Mister Richardson’s
Bible Doctrine Class

Chapter 13: Sin

Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight; That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
- Psalm 51:1-4
A. Definition of Sin
B. Origin of Sin
  1. God is righteous - Deuteronomy 32:4, James 1:13.
  2. God allowed Adam and Eve to fall, therefore it was His will.
  3. Satan and the angels.
C. Inherited Sin (Original Sin)
  1. We are guilty because of Adam’s sin - Romans 5:12-18.
    • Your own sin condemns you.
    • God chose Adam as our representative.
    • Representation and imputation are our only hope if Christ is to save us.
  2. Our inherited sinful nature - Psalm 51:5.
    • We totally lack spiritual good before God - total depravity - Romans 7:18-19.
    • We are totally unable to do spiritual good - Romans 8:8; John 15:5; Hebrews 11:6; John 8:34.
  3. What about infants and those with mental defects? - John 3:3; Luke 1:15; Acts 2:39; 1 Corinthians 7:14.
D. Actual Sin
  1. All people are sinful before God - Psalm 14:3; 1 Kings 8:46; Romans 3:9,10.
  2. Inability and responsibility - Pelagius, Finney, Edwards.
  3. Are there degrees of sin?
    • Sin make us legally guilty - Romans 5:16; James 2:10,11.
    • Some sins have worse guilt - John 19:11.
    • Some sins have worse consequences.
  4. When Christians sin:
    • Our legal standing is unchanged; we do not lose our justification - No man can pluck them out of my hand. - John 10.
    • Our fellowship and assurance is disrupted.
    • We turn people away from God.
    • Beware of thinking you’re saved when you’re not.
  5. What is the unpardonable sin? - Matthew 12:31-32
E. Punishment of Sin
  1. You are punished for your sins.
  2. Christ is punished for your sins.

TERMS
Dualism, impute, inherited corruption, inherited guilt, inherited sin, original guilt, original pollution, original sin, Pelagius, propitiation, sin, total depravity, total inability, unpardonable sin.

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Is the teaching of inherited guilt unfair?
2. How did Adam’s sin affect our human natures? Does this mean that all people are as bad as they could be?
3. What effect does our ability to obey God have on our responsibility before God?
4. When a Christian sins, how does this affect his legal standing before God? What effect does sin have on a Christian?
5. What is the primary reason that God punishes sin?

QUOTES
Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love. - John Bunyan

Sins are like circles in the water when a stone is thrown into it; one produces another. When anger was in Cain’s heart, murder was not far off. - Philip Henry

Every creature has a quarrel with a sinner. - Thomas Watson

Take heed of secret sins. They will undo thee if loved and maintained: one moth may spoil the garment; one leak drown the ship; a penknife stab and kill a man as well as a sword; so one sin may damn the soul; nay, there is more danger of a secret sin causing the miscarrying of the soul than open profaneness, because not so obvious to the reproofs of the world; therefore take heed that secret sinnings eat not out good beginnings. - Jeremiah Burroughs

LINKS
Original Sin - Jonathan Edwards
Adam and Christ - Maurice Roberts
Adam’s Fall and Mine - R. C. Sproul
Adam, Christ, and Justification - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 - John Piper
Sermons on Original Sin - Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Grudem’s Outline
The Great Heresies: Pelagianism (1)
The Great Heresies: Pelagianism (2)
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices Outline

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM
Q14: What is sin?
A14: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Q15: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A15: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Q16: Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A16: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Q17: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A17: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Q18: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A18: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Q19: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A19: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.

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