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gospel, he will feel that he can only passively abide the time when it will please God to change
the direction of his life. Now there may be, and experience teaches that there are, some who
actually adopt that attitude; but as a rule the effect of the doctrine under consideration will be
quite different. If sinners, to whom sin has grown very dear, were conscious of the power to
change their lives at will, they would be tempted to defer it to the last moment. But if one is
conscious of the fact that a very desirable thing is beyond the compass of his own powers, he
will instinctively seek help outside of himself. The sinner who feels that way about salvation,
will seek help with the great Physician of the soul, and thus acknowledge his own disability.
B. ACTUAL SIN.
Roman Catholics and Arminians minimized the idea of original sin, and then developed
doctrines, such as those of the washing away of original sin (though not only that) by baptism,
and of sufficient grace, by which its seriousness is greatly obscured. The emphasis is clearly
altogether on actual sins. Pelagians, Socinians, modern liberal theologians, and — strange as it
may seem — also the Theology of Crisis, recognize only actual sins. It must be said, however,
that this theology does speak of sin in the singular as well as in the plural, that is, it does
recognize a solidarity in sin, which some of the others have not recognized. Reformed theology
has always given due recognition to original sin and to the relation in which it stands to actual
sins.
1. THE RELATION BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL SIN.
The former originated in a free act of
Adam as the representative of the human race, a transgression of the law of God and a
corruption of human nature, which rendered him liable to the punishment of God. In the sight
of God his sin was the sin of all his descendants, so that they are born as sinners, that is in a
state of guilt and in a polluted condition. Original sin is both a state and an inherent quality of
pollution in man. Every man is guilty in Adam, and is consequently born with a depraved and
corrupt nature. And this inner corruption is the unholy fountain of all actual sins. When we
speak of actual sin or peccatum actuale, we use the word “actual” or “actuale” in a
comprehensive sense. The term “actual sins” does not merely denote those external actions
which are accomplished by means of the body, but all those conscious thoughts and volitions
which spring from original sin. They are the individual sins of act in distinction from man’s
inherited nature and inclination. Original sin is one, actual sin is manifold. Actual sin may be
interior, such as a particular conscious doubt or evil design in the mind, or a particular
conscious lust or desire in the heart; but they may also be exterior, such as deceit, theft,
adultery, murder, and so on. While the existence of original sin has met with widespread denial,
the presence of actual sin in the life of man is generally admitted. This does not mean,
however, that people have always had an equally profound consciousness of sin. We hear a