Are We Born Sinners?

Following on from my last commentary about whether Jesus was separated from God on the cross, I was asked the question, "Aren't we all born sinners?" And like many biblical questions, the answer appears straightforward, until it isn't. The more I considered the question, the more the answer depends on how the question is implied. Ultimately, the answer might suggest that we all sin eventually, whether or not we agree about the details. However, clarity in our convictions might provide meaning to our message.

It seems reasonable that if professing Christians open a conversation about the doctrine of sin, we might first agree that the biblical position on the topic is true and that God holds the final authority in the story. We might also agree that the psychology of sin is embedded in the fact that we were created with free will, however, this is not something we can blame on the creator himself. We might also agree that freedom is finite insomuch as it's confined within the bounds of the creation. Therefore, man and nature can never become God. So for the sake of this commentary, whether we are born sinners, or whether we assume the position of inherited guilt, we all eventually sin. I’m not convinced by the position of theologian Wayne Grudem who suggests "our sinful nature was inherited from Adam because Adam sinned". The implication being if Adam hadn’t sinned we wouldn't have a sinful nature. This is a circular argument as it raises unresolvable hypothetical questions around the creation itself, so it's unhelpful in every sense. God created man with free will so Man was free to love or reject him. The question of whether he would or wouldn't sin is immaterial insomuch as God knew he would. The sinful nature is the unlimited potential offered by free will. Finally, the salvation message is the culmination of the gospel, and salvation has no purpose if sin doesn't exist.

The debatable issues revolve around the interpretation of words, the metaphorical language, and the sequencing of the biblical account. Any analysis must be rational, and convey a temperament consistent with the biblical narrative. We have four interconnecting narratives in the account of the fall, the implications of free will, Jesus's sinless life, and the death and resurrection, all needing to be harmonized within a doctrine of sin. Much of the biblical phraseology can be justified in God's predestination of events, through his foreknowledge of all time. In other words, he can say things will happen because he knows they will happen before they happen. Second, the entire question of whether we are born with sin or whether we inherit the guilt of sin rests on how we define meaning from metaphor in words such as death, free will, and inherited guilt. This can be seen in God's foreknowledge of the inevitable consequences of free will such as, "the wages of sin is death", or in Gen 3:4 when Satan opens with the statement, "for you will not surely die". If Christians believe that education, or the power of the will can resolve the problem of sin, they have a poor understanding of the human condition. After all, if the apple was the problem, get rid of the apple. Humanity is not that good, because the spirit of free will is inherently flawed. Actual transformation requires an acute revelation of the term "filthy rags", and a clear understanding of the situation that caused Adam's removal from the garden.

So, is the difference between "being born with sin" and "inheriting the guilt of (in) sin" merely semantics? In my estimation NO, because the idea of being born with sin implies that sin originated in the creation itself, but inheriting the guilt of sin suggests that sin was imputed, through Adam, and therefore begins in the heart of Man. The case I'm making has a very narrow window of relevance and concerns the spiritual condition in which we are born. The theology of being born with sin is significantly different from inheriting the position of sin, which was the stance that Jesus took on the cross (previous commentary). The language behind the question "Aren't we all born sinners" suggests that a baby is born, having already committed sin. This is not possible physically or psychologically because sinning requires a conscious decision of the will to begin with, despite the predisposition offered by free will (Rom7:7-12). Therefore, the answer is no, we are not born with sin. Wayne Grudem suggests this period of innocence might be anywhere up to two years, this is somewhat generous in my experience.

However, the elephant in the room is that we know the result of Adam's sin is imputed to Man. So, what does this mean, and how do we harmonize the linguistic tension this creates, between the innocence of a baby and the Genesis account? This is where the term "inherited guilt" more correctly defines a position we find ourselves in, not sin itself, but a position and a curse we inherit even before we are born. The original question about being born with sin is the wrong hermeneutic to understand this position. So what is the inherited guilt?

Inherited Guilt - is being held accountable for the consequences of Adams's sin, and thus receiving the same punishment. The first statement about inherited guilt is Gen 3:22 and must be interpreted through God's foreknowledge of Man, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."  Due to Adam's sin, no one lives forever, everyone dies. The second is Gen 3:23  "So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken". All humanity will be born banished and separated from God. Therefore, we all die physically and we’re all dead spiritually, even before birth, hence, spiritual death is a metaphor for total separation from God.

The Curse - The repercussions of inherited guilt also applied a curse that brought death and decay upon the creation (Rom 8:19-22). In Man the consequences of the curse are outlined in Gen 3:16-19, "To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour, you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam, he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

In Summary - This is a short analysis, and there will always be shades of grey on the topic. However, I draw the line with fanciful projections that create tension, with the biblical narrative. In the final analysis, we're all sinners, whether we like it or not, and the final authority lies in God himself. The real question is not whether we are born with sin, or inherit the guilt of sin, it's how sin will ultimately define our future.