We believe, teach and confess … “that since the fall of Adam [Romans 5:12], all who are naturally born are born with sin [Psalm 51:5], that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin.” (Augsburg Confession II.1)
2] 1. [1]We believe, teach, and confess that there is a distinction between man’s nature, and original sin. [2]This applied not only when he was originally created by God pure and holy and without sin (Genesis 1:31), but it also applies to the way we have that nature now after the fall. In other words, we distinguish between the nature itself (which even after the fall is and remains God’s creature) and original sin. This distinction is as great as the distinction between a work of God and a work of the devil.
3] 2. We believe, teach, and confess also that this distinction should be maintained with the greatest care, because this doctrine, that no distinction is to be made between our corrupt human nature and original sin, conflicts with the chief articles of our Christian faith concerning creation, redemption, sanctification, and the resurrection of our body, and cannot coexist therewith.
4] For God created not only the body and soul of Adam and Eve before the Fall, but also our bodies and souls after the Fall, even though they are corrupt, which God also still acknowledges as His work, as it is written Job 10:8, “Your hands fashioned and made me, …”. Deut. 32:18; Is. 45:9ff; 54:5; 64:8; Acts 17:28; Job 10:8; Ps. 100:3; 139:14; Eccl. 12:1.
5] Furthermore, the Son of God has assumed this human nature, however, without sin, and therefore not a foreign, but our own flesh, into the unity of His person, and according to it is become our true Brother. Heb. 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things,” Again, [2:16; 4:15] “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, … yet without sin.” 6] In the same way Christ has also redeemed human nature as His work, sanctifies it as His work, raises it from the dead, and gloriously adorns it as His work. But original sin He has not created, assumed, redeemed, sanctified; nor will He raise it, will neither adorn nor save it in the elect, but in the blessed resurrection it will be entirely destroyed.
7] Hence the distinction between the corrupt nature and the corruption which infects the nature and by which the nature became corrupt, can easily be discerned.
[1] BOC, www.bookofconcord.org., Epitome, I, 2-25. Note: This passage has been edited, slightly, to enhance the readability and to fit the structure of the website page.
[2] Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040. Epitome I, 1; pg 492.
8] 3. On the other hand, we believe, teach, and confess that original sin is not a slight, but such a deep corruption of human nature that nothing healthy or uncorrupted has remained in man’s body or soul, in his inner or outward powers, but, as the Church sings:
Through Adam’s fall is all corrupt, Nature and essence human.
9] This damage is unspeakable, and cannot be discerned by reason, but only from God’s Word. 10] And we affirm that no one but God alone can separate from one another the nature and this corruption of the nature, which will fully come to pass through death, in the blessed resurrection, where our nature which we now bear will rise and live eternally without original sin and separated from it, as it is written in Job 19:26, “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”
11] 1. Therefore we reject and condemn the teaching that original sin is only a debt based on what has been committed by another person without any corruption of our nature.
12] 2. Also, that evil lusts are not sin, but created, essential properties of the nature, or, as though the above-mentioned defect and damage were not truly sin, because of which man without Christ would be a child of wrath.
13] 3. We likewise reject the [1]Pelagian error, by which it is alleged that man’s nature even after the Fall is not corrupt, and especially with regard to spiritual things has remained entirely good and pure in its natural powers.
14] 4. Also, that original sin is only a slight, insignificant spot on the outside, dashed upon the nature, or a blemish that has been blown upon it, beneath which the nature has retained its good powers even in spiritual things.
15] 5. Also, that original sin is only an external hindrance to the good spiritual powers, and not a spoiling or lack of the same.
16] 6. Also, that in man the human nature and essence are not entirely corrupt, but that man still has something good in him, even in spiritual things, namely, capacity, skill, aptitude, or ability in spiritual things to begin, to work, or to help working for something good.
17] 7. On the other hand, we also reject the false dogma of the [2]Manicheans, when it is taught that original sin, as something essential and self-sustaining, has been infused by Satan into the nature, and intermingled with it, as when poison and wine are mixed.
18] 8. Also, that not the natural man, but something else to man, sins, on account of which not the nature, but only original sin in the nature, is accused.
19] 9. We reject and condemn also as a Manichean error the doctrine that original sin is properly and without any distinction the substance, nature, and essence itself of the corrupt man, so that a distinction between the corrupt nature, as such, after the Fall and original sin should not even be conceived of, nor that they could be distinguished from one another in thought.
20] 10. Now, this original sin is called by Dr. Luther nature-sin, person-sin, essential sin, not because the nature, person, or essence of man is, without any distinction, itself original sin, but in order to indicate by such words the distinction between original sin, which dwells in human nature, and other sins, which are called actual sins.
21] 11. For original sin is not a sin which is committed, but it dwells in the nature, substance, and essence of man. Though no wicked thought ever should arise in the heart of corrupt man, no idle word were spoken, no wicked deed were done, yet the nature is nevertheless corrupted through original sin, which is born in us by reason of the sinful seed, and is a fountain-head of all other actual sins, like wicked thoughts, words, and works, as it is written Matt. 15:19, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” Also [Gen. 6:5; 8:21], “… the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
22] 12. Thus there is also to be noted well the diverse meanings of the word “nature”, whereby the Manicheans hide their error and lead astray many simple people. For sometimes it means the essence of man, as when it is said: God created human nature. But at other times it means the disposition and the vicious quality [disposition, condition, defect, or vice] of a thing, which dwells in the nature or essence, as when it is said: The nature of the serpent is to bite, and the nature and disposition of man is to sin, and is sin; here the word “nature” does not mean the substance of man, but something that dwells in the nature or substance.
23] 13. As to the Latin terms substantia and accidens, because they are not words of Holy Scripture, and besides unknown to the ordinary man, they should not be used in sermons before ordinary, uninstructed people.
24] In the schools, among the learned, these words are rightly maintained in disputations concerning original sin, because they are well known and used without any misunderstanding, to distinguish exactly between the essence of a thing and what attaches to it in an accidental way.
25] For the distinction between God’s work and that of the devil is thereby designated in the clearest way, because the devil can create no substance, but can only, in an accidental way, by the providence of God (God permitting), corrupt the substance created by God.
