Q. What makes the state to which humanity fell so sinful?
A. The state of sinfulness is rooted in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the absence of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, known as original sin, together with all the specific wrongdoings that stem from this corrupted nature.
Commentary
The catechism now opens up the sinful side of our fallen state, naming three things that together make up what is called original sin. The first is the guilt of Adam’s first sin. As our covenant head, Adam’s transgression is reckoned to us, so that we come into the world already condemned, not yet for sins of our own doing but for the sin of the one who represented us. The second is the absence of original righteousness, the loss of that true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness in which man was first created. Where Adam once stood upright before God, his children are born stripped of that uprightness, lacking the very righteousness the law requires.
The third is the corruption of his whole nature. The fall did not merely wound man in one part while leaving the rest sound; it defiled the whole, mind, will, affections, and body alike. This is total depravity, meaning not that every person is as wicked as he could possibly be, but that no part of him is left untouched by sin. “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). By nature we are “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), unable to please God or to turn to Him in our own strength. From this corrupted root grow all the specific wrongdoings of our lives, the actual sins we commit daily, which are not the cause of our sinful nature but its bitter produce.
This is a humbling doctrine, and it is meant to be. It strips away every ground of boasting and every hope of self-reformation, for a corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit, and a dead man cannot raise himself. Yet the very thoroughness of our ruin makes the grace of God shine all the brighter. The salvation Christ brings is not a slight repair to a basically sound nature but a new birth, a new heart, and a righteousness given from outside ourselves. The deeper we feel the corruption of original sin, the more we will treasure the Savior who alone can cleanse it.
Scripture Proofs
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19).
“As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10).
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
6.4: From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.