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Some people question how it can be that faith in Christ is the only way to heaven.  What about the poor, innocent natives in the heart of Africa, South America or Australia who never heard the gospel?  What about the innocent little babies all over the world who died in childbirth or in natural disasters?  Because of what theologians call Original Sin, there are no innocent people.  Original Sin, which adheres to each and every one of us, is a consequence of The Fall.  We are all born with Original Sin, which means that none of us is innocent before God.

The affirmations to follow briefly address what Original Sin is, where it came from, how Original Sin differs from Adam’s first sin, what distinguishes Original Sin from personal sin and how personal sin relates to free will.  These are things every Christian should clearly understand.  Moreover, Christians should stand ready to explain sin and its consequences to anyone who asks.  This is because a clear understanding of sin is foundational to a clear understanding of salvation.  After all, what do we need salvation from if not the consequences of sin?

Fortunately, in spite of Original Sin, God has provided a path to heaven, even for those who have not heard the gospel or lived long enough to reach the age of reason.  Here, then, are brief affirmations concerning The Fall of Man: 

  1. In the beginning, God’s creation was perfect in every way.
  2. God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and placed them in The Garden of Eden, which was an ideal environment in which to live.
  3. In the beginning, there was no decay or death in the world.  Everything was perfect.
  4. Soon after creating Adam, God commanded him, saying he could freely eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden of Eden except for one specific tree, The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil.
  5. God warned Adam that the penalty for violating His command by eating the forbidden fruit (sinning) would be death.
  6. As Adam’s Creator, God had every right to command Adam concerning any and all things.
  7. God’s command to Adam was plain, reasonable and easy to obey.
  8. God had no obligation to explain the reason for His command to Adam.
  9. Adam had an absolute duty to obey his Creator.
  10. God had the right to impose any penalty for disobedience upon Adam that He deemed appropriate.
  11. Despite God’s clear command and warning, Adam and Eve both ate fruit from the forbidden tree.
  12. By eating from the forbidden tree, Adam sinned in an act of rebellion against God.
  13. Sin is any active violation of God’s law or any passive failure to obey God’s law.
  14. Before Adam sinned, God told him that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit, he would surely die.
  15. By Adam’s rebellion against God, death entered the world for the first time.
  16. When Adam and Eve violated God’s command, they did not perish in the sense that they ceased to exist.  They perished in the sense that their souls suffered spiritual death, becoming “dead in sin,” and their bodies began an inexorable journey to the grave.
  17. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would not have died, but lived forever.
  18. Adam and Eve’s sin is referred to as “The Fall.”
  19. Satan, who took the form of a serpent in The Garden of Eden, played a key role in introducing sin into the world by tempting and deceiving Eve.
  20. Eve was the first to sin, but both Adam and Eve sinned against God.
  21. Adam was the patriarch of humanity.  He represented all mankind.  Accordingly, subsequent generations followed in Adam’s footsteps.
  22. Mankind was fundamentally changed when Adam sinned.
  23. Before coming to faith in Jesus, all men since Adam have souls that are “dead in sin.”  They are spiritually dead and estranged from God.
  24. Through Adam, The Fall corrupted the entire human race and all generations since Adam have been habitual sinners by nature.
  25. Because of Original Sin, all generations of men subsequent to Adam have been corrupt and innately sinful.
  26. Original Sin is not to be confused with Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.
  27. Original Sin is not the first sin, the sin committed by Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit.
  28. Original Sin is a consequence of the first sin, the sin committed by Adam.
  29. Original Sin is the sin with which we are all burdened by inheritance from Adam.
  30. Original Sin is not to be confused with personal sin.
  31. Personal sin is the sin we individually and freely elect to commit by violating God’s laws.
  32. Personal sin adds to the Original Sin with which we are all born.
  33. We do not know precisely how Adam’s sin nature was passed to all subsequent generations of men, but we can clearly see that it has.
  34. Man’s natural propensity to lie, cheat and steal, among other things, is evidence of man’s inherently sinful nature.
  35. Men do not need to be taught how to sin.  Because of Original Sin, sin comes naturally to all men.
  36. Since The Fall, natural men are not fundamentally good people capable of occasional bad deeds.  Natural men are fundamentally bad people capable of occasional good deeds.
  37. Man has free will.
  38. Free will means a man is free to choose that which he desires most at the moment he makes a choice.
  39. The problem of sin is not lack of free will, but sinful desire.
  40. Since The Fall, natural man prefers to do evil instead of good.
  41. Since The Fall, natural man has no desire to do the will of God.
  42. Natural men exercise free will at all times, but often choose evil over good because that is what they want to do.
  43. Men sometimes have conflicting desires.
  44. Men exercise free will by choosing according to their strongest desire at the moment of decision.
  45. Even if a man wishes to do good, in a moment of weakness, his desire to sin may be stronger than his desire to do good.
  46. Man’s natural inclination to choose evil over good is what makes men “slaves” to sin.
  47. Men are slaves to their own desires.
  48. One of mans strongest desires is to sin.
  49. Some people incorrectly believe that God restricts or interferes with free will.
  50. God gave Adam and Eve free wills and they both freely chose sin over obedience to God.
  51. God did not interfere with Adam’s free will by preventing him from eating the forbidden fruit.
  52. Men still have free will and they are free to choose good over evil, obedience to God over disobedience, if they want to. 
  53. The problem with natural men is that because of The Fall and their sin nature (Original Sin), they don’t wish to choose good over evil.
  54. Adam’s sin estranged mankind from God.  When Adam sinned, men became enemies of God.
  55. Because of sin, which is rebellion against God, God cursed mankind and the whole world.
  56. Death, decay and corruption were not a part of God’s original created order, but those things entered the world with The Fall and God’s consequential curse upon His creation.
  57. Even if a person dies before having the opportunity to commit personal sin, he is still guilty of Original Sin, which is inherited from Adam and passed down through all the generations since Creation.
  58. All men are sinners and the punishment for sin is death.
  59. Death does not mean ceasing to exist.
  60. Death ultimately means spending all eternity in hell.
  61. God is the God of judgment, but also the God of love.
  62. In His great goodness and love, God has graciously provided a path for men to avoid the penalty for sin, which is death and hell.
  63. The path to heaven instead of hell for sinners is repentance from sin and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.