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6.1 6.3

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

Section 6.2

By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

See also in WSC: Q13, Q15 See also in WLC: Q21, Q25 Compare: The Fall and Original Sin, The Fall, Sin, and Misery, Of the Fall, Sin, and Punishment
Gen. 3:6, 7, 8
[6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. [7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. [8] And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Eccles. 7:29
Rom. 3:23
[23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Gen. 2:17
[17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Eph. 2:1
[1] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Tit. 1:15
Gen. 6:5
[5] The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Jer. 17:9
[9] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Rom. 3:10 to 19
[1] Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? [2] Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. [3] What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? [4] By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” [5] But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) [6] By no means! For then how could God judge the world? [7] But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? [8] And why not do evil that good may come? — as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. [9] What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, [10] as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God. [12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [13] “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” [14] “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” [15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood; [16] in their paths are ruin and misery, [17] and the way of peace they have not known.” [18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” [19] Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. [20] For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. [21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. [27] Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. [28] For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. [29] Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, [30] since God is one — who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. [31] Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

This Section teaches what w^ere the consequences of this first sin upon its immediate authors. In doing so it affirms —

1st. That by this sin they were immediately cut off from communion with God.

2d. That consequently they lost their original righteousness.

3d. At the same time they became dead in sin and ivholly defiled.

152 C()NFESSIO^' OF FAITH.

4th. That this moral corruption extended to all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

As a natural being man depends upon the same sustaining power of God that providentially sustains all things in being. But as a moral and religious being he depends upon the intimate and loving communion of God's Spirit for spiritual life, and consequently for a right moral state and action. Hence —

1st. By this sin man must have instantly been cut off from this loving communion of the divine Spirit. This must have been under any constitution the natural effect of sin. And under (see Chap, vii., § 2) that covenant relation into which man had been introduced in the gracious providence of God at his creation, it was specifically prov^ided that the commission of the forbidden act should be followed by instant death ; that is, instant penal exclusion from the source of all moral and spiritual life. Gen. ii. 17. Hence —

2d. The principle of spiritual life having been withdrawn as the punishment of that first sin, our first parents must have instantly lost their original righteousness, their allegiance had been violated, their faith broken, and love could no longer dominate in their hearts. And hence —

♦3d. They must at once become dead in sins and wholly corrupt. And 4th, This corruption must extend to all the faculties. It is not meant that Adam by this one sin became as bad as a man can be or as he himself became afterward. But as death at the heart involves death in all the members, so the favour and communion of God being lost, (a) original righteousness, the necessary principle of obedience, i.s lost. (6.) Adam's apesFALL OF MAN, SIX AM» ITS PUNISHMENT. 153

tasy from God is complete. God demands perfect obedience, and Adam is now a rebel, (c.) A schism was introduced into his soul. Conscience uttered its condemning voice. This leads to fear, distrust, prevarication and an endless series of sins, (d.) Thus his entire nature became depraved. The will being at war with the conscience, the understanding became darkened, the passions roused, the affections alienated, the conscience callous or deceitful, the appetites of the body inordinate, and its members instruments of unrighteousness.

This section points out the consequences of the sin of our first parents, in regard to themselves. They " fell from their

* Principal Blackwell's Sacred Scheme, p. 199.

t Belfrage's Exposition of the Shorter Catechism, vol. i., p. 178.

t Dwight's Theology, Serm. 27.

original righteousness," and became wholly corrupted in all the faculties of their souls and members of their bodies. The understanding, once a lamp of light, was now overwhelmed in darkness. The will, once faithful for God, and regulated by his will, now became perverse and rebellious. The affections, once pure and regular, novv became vitiated and disordered. The body, too, was corrupted, and its members became instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Our first parents likewise lost the happiness which they had formerly possessed. They were expelled from that pleasant and delightful abode in which God had placed them, the ground was cursed witli barrenness for their sake, they were doomed to lead a life of toil and sorrow, and at last to return to the earth from which they were taken. But this was the least / part of the misery into which they fell. They lost commu-'^ nion with God, the chief good; they forfeited his favour, and incurred his righteous displeasure. They became dead in sin v — obnoxious to that death which is the wages of sin, and which had been threatened as the penalty of their disobedience. " In the day thou eatest thereof," said God, " thou shalt surely die." This threatening included temporal death, consisting r' in the dissolution of the union between the soul and the . body; spiritual death, consisting in the loss of the favour and the image of God; and eternal death, consisting in the ever- "^ lasting separation of both soul and body from God. The very day in which our first parents sinned, the sentence of death, though not immediately executed in its fullest extent, began to lay hold upon them. They became mortal, and were exposed to the disorders of a vitiated constitution; the principle of spiritual life was extinguished in their souls, and they were bound over to eternal wrath; and, had not a Mediator been provided, not only would they have returned to the dust, but they would have been "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."

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6.1 6.3

Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof

The fall, original sin, and the punishment of sin

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

Section 6.1

Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

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

Section 6.2

By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

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

Section 6.3

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.

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

Section 6.4

From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

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

Section 6.5

This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned and mortified, yet both itself and all the motions thereof are truly and properly sin.

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

Section 6.6

Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner; whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.