Lately I have been Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of
the Christian Faith by Wayne Grudem as part of VLI. In Chapter 13 he deals with
the ‘original sin’ or as he likes to call it ‘inherited sin’. Some of his thoughts were interesting, so I
thought I would share them:
1) “When Adam
sinned, God thought of all who would descend from Adam as sinners. Though we
did not yet exist, God, looking into the future and knowing that we would
exist, began thinking of us as those who were guilty like Adam. This is
consistent with Paul’s statement that ‘while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us’ (Rom 5:8)…. The conclusion to be drawn…is that all members of the human
race were represented by Adam in the time of testing in the Garden of Eden.”
Grudem goes on to say that if we think it is unfair that we
are counted as guilty because of Adam; then it is equally unfair to say that we
are forgiven by the death of one man, Jesus.
Whether we like it or not, this is “simply the way in which God set up
the human race to work.”
2) “In addition to
the legal guilt that God imputes to us because of Adam’s sin, we also inherit a
sinful nature because of Adam’s sin.”
Grudem quotes Ps 51:1-4 where David confess that he was sinful even at
conception (ie. before he was born or had a chance to ‘sin’). Psalm 58:3 shows
a similar idea.
Basically it all means that we are sinners from birth. No
one has to teach us how to do wrong – we just do it. However, the Bible does tell us to teach our children how to do
Right. Of course this statement begs to
ask, “Are infants guilty before they commit actual sins?”
3) Grudem’s answers
to the question of #3 by throwing out the whole “Age of Accountability” thing
as un-Biblical. At the same time, he
does make note that other Bible scholars disagree with him on this point…
After he deals with the “Age of Accountability” issue, he
talks about what does happen to babies who die at a very young age: “…if such
infants are saved, it cannot be on their own merits, or on the basis of their
own righteousness or innocence, but it must be entirely on the basis of
Christ’s redemptive work and regeneration by the work of the Holy Spirit within
them.”
Grudem shows that it is possible for God to ‘save’ or
‘regenerated’ an infant before he or she is born. (ie. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before
birth; Psalms 22:10 David says, “Since my mother bore me you have been my
God”). The question then because how
many infants are saved this way, before they are born.
4) This problem is tackled in two parts: one, infants of
Christians and, two, infants of non-Christians.
For infants of Christians who die at an early age, Grudem
show “God’s frequent pattern throughout Scriptures to save the children of
those who believe in him (Gen 7:1; Heb 11:7; Josh 2:18, Ps 103:17; John 4:53:
Acts 2:39; 11:14; 16:31: 18:8; 1 Cor 1:16; 7:14; Titus 1:6). These
passages….indicate that God’s ordinary pattern, the ‘normal’ or expected way in
which he acts, is to bring the children of believers to himself. With regards
to believers’ children who die very young, we have no reason to think that it
would be otherwise.”
“Regarding the children of unbelievers who die at a very
early age, Scripture is silent. We
simply must leave that matter in the hands of God and trust him to be both just
and merciful.”
This may be hard for us to swallow – but he does have a
point. Whenever we, as humans, start trying to explain away the mystery of God
we can get into a lot of problems…
Personally, I’m not sure where I stand. Grudem does have a good argument, but, as he
mentioned, there are other Bible Scholars who disagree with him….
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