was only to point out that the One whom she bore and nurtured was God incarnate.

When Adam disobeyed God as our representative, all humanity became infected by sin. Today, R.C. Sproul explains the devastating consequences of Adam's fall and our need for a new representative: Jesus Christ.

were therefore sinless, only to then disobey God’s direct command not to eat from a tree in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1–6; see also 2:17). This disobedience gave birth to original sin. In Paul’s rundown of the tragedy, “sin came into the world through one man,” namely, Adam (Rom. 5:12).

The key to understanding original sin is in Romans 5:12–21, where Adam’s fate and ours are irrevocably bound together. Paul is incessant on this point: “Many died through one man’s trespass” (Rom. 5:15); “The judgment following one trespass brought condemnation” (Rom. 5:16); “Because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man” (Rom. 5:17); “One trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Rom. 5:18); “By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Rom. 5:19). We all sin and die physically because of Adam’s first sin (1 Cor. 15:21–22).

But we can go deeper still. Notice that throughout Romans 5:12–21, Paul stresses the symmetry between Adam and Christ: Adam’s disobedience brings sin, condemnation, and death, while Christ’s righteousness brings justification, righteousness, and eternal life. What’s going on? Adam is a representative or “federal head” of humanity—as it goes for Adam, so it goes for all his descendants. This notion can be difficult for modern, Western individuals to accept over against many non-Western societies still inclined toward patriarchs and matriarchs. When Adam sinned, God counted all his descendants as guilty of the first sin; in other words, He imputed the sin to every human being. This imputed sin, sometimes called original guilt, is the other half of original sin. God considers us culpable for a sin that only Adam personally committed. Why would God do that? Because Adam acted as our federal head.

The doctrine of original sin—original corruption and original guilt—is deeply mysterious. It is difficult to wrap our minds around, but without it we are even more mysterious to ourselves. While it may feel depressing, it is in fact the very reason for the gospel. Original sin is the dark shadow, and Christ is the bright light. If we don’t like Adam representing us in sin, then we can forget about Christ representing us in righteousness! For all the misery Adam inflicted on us, Jesus shines brighter with the gift of salvation and eternal life. God counts all true believers as possessing Christ’s righteousness. The Father imputes His Son’s righteousness to us—as it goes for Christ, so it goes for believers (Rom. 5:12–21). Once we grasp how dire our situation was without Christ, God’s astonishing grace comes fully into view, like the sun rising at dawn.

Sin isn’t just what we do; it’s who we are. On this episode of Simply Put, Barry Cooper defines the term “original sin” and explains how it became our natural state.

The extent and scope of the nature of sin leads to the question of original sin. In this lesson, Dr. Sproul discusses the concept and consequence of the first sin and the controversy surrounding this doctrine.

What does an individual contribute to his or her salvation? Do we open the door to our hearts or does God pursue us? What is free will? These questions have been debated for centuries, yet Scripture is clear. In Willing to Believe, a new edition of a classic book, Dr. R.C. Sproul explores the relationship between original sin and human free will, clears up misconceptions concerning the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation, and demonstrates that God is the One who saves His people from their sin.

R.C. Sproul provides an overview of the book of Romans and explains Paul's teaching about God's law, man's sin, and God's wrath. He shows how we are saved not by our own righteousness but by Christ's atonement for our sins and the application of His righteousness to our accounts. He demonstrates how all believers receive God's gift of salvation by faith alone. Dr. Sproul explores original sin, the order of salvation, struggle and progress in sanctification, assurance of our final victory, and practical applications of how to live in the light of God-centered theology.

Who is Mary, the mother of Jesus? According to the Roman Catholic Church, she was the only person other than Jesus who was born without original sin, she remained a virgin throughout her life, she was assumed into heaven, she is to receive prayer and devotion, she is a mediatrix between God and man, and she dispenses grace to those in need. In their reaction to Roman Catholic excesses, many Protestants have ignored Mary altogether. In this series, R.C. Sproul explains what the Bible teaches us about Mary, separating truth from falsehood, and giving appropriate honor where honor is due.

R.C. Sproul provides an overview of the book of Romans and explains Paul's teaching about God's law, man's sin, and God's wrath. He shows how we are saved not by our own righteousness but by Christ's atonement for our sins and the application of His righteousness to our accounts. He demonstrates how all believers receive God's gift of salvation by faith alone. Dr. Sproul explores original sin, the order of salvation, struggle and progress in sanctification, assurance of our final victory, and practical applications of how to live in the light of God-centered theology.

Who is Mary, the mother of Jesus? According to the Roman Catholic Church, she was the only person other than Jesus who was born without original sin, she remained a virgin throughout her life, she was assumed into heaven, she is to receive prayer and devotion, she is a mediatrix between God and man, and she dispenses grace to those in need. In their reaction to Roman Catholic excesses, many Protestants have ignored Mary altogether. In this series, R.C. Sproul explains what the Bible teaches us about Mary, separating truth from falsehood, and giving appropriate honor where honor is due.

“I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.” So begins the The Heidelberg Catechism. Written by Zacharius Ursinus and published in 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism quickly became a manual for Christian living and religious instruction during the Reformation. A catechism focused on helping Christians lay hold of the deepest truths in the best ways was dearly needed during the tumultuous time of the Reformation. Today’s revolution in theology is not over the doctrine of justification by faith alone, but over sexual identity. Our post-Freudian world maintains without any substantial pushback that sexual identity is the most important truth about a person. Organized under the banner of LGBTQ+, authentic personhood depends on placing yourself under one of these letters or joyfully and without reservation applauding people who do. The American Medical Association tells us that mental health depend on practicing what you desire, and enthusiastically supporting others who do what feels right in their own eyes is a suicide-prevention strategy. The biblical creation mandate seems a quaint ancient narrative with no binding force when in the United States today there are hundreds of pediatric gender clinics and Testosterone is administered to adolescents from Planned Parenthood on a first visit and without parental consent or a therapist’s note. In contrast to the world’s anthropology, a biblical anthropology understands that after Adam’s transgression (Genesis 3), we, his posterity, have a sin nature that compels each person to love something that God hates. If nothing checks our will, our sinful desires will plunge us headfirst into all manner of spiritual, moral, and sometimes physical danger. No one is exempt from original sin and its consequence. Neither good nor malicious intentions can rewrite God’s call for men and women. Scripture is clear that we are responsible for our inborn as well as our actual sins (Psalm 5:5, Romans 1:18, Deuteronomy 27:15, Hebrews 9:27). Taking responsibility for our own sin is hard and necessary, but because of the way that the world, the flesh, and the devil conspire, it is difficult to know where to start. And this is where Pastor Christopher Gordon’s The New Reformation Catechism offers to the church such a timely and pastoral guide. I have no doubt that this means of discipleship will give glory to God and be used of the Lord to liberate many who are held captive by sexual sin. Twenty-three years ago, when I was in a lesbian relationship and at the same time reading the Bible, I would have greatly benefitted from The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality. I know that I am not alone in needing this book. May God bless you richly as you grow in Christian liberty. May this book help you hold fast to the truth and better understand how the full counsel of God speaks to the godly priority of human sexuality. - Rosaria Butterfield

Answering theological questions from his students has been a continual commitment throughout Dr. R.C. Sproul's ministry. Originally called "gabfests" by his early students and later, "Ask R.C.," these sessions continue to take place at our conferences, on Renewing Your Mind, and online.

Watch this Ask R.C. event hosted by Lee Webb and recorded live on January 21, 2014.

Note: Answers given reflect the views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Here is our Statement of Faith.

Is it possible that we are able to do good works without the aid of grace? Are people born with the ability to obey God? Are we born free of the effects of Adam's original sin? Looking at these questions in this message, Dr. Sproul takes us back to the first major debate in the church over man's free will, beginning with a man who didn't believe that we needed grace to satisfy God's commands.

It is typical for a fallen child of Adam to question God's justice concerning original sin. Coming from a fallen nature, it only seems natural for a sinner to question the fairness of the imputation of sin. But as David confesses in the 51st Psalm, our complaint is not valid. In this message, Dr. Sproul explores the justice of God both in the imputation of sin to the sons of Adam and to the Son of God, as he looks at "God's Just Judgment."

Who is Mary, the mother of Jesus? According to the Roman Catholic Church, she was the only person other than Jesus who was born without original sin, she remained a virgin throughout her life, she was assumed into heaven, she is to receive prayer and devotion, she is a mediatrix between God and man, and she dispenses grace to those in need. In their reaction to Roman Catholic excesses, many Protestants have ignored Mary altogether. In this series, R.C. Sproul explains what the Bible teaches us about Mary, separating truth from falsehood, and giving appropriate honor where honor is due.

God has made it abundantly clear that we are to obey His commandments; but can we? Do we have the power in and of ourselves to live up to God's standards? If we don't, then how can God punish us for our sins? In "The Intrusion of Sin," Dr. Sproul teaches us the doctrine of original sin and explains the vital part grace plays in it.

What does baptism signify? Some say it washes away original sin. Some say it is causes our regeneration. Does baptism actually do anything? Considering these questions in this message entitled “The Meaning of Baptism,” Dr. Sproul teaches us the significance and meaning of New Testament baptism as it relates to the mystical union of the believer to Christ.

Original sin has marred our nature. We are depraved. But how depraved are we? Are we simply less than perfect? What kind of improvements can we make within ourselves to change sin's effect? In this message, Dr. Sproul looks at the distinctive doctrine of Reformed theology that is often misunderstood—"Total Depravity."

Jonathan Edwards is often portrayed as a disgruntled, unhappy figure concerned only about judgment and doom. With titles for his works such as Original Sin and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," what more should we expect? As a matter of fact, the opposite is true of Edwards. We would be hard pressed to find another theologian so full of joy, so delighted in the goodness and bountiful provision of His Lord. Edwards was enraptured with the beauty and wonder of God's blessings, and he relished the sweetness of God's greatest gift to His people: Himself. Edwards understood that man's greatest pleasure rested in the glorification of God and the enjoyment of Him.

once converted by this oracle to Thee, O God. So I returned quickly to the place where Olithius was sitting, for I had laid down the volume of the apostle there when I left him. I seized it; I opened it, and I read in silence the passage on which my eyes first fell. “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.” And no further did I wish to read nor was there need. Instantly as I reached the end of this sentence it was as if the light of peace was poured into my heart, and all of the shades of doubt faded away.

This incident marked the conversion of Augustine. After he was converted and studied in the church, he became a figure of vast importance in the life of the church. In 391, he was ordained as a minister in Hippo in North Africa, and in 395, he was raised to the rank of bishop. From there, for the rest of his life until his death in 430, Augustine worked as a giant of the Christian church. He was the adviser to the bishop of Rome. He was the champion theologian in some of the greatest theological controversies of church history, not the least of which was the enormous controversy with the British monk Pelagius that threatened the doctrines of salvation by grace and of original sin. Augustine also helped resolve the Donatist controversy.

Augustine was distinguished largely for two characteristics: First, his incredible understanding of the character of God, and second, his incredible understanding of the character of man. The more deeply Augustine understood the character of God, the greater he sensed his own dependence on God’s grace for salvation. The more we understand God, the more we understand how far short of God we fall.

During his lifetime, men gathered around Augustine, and a sort of early form of monastery was established around his bishopric in North Africa. Through all these controversies, Augustine was tireless in his preaching, in his teaching, and in his writing. Sometimes today, when ministers die, they will bequeath their personal libraries to the church or to seminaries rather than pass it on to future generations. When Augustine died, he passed on a library, but it was a library of books that he had written himself. He was also the consummate architect of the theology of the church. His ecclesiology shaped the church’s doctrine for centuries to come. His immortal classic City of God illustrates the idea that the kingdom of God is made visible in this world through the institution that Christ established—the church.

original sin because the Bible is absolutely clear that we are fallen from our created condition.

However, the degree of that fall and corruption remains hotly disputed among Christians. Historically, that dispute was given fuel by the debate between the British monk Pelagius and the greatest theologian of the first millennium, Saint Augustine of Hippo. In defining the state of corruption into which mankind has fallen, Augustine set up some parallels and contrasts between man’s estate before the fall and his condition after the fall. Before the fall, Augustine said that man was posse peccare and posse non peccare, that is, man had the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. Not sinning was a possibility that Adam had in the Garden.

In addition to this, Augustine distinguished between our original estate, which involved both the posse mori and the posse non mori. This distinction refers to our mortality. Adam was made in such a way that it was possible for him to die. At the same time, he had the possibility before him of living forever had he not fallen into sin. So both the possibility of sinning and not sinning and the possibility of dying or not dying existed as options for Adam before the fall, according to Augustine.

He further argued that the consequence of the fall upon the human race can be defined this way: since the fall, man no longer has the posse non peccare or the posse non mori. All human beings now have lost the natural ability to keep from sinning and thus to keep from dying. We are all born in the state of sin and as mortal creatures, destined to death. After the fall, Augustine defines our condition as having the posse peccare. We retain the ability to sin, but now we have the dreadful condition of the non posse non peccare. This double negative means that we no longer have the ability to not sin. Likewise, we have now the non posse non mori. It is not possible for us not to die. It is appointed to all of us once to die and then the judgment. The only exceptions to this would be those who remain alive at the coming of Christ.

When we get to heaven, things will change again. There we will no longer have the posse peccare and the non posse non peccare. There we will only have non posse peccare. We will no longer be able to sin or to die. It all comes down to this, to the issue of moral ability. Augustine was saying that apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that God performs in the souls of the elect, no person in His own power is able to choose godliness, to choose Christ, or to choose the things of God. That ability to come to Christ, as our Lord Himself declared in John chapter 6, is an ability that can only be the result of the regenerating power of God the

God, who must will the good. God does not give the power to will to the believer because that power to will is already present despite the fallen condition of the believer. Further Cassian taught that God desires to save all people, and the work of Christ’s atonement is effectual for everyone.

Cassian understood that predestination was a biblical concept, but he made divine prescience primary over God’s choice. That is to say, he taught that though predestination is an act of God, God’s decision to predestine is based upon His foreknowledge of how human beings will respond to the offer of grace. For Cassian, there is no definite number of persons that are elected or rejected from eternity, since God wishes all men to be saved, and yet not all men are saved. Man retains moral responsibility and with that responsibility the power to choose to cooperate with grace or not. In the final analysis, what Cassian was denying in the teaching of Augustine was the idea of irresistible grace. For Augustine, the grace of regeneration is always effectual and will not be denied by the elect. It is a monergistic work of God that accomplishes what God intends it to accomplish. Divine grace changes the human heart, resurrecting the sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life. In this act of God, the sinner is made willing to believe and to choose Christ. The previous state of moral inability is overcome by the power of regenerating grace. The operative word in Augustine’s view is that regenerating grace is monergistic. It is the work of God alone.

Pelagius rejected the doctrine of monergistic grace and replaces it with a view of synergism, which involves a work of cooperation between God and man.

The views of Cassian were condemned at the Council of Orange in 529, which further established the views of Augustine as expressions of Christian and biblical orthodoxy. However, with the conclusion of the Council of Orange in the sixth century (529), the doctrines of semi-Pelagianism did not disappear. They were fully operative through the Middle Ages and were set in concrete at the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. They continue to be a majority view in the Roman Catholic Church, even to the twenty-first century.

The majority view of predestination, even in the evangelical world, is that predestination is not based on God’s eternal decree to bring people to faith but on His foreknowledge of which people will exercise their will to come to faith. At the heart of the controversy in the fifth and sixth centuries, the sixteenth century, and today, remains the question of the degree of corruption visited upon fallen human beings in original sin. The controversy continues. The difference between the Pelagian controversy and the issues with semi-Pelagianism is that Pelagianism was seen by the church then and now as a sub-Christian and indeed anti-Christian approach to fallen humanity. The semi-Pelagian controversy, though a serious one, is not deemed to be a dispute between believers and