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6.5 7.1

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.

See also in WSC: Q13, Q19, Q84 See also in WLC: Q21, Q28, Q29, Q152 Compare: The Fall and Original Sin, The Fall, Sin, and Misery, Of the Fall, Sin, and Punishment
1 John 3:4
[4] Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
Rom. 2:15
[15] They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
Rom. 3:9, 19
[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, [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.
Ephes. 2:3
Gal. 3:10
[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Rom. 6:23
[23] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephes. 4:18
Rom. 8:20
[20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
Lam. 3:39
[39] Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
Matt. 25:41, 2 Thess. 1:9
[41] “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

these Sections teach as to the moral state of man by nature?

47. What are the several points involved in their teaching.

48. Prove that the doctrine here taught agrees with the universal experience of men.

49. State and prove the several points taught in Scripture as to the nature, extent and time of commencement of human depravity.

60. What subjects are treated of in the fifth and sixth Sections?

51. What is taught as to the continuance and character of corruption in the regenerate ?

52. Prove that the innate and permanent tendency of the soul to sin is as truly a violation of God's law as actual transgression.

53. Prove that this "tendency to sin" and actual transgression are alike worthy of punishment.

54. What temporal miseries are inflicted because of sin ?

55. What relation do temporal afflictions sustain to the justified believer ?

66. What spiritual miseries are inflicted because of sin ?

67. What eternal miseries are inflicted on the same account ?

This section relates to the cleseit of sin. Being a transgression of the law of God, it must, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, or render him liable to punishment. '^ It exposes him to the irrath of God, for " the children of disobedience " are also " children of wrath," i. e., they deserve and are obnoxious to the wrath of God. It subjects him to j the curse of the law, by which we may undei-stand the con-

* Burnet on the Thirty- Nine Articloa, Art. 9. Hill's Lectures in Divinity vo3. ii., p. 16.

demnatory sentence of the broken law, which binds over the guilty sinner to all the direful effects of the wrath of God. It likewise subjects him to death, or the dissolution of the mysterious union between the soul and the body. Pelagians and Socinians hold that death is not the punishment of sin — that Adam was mortal from the beginning ; and for this reason, those who are born of him must also be mortal. Others, again, both in former and later times, have held that temporal death was the only penalty threatened to Adam, and that this is the only death which results from his sin. Both these opinions are so plainly contradictory to the express declarations of the Word of God, that they are unworthy of serious refutation. In addition to this, our Confession states, that sin exposes the sinner to numerous miseries, both in this life, and in that which is to come. Among the spiritual or inward miseries to which it renders the sinnej- liable in this world, the compilers of our Confession elsewhere mention "blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience, ar.d vile affections;" and among the tempored or outward miseries, they mention " the curse of God upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befal us in oiar bodies, names, relations, and employments." * And the miseries to which sin exposes in the world to come, they sum up in " everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire for ever." f

When we reflect on the loss which Adam sustained by his fall, and on the guilty and corrupted state in which we are thereby involved, and on the manifold miseries to which we are liable, both here and hereafter, let us be deeply impressed with a sense of the dreadful malignity and demerit of sin, — the source of all our woe. Let us not dare to repine against God, or to impeach his goodness or equity, for permitting sin to enter into the world, and making us responsible for the transgression of the first Adam ; but rather let us admire the di\'ine wisdom and grace displayed in providing the second Adam, by whose obedience we may be made righteous, as by the disobedience of the first we were made sinners. Let us cordially receive the Lord Jesus Christ, that, being found in him, we may not only be acquitted from the guilt of the first man's transgression, but may be brought, through " the abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, to reign in life by one," even by Jesus Christ, our Lord.

* The Larger Catechism, Quest. '2S. f Ibitl , O'lest. 29.

84 CONFESSIOiN OF FAITH. [cHAP. VII.

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6.5 7.1

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.