Theodicy Soteriology, Hermeneutics

SOTERIOLOGY : M. M. NINAN
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There are three aspects in human sin:
ORIGINAL SIN
AND
THE TRANSFERENCE OF SIN
1. The state in which the person is born. This is the inheritance handed down from parents to
children, which includes physical and mental state.
2. Man's personal acts of transgression for which he is responsible which is free volition, and
3. the sinful state or condition into which he is born as a member of the human race.
They are inter-related. The state in which man is born as a man which are his physical,
mental and spiritual heritage and communal heritage are constraints. These constraints have
many dimensions. It started with the assertion of independence from God, the egoism and
selfishness behind it.
Man is not accountable to God for his nature. But he is accountable for his acts that arise out
of it, because man ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. They came
hand in hand. That is what makes the fall. "By original sin we mean that participation in the
common sin of the race with which God charges us, in virtue or our descent from Adam, our
first father and head." -- A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology.
Every man is a potential sinner. Hence poetically the Poets and the Prophets painted them as
wicked even before they sin as in Ps. 58:3; Ps. 51:5; Isa. 48:8T So Paul could say "And you
... were dead in trespasses and sins; ... and were by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1-
3). This sort of poetical and hyperbole should not be read as literal states.
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