Scripture does teach that the sin of the first man was passed to his progeny they cavil at the idea and proposed that sin was passed to man from Adam by imitation and not by propagation. Augustine who wrote much in regard to the doctrine of Original Sin showed from Scripture that man is not corrupted by acquired wickedness, rather that man is sinful from the womb. To deny this is to be impudent and deny Scripture: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5 KJV). King David was not throwing the blame onto his mother, no, for King David was commending that God extend His goodness to him, and properly reiterated the sinfulness that he had from the womb, form his conception. It is then to follow that man, the whole common lot of man comes into this world tainted with corruption, this contagion of sin. Can man, as the Arminianism theology teaches that man can save himself if he so desires? “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4).

            It is clear and plain that the impurity of parents is transmitted to their children, therefore all are originally depraved, are subject to the Original Sin. Looking back into history and the fall of Adam and see if not there is depravity in this world; there is and we can point to the root of this depravity to Adam. Adam was more than just a progenitor of sin, he is the root of sin and by the sin of Adam the whole human race has been vitiated. Paul makes this even more plain and clear: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness into eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:19–21, KJV). If then by imitation sin occurs in man, then the righteousness of Jesus Christ which gives eternal life is also then an imitation, that this righteousness of Jesus Christ is not available to us in fact, but as an imitation. Can anyone believe that imitation is true? If righteousness was lost in Adam and only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ can there be eternal life, sin is abolished in Christ there is not obscurity in the words: “As by one’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (vs. 19). Thus, by the sin of Adam man, all creation was ruined, and by the grace of Jesus Christ, His righteousness man is restored: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1Corinthians 15:22). This testifies to the truth that original sin is the sin of Adam and Adam’s sin corrupted his progeny. The soul of man was corrupted and by means of this corruption does not desire for Godly things. Only by God given to a man the faith to believe will man come to believe and restore that which was lost; eternal life.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh;

            And that which is born of the Sprit

Is spirit. Marvel not hat I said unto thee,

            Ye must be born again.

                                                John 3:6–7

To Follow God Is To Be Saved

Richard L. Crumb