WCF 6.3

Westminster Confession of Faith

6.3. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof

They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.

Proof texts

Gen. 1:27, 28 & Gen. 2:16, 17 and Acts 17:26 with Rom. 5:12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 49
Ps. 51:5 — [5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Gen. 5:3 — [3] When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Job 14:4, Job 15:14 — [4] Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.

For discussion

The Assembly cited Gen. 1:27, 28 & Gen. 2:16, 17 and Acts 17:26 with Rom. 5:12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 49 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
4 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
WSC Q16 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
WSC Q17 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q16 · WSC Q17 · WSC Q18 · WLC Q22 · WLC Q26 · WLC Q21 · WSC Q13 · BC 4.1 · BC 4.2 · HC Q3 · 1689 6.1 · 1689 6.2 · 1689 6.3 · 1689 6.4 · 1689 6.5 · SD 6.1 · IAR 4.5 · SC60 2.2 · SHC 2.3 · SHC 2.4

Leader's notes

A Commentary on the Confession of Faith (A.A. Hodge): These Sections teach us what were the consequences of the first sin to the descendants of its authors. In doing so our standards affirm — 1st. That Adam was both the natural and federal head of all mankind. Conf. Faith, ch. vii., § 2, and L. Cat., Qs. 22, 25, and S. Cat., Qs. 16, 18. 2d. That consequently the guilt or liability to the penal consequences of that sin was imputed, charged to the account of, and at their birth actually inflicted upon all men. 3d. That consequenMy the moral corruption which results from the penal withdrawing of God's Holy Spirit in the case of our first parents, is necessarily conveyed to all those of their descendants who are…

An Exposition of the Confession of Faith (Robert Shaw): These sections point out the consequences of the sin of our first parents in regard to their posterity. These consequences are restricted to those " descending from them by ordinary generation." This restriction is obviously introduced in order to exclude our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as man, was one of the posterity of Adam, but did not descend from him by ordinary generation. The genealogy of Christ is traced up to Adam (Luke iii. 38), but his human nature was supernaturally framed in the womb of the Virgin, by the power of the Holy Ghost. — Luke i. 35. In his birth, therefore, as well as in his life, he was " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners." But…