作者: 史鮑爾 (R.C. Sproul) 譯者: 姚錦榮
俗語說：「人性本善。」雖然這句話不是說人性是完美的，但是它的確淡化了人性邪惡的一面。如果人性真的是良善的，為什麼罪惡在世上卻如此普遍！
一般人的解釋是，人人之所以會犯罪，是因為社會對我們每個人都產生過負面的影響；問題出在我們的環境，而不是我們的本性。其實這種對罪惡普遍性的解釋，只是迴避問題而已。人若是普遍良善的，人類社會又怎麼會變得邪惡呢？如果人生來是良善和無辜的，我們至少也能見到有百分之一的人保持良善，不犯任何的罪行；我們至少也該能找到一些尚未敗壞的社會，其間的環境不受罪的感染。可是今天連罪熱心行義的社區，都有對付罪惡的部門。
既然整棵樹的果子都壞了，我們就需要來看看根源的問題。耶穌說過，好樹不能結壞果子，而且聖經清楚地告訴我們，因為我們的老祖宗亞當和夏娃陷在罪裡，結果導致每一個生下來的人，都具有罪惡和敗壞的本性。如果沒有聖經在這方面清楚的教導，我們很可能只得憑自己的理性，去推斷罪惡普遍存在的原因了。
但人類的墮落並不是個單用理性就可以推斷出來的問題，它乃是神的啟示，論及所謂的原罪問題。原罪主要不是指亞當和夏娃最先犯的罪而言，而是指最初的罪所帶來的結果——全人類的敗壞。原罪是指我們出生時墮落的光景。
有關人類的墮落，聖經已經清楚記載。墮落的破壞性極大。這件事究竟是怎樣發生的，在改革宗思想家中也頗富爭論。《威敏思特信仰告白》（WCF）用很簡單的字句解釋這件事，一如聖經所記述的一般：
我們的祖先中了撒但的詭計和試探，吃了禁果而犯罪。然而神按照祂智慧和聖潔的籌謀，就樂意容許他們犯這罪，定意使這事發生，使自己得榮耀。（第6章第1條）[1]
人類的墮落就這樣發生了，但它所影響的層面卻遠超過亞當和夏娃；這些結果不但影響了全人類，而且毀滅了全人類。我們在亞當裡都成為罪人，我們不能這樣問：「那個人是什麼時候變成罪人的？」因為真正的情況是，全人類都活在一個罪惡的光景之中。因為全人類都與亞當相連，所以全人類在神眼中都是有罪的。
《威敏思特信仰告白》也清楚闡明墮落的後果，特別是這結果對人類所造成的影響：
人類因這次的罪行，從原來的義和與神的相交中墮落了，死在罪中，以致身體和靈魂一切的組織和官能全都遭到污染。亞當和夏娃既是全人類的根源，這罪孽（guilt）就歸算（imputed）給他們的後裔；同一罪中之死，與同一敗壞的本性，也隨著自然的傳宗接代，連帶傳給他們的子子孫孫。我們因著這最初的敗壞，就徹底不願意行善、也無力行善，同時敵對所有的良善，並全然傾向罪惡，繼續不斷地行出一切的過犯。（WCF，第6章2-4條）[2]
最後一句話至關緊要。我們不是因為犯了罪，才成為罪人；而是因為我們是罪人，所以會犯罪。大衛也如此哀嘆說：「我是在罪孽裡生的，在我母親懷胎的時候就有了罪。」（詩51：5）
總結：
1. 罪的普遍性不能歸咎於社會和環境的因素。
2. 罪的普遍性原因是由於全人類的墮落。
3. 原罪不是指第一件罪，而是指那件罪的結果。
4. 所有的人生來都具有罪性，也就是都有原罪。
5. 因為我們的罪性，所以我們都會犯罪。
思考經文：
創3：1-24；耶17：9；羅3：10-26；羅5：12-19；多1：15
註1. Westminster Confession of Faith ( Committee for Christian Education y
Publication, Presbyterian Church in America, 1990), art. 6:1.
註2.Westminster Confession, art. 6: 1-4.
Original Sin
It is commonplace to hear the statement,
"people are basically good." Though it is admitted that no one is
perfect, human wickedness is minimized. Yet if people are basically good, why
is sin so universal?
It is
often suggested that everybody sins because society has such a negative
influence upon us. The problem is seen with our environment, not with our
nature. This explanation for the universality of sin begs the question, how did
society become corrupt in the first place? If people are born good or innocent,
we would expect at least a percentage of them to remain good and sinless. We
should be able to find societies that are not corrupt, where the environment
has been conditioned by sinlessness rather than sinfulness. Yet the most
dedicated-to-righteousness communes we can find still have provisions for
dealing with the guilt of sin.
Since
the fruit is universally corrupt we look for the root of the problem in the
tree. Jesus indicated that a good tree does not produce corrupt fruit. The
Bible clearly teaches that our original parents, Adam and Eve, fell in sin.
Subsequently, every human being has been born with a sinful and corrupt nature.
If the Bible didn't explicitly teach this, we would have to deduce it
rationally from the bare fact of the universality of sin.
Yet
the Fall is not simply a question of rational deduction. It is a point of
divine revelation. It refers to what we call original sin. Original sin does
not refer primarily to the first or original sin committed by Adam and Eve.
Original sin refers to the result of the first sin—the corruption of the human
race. Original sin refers to the fallen condition in which we are born.
That
the Fall occurred is clear in Scripture. The Fall was devastating. How it came
to pass is open to dispute even among Reformed thinkers. The Westminster
Confession explains the event simply, much in the manner that Scripture
explains it:
Our
first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned,
in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to
His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own
glory.
Thus,
the Fall occurred. The results, however, reached far beyond Adam and Eve. They
not only touched all mankind, but decimated all mankind. We are sinners in
Adam. We cannot ask, "When does the individual become a sinner?" For
the truth is that human beings come into existence in a state of sinfulness.
They are seen by God as sinful because of their solidarity with Adam.
The
Westminster Confession again elegantly expresses the results of the Fall,
particularly as it relates to human beings:
By
this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God,
and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of
soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was
imputed, and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their
posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. 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.
That
last phrase is crucial. We are sinners not because we sin. Rather, we sin
because we are sinners. Thus David laments, "Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5, NIV).
1. The universality of sin cannot be accounted
for by pointing to societal or environmental factors.
2. The universality of sin is explained by the
Fall of mankind.
3. Original sin does not refer to the first sin,
but to the result of that sin.
4. All people are born with a sinful nature or
"original sin."
5. We all sin because we are sinners by nature.
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