§388With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesu…

§402All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned."289 The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespa…

§605At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."410 He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands…

Source. Translated by J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, and revised by George B. Stevens. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 11. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210210.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Adven…

§37When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam repr…

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Calvin shows the blessed fruits of justification: peace with God, access by faith into grace, and rejoicing in hope of glory. God commends his love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The parallel between Adam and Christ is fundamental: as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, so by one …

What is Baptism? Is it a washing? The institution of this sacrament Is water the proper matter of this sacrament? Is plain water required? Is this a suitable form of this sacrament: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"? Could one baptize with this form: "I baptize thee in the name of Christ?" Is immersion necessary for Baptism? Is tr…

If anyone asserts that the prevarication of Adam injured himself alone and not his posterity; and that the holiness and justice received of God, which he lost, he lost for himself alone and not for us also; or that he, being defiled by the sin of disobedience, has only transfused death and pains of the body into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the …

If anyone asserts that this sin of Adam, which in its origin is one, and being transfused into all by propagation and not by imitation, is in each one as his own, is taken away either by the powers of human nature or by any other remedy than the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath reconciled us to God in his own blood — let him be anathema.

Q. Then where does this corrupt human nature come from? A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners — corrupt from conception on.

The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach that all people have been received into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that no one on account of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all are free from the guilt of this sin. For this opinion conflicts with Scripture, which teaches that we are by nature childre…

We believe the first man created by God to have fallen in Paradise, when he disregarded the commandment of God and yielded to the deceitful counsel of the serpent. And hence hereditary sin flowed to his posterity; so that none is born after the flesh who beareth not this burden, and who experienceth not the fruits thereof in this present world. But by "burden" and "fruits of si…

Those whom God effectually calls He also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous — not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteou…