I. "She took of its fruit and ate": What Is Sin? "The fall" describes sin as humanity's failure (Gen. 3)
As moral evil (e.g., murder), sin differs from natural evil (e.g., earthquakes)
As contradiction, sin doesn't start with God
As irresponsibility, sin exploits God's good gifts for other purposes
As negation or privation of good, sin does not "exist" (Augustine, C.S. Lewis)
As darkness and lie, sin enslaves our minds to that which is not (Theodore Dalrymple, "Choosing to Fail")
Only Jesus' counterexample truly shows sin as unnatural, as falling short (Rom. 3:23, John 1:17)
II. "She gave some ... and he ate": Sin's Spread
Sin causes more sin, but how? Two possibilities:
1. Adam's "original sin" is inherited biologically (Augustine, Ps. 51 and Rom. 5:12) or legally
2. Adam's sin is transmitted socially (Cappadocians)
III. "The man and his wife hid": Sin's Manifestations The world falls too: As corruption, sin undoes creation (Athanasius)
As rebellion and alienation, sin breaks humanity's intended relationships
As structural, sin disorders social ways of life
As demonic, sin is powerful, clever, tenacious, and seeks to control
As satanic,
sin constructs "the world" (John 12:31) and its ruler (Luke 10:17-20, Rev. 12:9)
As personal, sin turns us into sinners, people characterized by sin
As inordinate love, personal sin is unbelief, pride, rebellion, idolatry, sloth
As shame, sin is also pride's opposite (so feminist and liberation theology)
In all these forms sin is human self-centeredness and self-destruction
IV. "Dust you are and to dust you will return": Sin's End As curse, sin earns death and eternal punishment (Rom. 6:23, Isa. 66:24, Matt. 25:41, 46) Masacchio's Expulsion from Eden
Where does sin's course lead? Popular images:
'the grave' (Sheol, Eccl. 9:5-10)
'hell' (gehenna, Mark 9:43-48; hades, Luke 16:23-31)
annihilation (John 3:16, Matt. 10:28, Jude 1:7)
a 'lake of fire' (Rev. 19:20, 20:10-15)
'outer darkness' (Matt. 8:12, 22:13, 25:30)
V. "If he should stretch out his hand": What Can We Do About Sin? Depravity: What is, and is not, compromised by sin?
Two visions of human will, fallenness, grace, and salvation
(adapted from Alister McGrath, Christian Theology, 428ff):
Pelagius
Augustine
freedom of the human will
intact and able to choose either good or evil
incapacitated through sin, but not destroyed
nature of sin
merely willful acts against God
also a disease, a power, disability, addiction, guilt
nature of grace
intact human capacity to avoid sin and choose grace; one-time forgiveness for past sins at baptism; enlightenment given by Christ's example
unmerited favor, given even in producing the original choice to repent
basis of salvation
personal holiness gained from forgiveness, fulfilling God's obligations, and Christ's example
gracious promises of God, received through faith
Pelagius: With free will we can still choose good over evil
Augustine (On Free Will): Sin corrupts everything, including the mind
Thus through free will, people always choose evil
Outcome: The councils of Ephesus (431) and Orange (529) repudiate Pelagianism
Lesson: Where sin is trivialized, grace is trivialized (cf. Rom. 5:20)
VI. "To guard the way to the tree of life": What Then? Hebrews 11 summarizes the story from here
Athanasius and Anselm both pose a dilemma for God:
1. Mercy compromises God's justice
2. Yet justly destroying creation is an unjust concession to evil
The dilemma's solution: God comes, with "merciful justice"
Jesus is both the measure of sin and its solution
