This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton Theological Seminary's "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.
Calvin's Institutes of Religion: 2.1.5-11
Wouldn't it be nice if we could simply fit God's eternal mind into our finite minds?
Unfortunately, that is not the case as we come to one of the most difficult doctrines to wrap our minds around: Mankind's Total Depravity.
Calvin's instructs us that, as a result of Adam's original sin, we are all born with inherited guilt, as well as inherited corruption.
Let's dig in to Calvin's thoughts...
The first "original sin, is an inherited sin:
"As it was the spiritual life of Adam to remain united and bound to his
Maker, so estrangement from him was the death of his soul. Nor is it
any wonder that he consigned his race to ruin by his rebellion when he
perverted the whole order of nature in heaven and on earth. "All
creatures," says Paul, "are groaning" [Rom. 8:22], "subject to
corruption, not of their own will" [Rom. 8:20]. If the cause is sought,
there is no doubt that they are bearing part of the punishment deserved
by man, for whose use they were created. Since, therefore, the curse,
which goes about through all the regions of the world, flowed hither
and yon from Adam's guilt, it is not unreasonable if it is spread to
all his offspring. Therefore, after the heavenly image was obliterated
in him, he was not the only one to suffer this punishment-that, in
place of wisdom, virtue, holiness, truth, and justice, with which
adornments he had been clad, there came forth the most filthy plagues,
blindness, impotence, impurity, vanity, and injustice-but he also
entangled and immersed his offspring in the same miseries.
This is the inherited corruption, which the church fathers termed
"original sin," meaning by the word "sin" the deprivation of a nature
previously good and pure."
Calvin on inherited guilt:
"We must, therefore, distinctly note these two things. First, we are so
vitiated and perverted in every part of our nature that by this great
corruption we stand justly condemned and convicted before God, to whom
nothing is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity. And
this is not liability for another's transgression. For, since it is
said that we became subject to God's judgment through Adam's sin, we
are to understand it not as if we, guiltless and undeserving, bore the
guilt of his offense but in the sense that, since we through his
transgression have become entangled in the curse, he is said to have
made us guilty. Yet not only has punishment fallen upon us from Adam,
but a contagion imparted by him resides in us, which justly deserves
punishment. For this reason, Augustine, though he often calls sin
"another's" to show more clearly that it is distributed among us
through propagation, nevertheless declares at the same time that it is
peculiar to each. And the apostle himself most eloquently testifies
that "death has spread to all because all have sinned" [Rom. 5:12].
That is, they have been enveloped in original sin and defiled by its
stains. For that reason, even infants themselves, while they carry
their condemnation along with them from the mother's womb, are guilty
not of another's fault but of their own. For, even though the fruits of
their iniquity have not yet come forth, they have the seed enclosed
within them. Indeed, their whole nature is a seed of sin; hence it can
be only hateful and abhorrent to God. From this it follows that it is
rightly considered sin in God's sight, for without guilt there would be
no accusation." Calvin on inherited corruption:
"Then comes the second consideration: that this perversity never ceases
in us, but continually bears new fruits-the works of the flesh that we
have already described-just as a burning furnace gives forth flame and
sparks, or water ceaselessly bubbles up from a spring. "Thus those who
have defined original sin as "the lack of the original righteousness,
which ought to reside in us," although they comprehend in this
definition the whole meaning of the term, have still not expressed
effectively enough its power and energy. For our nature is not only
destitute and empty of good, but so fertile and fruitful of every evil
that it cannot be idle. Those who have said that original sin is
"concupiscence" [strong sexual desire, lust] have used an appropriate word, if only it be
added-something that most will by no means concede-that whatever is in
man, from the understanding to the will, from the soul even to the
flesh, has been denied and crammed with this concupiscence. Or, to put
it more briefly, the whole man is of himself nothing but concupiscence."
As much as I would like to believe the Pelagian view that we are born with a clean slate, I just don't find that the case as I read Romans 3:9-18, and Roman 5:12-21.
If you care to explore this more, here are audio recordings of Dr. Wayne Grudem, from our Scottsdale Bible Church Class, on the Doctrine of Sin (Part #1), Doctrine of Sin (Part #2), and finally Doctrine of Sin (Part #3).
What say you? Do you agree that, as a result of Adam's sin, we have all inherited death through an inherited guilt, and corruption?
