From Genesis to Judgment: Original Sin Fully Explained

Why does so much evil exist in the world? Why do men murder? Why do countries go to war? Why do people exploit others? Why do we live in a world marked by human evil?

Foundational to answering these questions is the doctrine of original sin.

Original sin means that all human beings inherit the corruption of sin. Due to this inherited corruption, all people sin and are liable to judgment. At the most basic level, therefore, original sin describes an ongoing desire for evil that blooms into additional sins and makes one liable to greater judgment.

To understand this often-neglected doctrine better, the following article answers some key questions related to the doctrine of original sin.

Does the Bible support the idea of original sin?

The Bible does not use the phrase original sin. The phrase does, however, describe the Bible’s teaching on sin and sin’s universal reach.

Original sin is the conclusion to basic questions we all should ask, like:

Why does everyone die?

If we turn to the Bible, we see that death is the consequence of sin (Gen 2:17 ; Rom 6:23 ). At the same time, everyone dies. That means that everyone must sin (Rom 5:12 ). By this reasoning, we have a starting point for the doctrine of original sin: since all die, all must sin.

Why does everyone sin?

When Adam sinned, God exiled him east of Eden. Immediately afterwards, we learn that sin now crouches at the door and aims to overpower Cain (Gen 4:7 ). Not long after, just before the flood, we find that the thoughts and the heart of mankind have become “evil continually” (Gen 6:5 ). Even after the flood, God still affirms that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21 ESV ).

Within the story of Genesis, this evil intent of the heart follows from Adam and Eve’s originating sin in Genesis 3. Something changed when Adam sinned and was cast out of Eden. This something affected all people and turned their desires towards evil. Christians have called this reality original sin.

How does original sin affect us?

The Bible speaks about a law (or principle) of sin that resides in our flesh (Rom 7:23 ). It vies to dominate us by leading us to consent to sinful choices (1 Pet 2:11 ).

Sometime after God exiled Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, he informed Cain that “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it” (Gen 4:7 ESV ). Sin, like a predator, desires to master Cain, but he must wrestle with it. Both Cain’s subsequent murder of his brother Abel and the vengeful society constructed by Cain and his progeny illustrate that evil desires for vengeance propagate across families (e.g., Gen 4:24 ).

In the New Testament, Paul personifies sin in ways similar to Genesis 4 (Rom 6:16–17 ). A little later in Romans, Paul explains, “I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom 7:23 ESV ).

This law of sin within Paul’s flesh (“members”) wars with Paul’s mind or “inner being” (7:22). In other words, this “evil” that “lies close at hand” resides in Paul’s flesh and wars against the law of his mind (Rom 7:21 , 23 ). This basic conflict explains why Paul speaks of the need to renew one’s mind to present one’s body to God (Rom 12:1–2 ).

In other words, original sin affects all people today. Sin resides within us. It lies in wait like a predator to devour us. But shockingly, this thing lies within our own hearts. Original sin names this law of sin within the flesh of all people.

Are people born with original sin?

Original sin transfers from parent to child through natural generation.

The Bible develops this argument in the early chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 2:17 , God identifies death as a punishment for sin. Then the murders committed by Cain and Lamech in Genesis 4 show that sin spread across the world. Finally, Genesis 5 clinches the argument. The chapter outlines a genealogy with a repeated and intentional refrain: “and he died … and he died … and he died.” The entire chapter tells us that everyone born dies—that is, unless God does a miraculous act to prevent it (Gen 5:24 ESV )!

Genesis 5 also tells us that children inherit the likeness of their parents. For example, Genesis 5:3 says, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen 5:3 ESV ).

Contextually, this likeness includes sin and death. Verse 5 tells us of Adam, “and he died”; verse 8 then says of Adam’s son Seth, “and he died.” By being in the likeness of his father, Seth became liable to death like Adam. And death, as Genesis 2:17 and the Pentateuch in general tell us, is the consequence of sin.1 As sin universally entered into the world through Adam, so does death. Since everyone dies, it follows that everyone sins.

Somehow, sin begets sin through procreation. Genesis 1–5 confirms this teaching. And the story of the Ark and Flood (Gen 6–9) highlight the evil of abiding sin.

The apostle Paul reads Genesis in similar ways. In Romans 5:12 , he reasons that “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (ESV).

Paul spends the rest of the chapter contrasting Adam and his sin with Christ and his sacrifice. Each man affects many others: Adam as being the source of sin; Christ as being the source of righteousness. Paul will make similar arguments elsewhere (1 Cor 15:45–49 ). In simplest form, Paul says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22 ESV ).

Original sin not only describes our evil hearts but also how sin originates. Sin originates by natural generation. The Bible does not tell us exactly how it occurs but only that it does happen.

Does original sin make us liable for judgment?

The most controversial aspect of original sin has to do with judgment. Does original sin only incline us towards actual (or personal) sins? Or does original sin involve the imputation of guilt as well and, in and of itself, make us condemned and liable for judgment?

Before providing an answer, let me quote a couple Bible verses that have led theologians to answer yes.

In Psalm 51:5 , David says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (ESV). Many see this verse teaching that even in conception, infants can be described as sinful and therefore liable to guilt.
Ephesians 2:3 says we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (ESV). Put simply, by natural generation,2

Paul says people are liable to wrath. And wrath signifies God’s just punishment of sin in Scripture. In other words, the natural condition of people apart from Christ is one that deserves wrath. The implication here is that all people come into the world in a sinful condition.

Putting these passages together then, it seems likely that Paul affirms that being born outside of Christ and so in sin makes us children who deserve wrath due to inherited sin.

For the most part, the Augustinian and Reformed tradition uses passages like the ones above to conclude that original sin not only creates an inclination towards sin but is itself worthy of judgment. Therefore, original sin makes us liable for judgment. As I will note below, some people have disputed this aspect of original sin.

Is original sin a sickness?

The Bible sometimes talks about sin as a sickness or a disease. But when it does so, it speaks metaphorically. For example, Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The immediate context shows that this sickness of the heart refers to one’s way of life: moral acts (e.g., Jer 17:5 , 7 , 10 ).

Sickness of the heart became a common way that Christians have spoken of original sin. Original sin is talked about as a contagious disease. For example, Cyprian of Carthage (210–258) said that

how much more should an infant not be prohibited, who, recently born, has not sinned at all, except that, born carnally according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the first death from the first nativity. He approaches more easily from this very fact to receive the remission of sins because those which are remitted are not his own sins, but the sins of another.3

Here one sees the basic elements of original sin. This sin comes through natural generation (“born carnally”). This contagion makes one guilty and so requires “the forgiveness of sins.” Cyprian uses the language of “the sins of another” to refer to Adam’s originating sin or perhaps the originating sin of a parent.

Other theologians like Augustine or John Calvin would self-consciously follow Cyprian. Augustine argued that because of Adam’s sin, all people born after him inherited a sinful condition, which he calls “the contagion.”4 John Calvin likewise uses the same metaphor of a “contagion” (or as some translate, “pollution”) to define original sin.5

In sum, original sin is not literally a biological sickness. But the metaphor of bodily disease illustrates how original sin transfers across generations.

So is original sin transmitted?

If original sin acts metaphorically like a contagion, how exactly does it transfer from parents to children? Over the years, three popular views have appeared.6

1. Realist

Some hold to a realist view that through insemination, a child receives original sin or concupiscence. Usually, this view affirms that we contract original sin since we were really in Adam when he sinned. Thus, when Adam sinned, we too are included in his sinful act.

Hebrews 7:10 , for instance, speaks of Levi being in the loins of Abraham, lending biblical precedent for this idea of being “in” one’s ancestors. It also helps to explain how Jesus avoided the contagion of original sin since he was born of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. No regular insemination occurred. Therefore, Jesus did not inherit original sin.

2. Naturalist

Some hold more generally that natures beget like natures. If one has a sinful nature, then they beget children with sinful natures, too.

While possible, this view awkwardly speaks of created natures as sinful—but everything God created was “very good” (Gen 1:31 ). Instead though, one can speak of created natures and corrupted good natures. This view is also possible.

3. Federal

Some hold that Adam acts as our covenantal representative. And so all people in Adam or born after him share in the penalty of sin. Sometimes this means that an imputation of alien guilt occurs.7 At other times, the connection is expressed more generally. Key passages for this view include Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 .

I favor the third view. It best explains Paul’s arguments in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 that believers are “in Christ,” in parallel to how we were “in Adam” (e.g., “in Adam all die”; 1 Cor 15:22 ), in ways that the realist and naturalist view struggle to do. If my union with Christ is not based on a seminal, ancestral, or procreative relationship but a representative one, then so too, it seems, was my relationship to Adam.

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Dr Paul Allen