Original Sin and Salvation

What is Original Sin?

Adam and Even disbelieved God and believed Satan. This was the very first sin or the Original Sin. This is presented figuratively in the Book of Genesis. Genesis 2:9 tells us: “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. The Lord gives Adam a very specific instruction about the fruit of one of those two trees in the middle of the garden. He also spells out the consequence of disobeying Him. We read that in Genesis 2:16-17, where it says : “Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Satan tells Eve the exact opposite of what God had told. We read in Genesis 3:4 “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now there is God telling Adam and Eve not to eat from the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’, for the day they eat of it they shall surely die; and there is Satan encouraging them to eat of it and reassuring them that “You will not surely die.”

Presented with these two choices; out of their own “freewill” Adam and Eve chooses to believe Satan over God. This is the very first sin or the Original sin.

What is the consequence of Original sin ?

To understand the consequence of Original Sin, we have to see how man was originally created.

We see the Triune God saying : “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” in Genesis 1:26 and we go on to read in Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him”.

We are given a good picture of how God created Man in His own image and likeness in Genesis 2:7, where we read: “Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [nishmat chayyim]; and man became a living soul”. The Hebrew term nishmat chayyim is further elaborated in Gen 7:21-23 where it says 'nishmat ruha chayyim' which means ruha of life. We Syriac Orthodox Christians are very familiar with the term “life-giving ruha” ; it is none other than the ruha d'qudsha , the Holy Spirit. So in other words we should understand Genesis 2:7 as the soul of Adam being transformed into a “living soul” by the infusion of the “Holy Spirit”.

By turning away from God, and trusting in Satan, Man lost his communion with the “Holy Spirit”. And by this separation of the ‘ruho of life’, his ‘living soul’ became a dead soul. So even though Adam’s physical body continued to live till he was 930 years old; his soul died the very day he disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Was death created by God as a punishment?

Let us see what our father among the saints ‘Mor Baselious Rabo' (aka St. Basil the Great) (Basil of Caesarea) says about this in his ‘Homily Explaining God is not the source of Evil’

“Adam sinned through wicked free choice, and he died through the sin. ‘For the wages of sin is death.’ (Rom. 6:23). For to the extent that he withdrew from life, he likewise drew near to death. For God is life, and the privation of life is death. Therefore Adam prepared death for himself through his withdrawal from God, in accord with what is written, ‘Behold, those who remove themselves from You are destroyed’ (Ps 72:27). Thus God did not create death, but we brought it upon ourselves by a wicked intention. To be sure, for the reason stated above, He did not prevent our dissolution, so that our weakness might not remain as immortal. It is like someone not allowing a leaky clay pot to be placed in fire and hardened until the weakness present in it has been completely mended through refashioning.” (pages 74-75 from the book ‘On the Human Condition’)

We see this through out the scripture as well. Let us refer to Wisdom 2:23-24 , it says:

"For God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of His own nature. But through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it."

Why was Adam and Eve driven out of the Garden of Eden? Was that a punishment ?

Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden and sent to till the ground from which he was taken. There was a specific reason why he was expelled from the Garden of Eden. We can see the specific reason in Genesis 3:22-24. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, so that they will not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever. So it was to prevent Adam from gaining eternal life, that he was expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Now, was this a punishment? Let us see what our father among the saints ‘Mor Irenaeus’ (Irenaeus of Lyons) says about this:

“Wherefore also God drove Adam out of Paradise, and removed Adam far from the tree of life, not because God envied Adam the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because God pitied Adam, and did not desire that Adam should continue a sinner forever, nor that the sin which surrounded Adam should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But God set a bound to Adam's state of sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.” ( ‘Against Heresies’ Book III, Chapter 23, verse 6)

Our father among the saints Mor Aphrem (St. Ephrem the Syrian) also teaches us the same thing. The following is what he says in the book "Commentary on Genesis"

"God did this, lest this life giving gift that they would receive through the tree of life become misery, and thus bring worse evil upon them than what they had already obtained from the tree of knowledge. From the tree of knowledge they obtained temporal pains, whereas the tree of life would have made those pains eternal. From the latter they obtained death which would cast off from them the bonds of pains. The tree of life, however would have caused them to live as if buried alive, leaving them to be tortured eternally by their pains. God therefore withheld from them the tree of life." (Commentary on Genesis, Section II ; 35.2 / commenting on Gen 3:22)

We know that Heaven and Gehenna are both eternal. When our Lord comes in all His power and Glory (Matthew 25:31-33), the way we experience His uncreated energy is dependent on the state of our souls. If we are more like our Lord (remember He created us in His image and likeness), we experience His uncreated light as pure joy, but if we are not like our Lord (ie the image is corrupted and we don’t have His likeness), we suffer from the presence of God and the glory of His power into eternity (II Thess 1:9).

Now let us remember, Adam had turned away from the Lord and trusted in Satan. The image of God in Adam was corrupted and he did not have the likeness of God. At that time if he inherited eternal life; he would have experienced the full power and glory of the Lord as Gehenna. So it is out of the great mercy and love of God, that He allowed the death of Adam's soul. It was better for Adam's soul to be in a 'state of the dead' (ie Sheol in Hebrew and Syriac and Hades in Greek) for a period of time, rather than spend eternity in Gehenna.

Are we all guilty of the sin of Adam and Even (aka Original sin) ?

Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin. Only those two are guilty of that sin. We all who are descendants of Adam and Eve only inherit the consequence of that sin; not the guilt.

To be more clear; let us look at the following example:

Think of a married man who goes and commits adultery with a prostitute who has HIV. He also contracts HIV. Then he comes home and has relations with his wife. His wife conceives and a son is born with HIV. Only the man who committed adultery is guilty of that sin; the son is not guilty. Even though the son is not guilty of the sin of the father, the son still suffers the consequence of the sin of the father.

So what is the consequence of the sin of Adam in Eden? As we saw earlier, God created Man in His own image and wanted Man to grow into His likeness. God wants us to be ‘gods’ like him. But what did Man do; Man disbelieved in God and instead chose to believe what Satan told him. As a result the 'image' in him was corrupted and death entered the world. Adam who was created with an immortal spirit and immortal body became mortal. His spirit died the very day he ate the fruit and eventually his body died as well. After the death of his body, his dead spirit went into the 'realm of the dead' (called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek) and remained a 'captive' there. So there was no way Adam could attain the purpose of his creation; which was to attain the likeness of God. It is this corrupted nature (disease) and being a slave forever to death and Hades that the descendants of Adam inherited from Adam; just like the child in the above example inherited HIV infection from his father.

So in short, we the descendants of Adam and Eve did not inherit the guilt of the sin they committed in Eden, we only inherited the consequence of their sin. This is best summarized in scripture in Ezekiel 18:20 where we read: "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

Wasn't the Christ punished on behalf of men, to satisfy the wrath of God ?

The view that sufferings of Christ were punishments that Christ took up on our behalf to satisfy the wrath of God, is called the Penal Substitution Theory. This penal theory is primarily a western view and is not emphasized in the Eastern / Oriental Orthodox church. This view comes from an incorrect understanding about the guilt of original sin.

The western view of sin and forgiveness goes something like this:

• All men in this world are born with Original Sin.
• Because God is holiness, He cannot tolerate sin.
• God is a Just God, The Justice of God does not allow God to freely forgive our sin.
• The wages of sin is death; so all men deserve to be punished by 'death'.
• However, God is also love, so He sent his only son to the world to be punished on our behalf.
• At the cross, Father poured out His wrath on the Son, forsakes the Son and allowed His son to be killed.
• By the death of Christ, the divine justice and wrath of God the Father is satisfied. Or in other words, Christ is punished on our behalf.
• If a man believe the work that Jesus has done on cross, Jesus' blood that was shed on cross would cover that man. God is willing to forgive all our sin now and we can get into heaven. We are saved.

The problem with this theory is that; it teaches that 'God the father does not forgive sins freely.' It assumes a payment or fine is needed for sins to be forgiven. It even portrays God the father as a blood thirsty authority, who is so angry, that His anger is satisfied only by blood.

We read in 1 John 4:16 : “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” Then how are we to comprehend the wrath of God? How can we have a loving God who is so angry, that His wrath is satisfied only after seeing the blood of His son ?

Let us see what our father among the saints Mor Anthonious (St. Anthony the Great) says about the wrath of God:

"God is good, dispassionate, and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, and as turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right that the Divinity feel pleasure or displeasure from human conditions. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him, but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us and expose us to demons who torture us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him to change, but that through our actions and our turning to the Divinity, we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God’s goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind." (Philokalia– first volume ch. 150)

Let us see what our father among the saints Mor Gregorious (St. Gregory the Theologian) says about the blood of Christ. Was it paid as penalty to God the father? Or was it a ransom paid to the evil one?

“Whom was that Blood offered that was shed for us, and why was It shed? I mean the precious and famous Blood of our God and High priest and Sacrifice. We were detained in bondage by the Evil One, sold under sin, and receiving pleasure in exchange for wickedness. Now, since a ransom belongs only to him who holds in bondage, I ask to whom was this offered, and for what cause? If to the Evil One, fie upon the outrage! If the robber receives ransom, not only from God, but a ransom which consists of God Himself, and has such an illustrious payment for his tyranny, a payment for whose sake it would have been right for him to have left us alone altogether. But if to the Father, I ask first, how? For it was not by Him that we were being oppressed; and next, On what principle did the Blood of His Only begotten Son delight the Father, Who would not receive even Isaac, when he was being offered by his Father, but changed the sacrifice, putting a ram in the place of the human victim? Is it not evident that the Father accepts Him, but neither asked for Him nor demanded Him; but on account of the Incarnation, and because Humanity must be sanctified by the Humanity of God, that He might deliver us Himself, and overcome the tyrant, and draw us to Himself by the mediation of His Son, Who also arranged this to the honor of the Father, Whom it is manifest that He obeys in all things? So much we have said of Christ; the greater part of what we might say shall be reverenced with silence. ” (Second Oration on Easter, Oration XLV, verse 22)

So then how does God the Father forgive sins?

We read in Psalm 103:13 "As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear (love) him." How does a father forgive? Our Lord clearly illustrates that in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32.

As we can see, the father never stopped loving the son, even when the son had 'fallen' away. The father always wanted the son to return. All it took for the father to forgive was for the son to turn away from sin, repent and return to the father's house. The father ran up to meet his son and embraced him. There was no payment needed; or a fine imposed by the father for the sins of the son to be forgiven. Similarly God our father never demanded any payment to forgive sins. All men had to do was to sincerely repent and ask forgiveness.

I am sure this raises a lot of questions about sacrifices in the Old Testament. The scripture clearly tells us: "without shedding of blood there is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22). How are we to understand it ? In the parable of the Prodigal Son, we can see there is shedding of blood. It was part of the reconciliation of the son with the father. We can see the father saying: "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." (Luke 15:23-24).

Let us keep in mind the forgiveness was not granted because the calf was killed and the blood was shed, but it was the other way around. The calf was killed to celebrate the repentance and forgiveness of the son. This gives us a good context to understand Old Testament sacrifices.

God is a loving father. He is not some kind of blood thirsty authority who does not forgive sins without blood being offered. In an agrarian economy which the Jews had, farm animals were very precious. So to sacrifice one, especially the best animal, was to show the level of seriousness one had about sin and forgiveness. It was never a payment. We clearly read in Psalm 51; "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart - These O God, You will not despise."

If God the Father, freely forgive sins, how are we to understand the Justice and Righteousness of God?

Justice (Mishpat) and Righteousness (tzedakah) of God is a theme that appears a lot throughout the OT and the NT. However this is probably one of the most misunderstood aspect from the Bible. When politicians and policemen talk about 'bringing someone to justice' ; they mean that they will 'ensure that one gets punished' for what they have done. We often take this understanding of justice from the secular world and project it to God. However the Mishpat (Justice) of God is not this kind of quid pro quo pay back, retributive justice. God's justice is a restorative justice. Biblically to "bring justice" does not mean to bring punishment, but to bring healing and reconciliation. Justice means to 'make things right'. This becomes very clear when we read : "Learn to do good! Seek Justice , rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)

Justice (Mishpat) of God is not in conflict with his mercy (hesed), but rather is an expression of it. We see the Lord almighty saying : "I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness (chesed), justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tzedakah) in the earth. For in these I delight" (Jer 9:24) . We again read in Isaiah 30:18 "Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy (rachamim) to you. For the Lord is a God of Justice". We can clearly see that God's justice and mercy are inseparable. That is what our Lord asks us to do as well; He says : "Administer true Justice: show mercy and compassion to one another". (Zec 7:9)

In the scripture we can also see that Justice (mishpat) is tied to deliverance or salvation (yeshua). In Isaiah 59:11 we read: "We wait for Justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us". Also in Psalm 76:9 we read : "God rose up to establish judgement, to save all the oppressed of the earth".

[Listen more about Justice and Righteousness]

So if we are not guilty of the ‘Original Sin’, then how do we understand the ‘Salvation’ offered by Christ?

God originally created Man in His own image and likeness. He transformed Adam whom He had formed from the dirt into a living soul, by infusing him with the life-giving ruho. As Adam turned away from God and trusted Satan, by his own free will he caused the separation of the life-giving ruho from his soul, resulting in the death of his soul. This caused the image of God in him to be corrupted and he lost his ability to attain the likeness of God. All the descendants of Adam inherited this corrupted image and became slaves to death and hades. No matter however righteous they were, they ended up in hades.

Christ died on the cross and entered the realm of the dead (Hades). When light enters darkness, darkness vanishes. Just like that, as 'the Life' (Christ) entered 'the realm of the dead' (ie Hades); Hades vanished (As wax melts before the fire). Just as darkness cannot prevail against ‘the Light’; death cannot prevail against ‘the Life’. In other words Christ ‘trampled down death by death’ (wabmawteh l-mawtan dosheh w-qatleh: )as we sing in the Manessa of St. Severious which we sing at the very beginning of the public celebration of the Holy Qurbana. Christ destroyed Hades, liberated the souls kept captives there and liberated us from slavery to death. Being liberated from death and hades; we now have the freedom to pursue the true purpose of our creation; which is to attain the likeness of God.

Christ restores us with the 'life-giving ruho'. He promises us in John 14:1 "I will pray to the Father and he will give you another parakleton (helper) to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth." We see this promise fulfilled in Acts 2.

So salvation has to be seen as liberation.

We sing about this liberation (സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ܚܪܪ) in the Bovutho of Mor Aphrem that appears in the Third Hour prayers of Kyamtha Namaskaram.

ഞങ്ങൾ തൻ കര്ത്താവേ ! നീ

കാരുണ്യം ചെയ് ഞങ്ങൾ മേൽ:

സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ഞങ്ങൾ ക്കുത്‌ഥാ-

നത്താൽ തന്നോനാം പുത്രാ !

ܡܳܪܰܢ ܐܶܬܪܰܚܡܥܠܰܝܢ

ܒܪܳܐ ܕܒܰܩܝܳܡܬܶܗ ܚܰܪܰܪܠܰܢ

Moran eth-rahem'alayn

bro d-ba-qyomthe-h harar-lan

There are two aspects of liberation:

1. Liberation from being slaves to death and Hades
2. Liberation to attain the likeness of God (ie Theosis)

We sing about this first aspect of liberation in the following hymn from the Holy Qurbono:

The second aspect of liberation; the liberation to attain the likeness of God (or oneness with God) is clearly articulated for us by Christ himself in His own words. In his high priestly prayer to the Father as recorded in John 17: 21-23 we read: "As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one" . St. Peter the first among the apostles clearly teaches us about this in 2 Peter 1: 3-4 where we read: "His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature" St. John the apostle and theologian also teaches us about this in 1 John 3:2 where we read: "Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is."

The following quotes from the fathers states it beautifully:

“Lord Jesus Christ, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself."

St.Irenaeus in the preface to Book V of 'Against the Heresies'

"Sod of God was made man that we might be made god"

St.Athanasius in 'On the Incarnation of the Word" Chapter 54 .

The language of Mor Athanasius where he says that "we might be made god" might make some Christians uneasy and they may even consider it blasphemy. I would like to invite those who feel that way to refer to Psalm 82:6 where it clearly says "You are gods. All of you are children of the Most High". Jesus also quotes this verse in his dispute with the Pharisees in John 10:34-36

We sing about this teaching in the second stanza of the hymn from sapro (Morning Prayers) of shimo of Wednesday (known as Sleeba Namaskaram in Malankara) that starts with 'Riju-mathikal-kkirulilPrabha-yulavayi'.

അവനൊടു തുല്യം നാമാകാൻ

നമ്മെപ്പോലെയവനായി

തിരുവിഷ്ടത്താൽ നരനായി

(from the 1928 Malayalam translation by Very Rev Cor Episcopa Kurian Kaniamparambil)

As translated into English that stanza reads:

"Glory to the holy Father, who sent his holy Son and he descended and dwelt in a pure and holy womb in a holy manner; he came in our image and likeness, that we might become like him; he became a son of man that he might make us sons of his Father and partakers of his Holy Spirit."

Likeness or oneness with God, does not happen overnight. This aspect of being 'saved' does not happen instantaneously by merely confessing that "Jesus is the son of God and Jesus died for my sins". Our Lord clearly teaches us about this in Matthew 7:21 where we read “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." So in other words, being saved (aka entering the kingdom of heaven) really means attaining the likeness of (oneness with) God and it is an ongoing process of 'living faith' manifested by works; and by participating in the Holy Sacraments instituted for us.

This is why ‘being saved’ is not a onetime event of declaring one's faith by mouth and receiving baptism, but rather a lifelong process of attaining the likeness of God in our thoughts, words and deeds.

The whole purpose of the Incarnation, Earthly Ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ was to heal us from corruption and restore us to the original 'image', thereby freeing us up to attain the likeness of God. Mor Athanasious has summarized this for us into one sentence: "Son of God was made man that we might be made god."

Additional Reading

1. Orthodox problems with penal substitution

2. The purpose of sacrifice

3. Expiation rather than Propitiation

4. Propitiation or Expiation? "Did Christ change God's attitude?"

5. Malayalam Article : ആദാമ്യപാപം മനുഷ്യവര്‍ഗ്ഗത്തെ എങ്ങനെ ബാധിക്കുന്നു?

6. Original Sin