DISPUTED DOCTRINES -- Chapter Five

DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE FIRST SIN

While there is very little disagreement in our Lutheran Church on this doctrine in general, unwarranted speculations are sometimes indulged in by comparison of this sin with the sin by which the angels fell. A sharp contrast is drawn between man's sin and that of the devil and his angels. The sin of the latter, being self-originated, is represented as being so much worse than the sin of man as to render them unsalvable.

With reference to this point, it is a dangerous thing to extenuate or minimize in any way the sin of man. It is true that man's sin came from without and as a result of temptation. But how does that make his sin any less grievous than if it had originated in himself?

Eve was indeed deceived; but Adam sinned against light and knowledge (see 1 Tim. 2:14), and the race stood or fell in Adam. His sin could be no worse than it was.

There was nothing in the sin of the angels that rendered it radically different from the sin of man. They are unsalvable simply because God in His eternal purpose made no provision for their salvation, and for no other reason. It is idle to characterize their sin as rendering them unsalvable and then to speculate what God wonld have done with them if they had been salvable.

Besides, apart from the first angel that sinned, it cannot be proved that the sin of the angels that fell was self-originated. The Scriptures decidedly give us to understand that the contrary was the case and that their sin was due to the pernicious influence of the very tempter who occasioned man's sin, and thus came to them from temptation from without.

Our Lord in St. John 8:44 characterizes the devil as "a murderer from the beginning." This extenuation of man's sin leads often to the denial of man's total depravity, a doctrine which Jesus Christ teaches in the most emphatic way in St. John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and which is corroborated in many passages of Scripture (cf. Rom. 3:10, 12, 18).

It is also expressed in the most unequivocal way in our Confessions, in Art. II of the Augsburg Confession, and particularly in the following words of chapter II of the Formula of Concord: "

Our doctrine, faith and confession are as follows: Namely, that in spiritual and divine things the intellect, heart and will of the unregenerate man cannot, in any way, by their own natural powers, understand, believe, accept, think, will, begin, effect, do, work or concur in working anything, but they are entirely dead to good, and corrupt; so that in man's nature since the fall, there is, before regeneration, not the least spark of spiritual power remaining still present, by which of himself, he can prepare himself for God's grace, or accept the offered grace, or, for and of himself, be capable of it, or apply or accommodate himself thereto, or, by his own powers, be able of himself as of himself, to aid, do, work or concur in working anything for his conversion, either entirely, or in half, or in even the least or most inconsiderable part, but he is the servant of sin (John 8:34; Eph. 2:2; 2 Tim. 2:26). Hence the natural freewill, according to its perverted disposition and nature, is strong and active only with respect to what is displeasing and contrary to God." (F. of C., p.552:7, Jacobs' edition).

Another point here upon which there is not complete agreement is the doctrine of immediate imputation. It is quite true that we have no confessional statement on this point. But, if the payment of tithes by Abraham could be imputed to Levi (see Heb. 7:9-10), the doctrine cannot be said to be unscriptural. But there is besides direct Scriptural proof for this form of imputation in Rom. 5: 12: "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." This passage is very clear and forms the sedes doctrinae (seat of the doctrine). The verb for "sinned" is an aorist and refers to a definite occurrence that took place in the past, which, as the context shows, can be no other than the time of the First Sin. It is unfortunate that in our Authorized Version the verb is rendered in the perfect tense, "have sinned." This has led many astray on this matter. While we lay stress on the mediate imputation, and that quite properly, we should not deny the immediate imputation.

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