1Rom 5:12, 19; ²Rom 3:10–19; Eph 2:1–3; Rom 5:6; 8:7–8; Gen 6:5; ³Jas 1:14–15; Mt 15:19

We saw earlier that "the fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery" (WLC 23). The Q&A we are looking at presently describes what the estate of sin is or rather what the sinfulness of the fallen estate is.

This sinfulness of this estate, according to out answer has three parts: (1) The guilt of Adam’s first sin which is imputed on all his posterity by natural generation; (2) The fallen and sinful nature of Adam which is inherited by all his posterity by natural generation; and (3) the actual transgressions that proceed from the Original Sin, which is described in the first two parts. For clarity, we may tabulate the answer this way:

I. Original Sin

a. Imputed Guilt of Adam

b. Inherited sin nature of Adam

ii. corruption of whole nature

II. Actual Sins.

"Original Sin", is a theological term, which we must remember, does not refer to Adam’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit. Rather, it refers to the effects of that first sin upon the people represented by Adam. And the effect has a legal as well as an actual personal aspect.

By the legal aspect, all of Adam’s natural posterity are sinners in the sight of God even before any personal motion or contemplation of sin. As the elect are made legally righteous not for any acts or motions of righteousness on their part, but for the obedience of Christ, so all men are made legally guilty sinners on account of Adam’s disobedience. This comparison is based on the words of the apostle Paul, when he says: "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom 5:19).

Likewise, by the personal aspect, Adam’s natural posterity are all born with a sin nature. This sin nature has two parts:

First, and negatively, it lacks original righteousness. Adam was created with original righteousness, and therefore had an inclination to please God in all that he thought, said, and did. But this original righteousness was lost by the fall, and so all of Adam’s natural descendants has no natural inclination to do good or to please God: "There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom 3:10-12).

Secondly, and positively, this inherited nature is wholly corrupted, so that everything that a natural descendant of Adam does is tainted with sin. He is "dead in sins and trespasses" says the apostle Paul (Eph 2:1). "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23), and they are all "by nature the children of wrath" (Eph 2:3).

Because of this sin nature inherited from Adam, man is said to be totally or radically deprave, or as our catechism puts it: "he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually."