Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

Biblical proof-texts. It is these proof-texts, which have served to mask the falseness of
this doctrine, that we will now examine:
I. "Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
We have already examined this text in chapter one and have seen that it is a figurative
expression and does not teach that men are born sinners. The very idea that men can be
born sinners is absurd. It is both a physical and a moral impossibility to be born a sinner.
It is a moral impossibility because men cannot justly be sinners by birth. That men can be
sinners and guilty and condemned at birth is morally unthinkable.
It is a physical impossibility to be born a sinner because of the nature of sin. Sin is not a
substance. It has no physical properties and cannot possibly be passed on physically from
one person to another. What is sin? The Bible says, "Sin is the transgression of the law." I
John 3:4. So, according to the Bible, sin is an act or a choice that transgresses the law of
God. It cannot, therefore, be a substance because choice and substance are
contradictories. Is a wicked act a substance? Is disobedience, transgressions, lawbreaking,
or unrighteousness a substance? Is guilt a substance? No, they are all moral concepts or
moral qualities. And it is impossible for them to be transmitted physically. When we
speak of sin, we are describing the character of an act. The word sin describes the
character of an act as being wicked or wrong.
Sin is no more a substance than friendliness, goodness, or virtue are substances. If sin is a
substance that can be transmitted physically, then virtue also must be a substance that can
be transmitted physically. And what would be the result if all this were true? Why,
sinners would beget sinners, and saints, of course, would beget saints!
Sin is not a substance, and we all know that sin is not a substance. Yet learned
theologians still maintain the impossible dogma that sin, like some malignant disease, has
been passed on physically from Adam to all his descendants. How ridiculous it is to make
sin a physical virus, instead of a voluntary and responsible choice. How foolish to speak
of men being born sinners! Only in some fantastic science fiction novel might moral
character be spoken of as being passed on physically in the bloodstream of man. Moral
character, whether holiness or sinfulness, cannot be passed on physically. It is gross
superstition to believe that it can be.
Then what did David mean by the expression, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in
sin did my mother conceive me"? I answer, he used this figure of himself conceived and
formed in his mother's womb as the embodiment of iniquity and sin to express, in strong
symbolic language, his present sinful and guilty condition before God.
This is David's penitential Psalm. He is deeply humbled and repentant for the sins he has
committed, and he uses this strong language to confess his wickedness and guilt. But if
David wanted God to understand his language to mean that he was a sinner by birth, the
whole spirit of the Psalm is contradicted and changed. It is no longer a Psalm of
penitence for sin, but it is turned into a Psalm of excuse for sin. For what better excuse