Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

4. SIN INCLUDES BOTH GUILT AND POLLUTION. Guilt is the state of deserving
condemnation or of being liable to punishment for the violation of a law or a moral
requirement. It expresses the relation which sin bears to justice or to the penalty of the
law. But even so the word has a twofold meaning. It may denote an inherent quality of
the sinner, namely, his demerit, ill-desert, or guiltiness, which renders him worthy of
punishment. Dabney speaks of this as “potential guilt.” It is inseparable from sin, is
never found in one who is not personally a sinner, and is permanent, so that once
established, it cannot be removed by pardon. But it may also denote the obligation to
satisfy justice, to pay the penalty of sin, “actual guilt,” as Dabney calls it. 38 It is not
inherent in man, but is the penal enactment of the lawgiver, who fixes the penalty of the
guilt. It may be removed by the satisfaction of the just demands of the law personally or
vicariously. While many deny that sin includes guilt, this does not comport with the fact
that sin was threatened and is indeed visited with punishment, and clearly contradicts
the plain statements of Scripture, Matt. 6:12; Rom. 3:19; 5:18; Eph. 2:3. By pollution we
understand the inherent corruption to which every sinner is subject. This is a reality in
the life of every individual. It is not conceivable without guilt, though guilt as included
in a penal relationship, is conceivable without immediate pollution. Yet it is always
followed by pollution. Every one who is guilty in Adam is, as a result, also born with a
corrupt nature. The pollution of sin is clearly taught in such passages as Job 14:4; Jer.
17:9; Matt. 7:15-20; Rom. 8:5-8; Eph. 4:17-19.
5. SIN HAS ITS SEAT IN THE HEART. Sin does not reside in any one faculty of the soul,
but in the heart, which in Scriptural psychology is the central organ of the soul, out of
which are the issues of life. And from this center its influence and operations spread to
the intellect, the will, the affections, in short, to the entire man, including his body. In his
sinful state the whole man is the object of God’s displeasure. There is a sense in which it
can be said that sin originated in the will of man, but then the will does not designate
some actual volition as much as it does the volitional nature of man. There was a
tendency of the heart underlying the actual volition when sin entered the world. This
view is in perfect harmony with the representations of Scripture in such passages as the
following: Prov. 4:23; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 15:19,20; Luke 6:45; Heb. 3:12.
6. SIN DOES NOT CONSIST EXCLUSIVELY IN OVERT ACTS. Sin does not consist only in
overt acts, but also in sinful habits and in a sinful condition of the soul. These three are
related to one another as follows: The sinful state is the basis of the sinful habits, and
these manifest themselves in sinful deeds. There is also truth, however, in the
38 Christ Our Penal Substitute, pp. 10 f.
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