The Doctrine of Sin

WE AFFIRM that sin is the transgression of the Law-Word of God. It is both the violation of the commands of God (sins of commission), and the withholding of duties found in the commands of God (sins of omission). We believe that sin has radically altered the hearts, souls, minds, and wills of all men and women. The transgression of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was an assertion of the self: a desire to know and establish good and evil in terms of man, not God. This original corruption was, we believe, the distortion of the image of God in man. Man’s entire race was thus plunged into sin and ruin, making mankind inclined to all kinds of evil, debased in thought, word, and deed. We believe that the nature of mankind, entirely distorted and corrupted, is in need of the remedy of regeneration in order to be rescued from this plight. Regeneration does not entirely wipe away the natural desire for autonomy in those regenerated, and thus the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification is still at work in the life of those justified by faith alone. We believe that both original sin and actual sins brings guilt upon the sinner, making him/her liable to God’s wrath, the curse of God’s law, and thus subject to death. We believe the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only solution to this real problem. 

WE DENY that sin is the transgression of man’s thoughts, feelings, social customs, and/or arbitrary fiat standards. We deny that one can be rescued from the plight of sin through man’s efforts of self-actualization and self-assertion. We deny that good works can save any man or woman. We deny that the gospel is one of many different ways of solving the problem of sin.

Genesis 2:17, 3:5-8, 6:5; Job 14:4, 15:14; Psalm 51:5; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20, 29; Isaiah 64:6; Jeremiah 13:23, 17:9; Lamentations 3:39; Ezekiel 18:20; Matthew 15:19, 25:41; Romans 2:15, 3:9-19, 23; 5:6, 12, 15-19, 6:23, 7:5, 7-8, 14, 17-18, 8:20, 11:32; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45, 49; Galatians 3:10, 5:17; Ephesians 2:1-3, 4:18; Colossians 1:21; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Titus 1:15; James 1:14-15, 3:2; 1 John 1:8, 10, 3:4