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b. That the covenant of works is abrogated:
(1) in so far as it contained new positive elements,
for those who are under the covenant of grace; this does not mean that it is simply set aside
and disregarded, but that its obligations were met by the Mediator for His people; and (2) as an
appointed means to obtain eternal life, for as such it is powerless after the fall of man.
Man in the State of Sin
I. The Origin of Sin
THE PROBLEM of the origin of the evil that is in the world has always been considered as one of
the profoundest problems of philosophy and theology. It is a problem that naturally forces itself
upon the attention of man, since the power of evil is both great and universal, is an ever
present blight on life in all its manifestations, and is a matter of daily experience in the life of
every man. Philosophers were constrained to face the problem and to seek an answer to the
question as to the origin of all the evil, and particularly of the moral evil, that is in the world. To
some it seemed to be so much a part of life itself that they sought the solution for it in the
natural constitution of things. Others, however, were convinced that it had a voluntary origin,
that is, that it originated in the free choice of man, either in the present or in some previous
existence. These are much closer to the truth as it is revealed in the Word of God.
A. HISTORICAL VIEWS RESPECTING THE ORIGIN OF SIN.
The earliest Church Fathers do not speak very definitely on the origin of sin, though the idea
that it originated in the voluntary transgression and fall of Adam in paradise is already found in
the writings of Irenæus. This soon became the prevailing view in the Church, especially in
opposition to Gnosticism, which regarded evil as inherent in matter, and as such the product of
the Demiurge. The contact of the human soul with matter at once rendered it sinful. This theory
naturally robbed sin of its voluntary and ethical character. Origen sought to maintain this by his
theory of pre-existentianism. According to him the souls of men sinned voluntarily in a previous
existence, and therefore all enter the world in a sinful condition. This Platonic view was
burdened with too many difficulties to meet with wide acceptance. During the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, however, it was advocated by Mueller and Rueckert, and by such
philosophers as Lessing, Schelling, and J. H. Fichte. In general the Greek Church Fathers of the
third and fourth centuries showed an inclination to discount the connection between the sin of
Adam and those of his descendants, while the Latin Church Fathers taught with ever-increasing
clearness that the present sinful condition of man finds its explanation in the first transgression
of Adam in paradise. The teachings of the Eastern Church finally culminated in Pelagianism,
which denied that there was any vital connection between the two, while those of the Western
Church reached their culmination in Augustinianism which stressed the fact that we are both