Theodicy Soteriology, Hermeneutics

SOTERIOLOGY : M. M. NINAN
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CHRIST AND THE ORIGINAL SIN
"We hear that the uncleanness of the parents is so transmitted to the children that all without
any exception are defiled at their begetting. ... We must surely hold that Adam was not only
the progenitor, but, as it were, the root of human nature" John Calvin, Institutes of the
Christian religion, vol. II, I, 6.
Augustine,4c, taught that the whole human race sinned in Adam. Adam was the head of the
race. Therefore, when he sinned he made human nature corrupt. We were involved in
Adam's sin, not consciously, but as seeds. His sinful nature was individualized into billions of
persons by their inheriting his sinful nature. He taught that God imputed the sin of Adam to all
his posterity, in virtue of that organic unity of mankind - not individually, but seminally, in him
as its head. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that sin is transmitted genetically by
generation i.e from parent to child.
Did Jesus inherit the Original Sin?
Whether imputed or inherited it would mean that Jesus Christ inherited the original sin. There
is no other way. However this will not cover the sin-world into which Jesus was born into. As
part of the human race every man bears the sin of the whole mankind. If this original sin
includes total depravation, Jesus himself was totally depraved. By reducing the parentage of
Jesus to single parent do not reduce this depravation in any way unless it is the sexual act
that is the cause of transmission. Mary was as much Adam's daughter and Jesus was
Adam's son, which meant everything it implies. In fact Luke traces the lineage of Adam
through several generations to Adam and to God. The issue of Christ's spinelessness arises
because He was born into the world as we all are. The implication of Adam's sin for all his
posterity brings us face to face with the fact that Christ was born of a sinful mother, who was
the daughter of Adam. If the transmission of sin is by natural propagation, then Jesus must
have inherited from Mary what we all inherit from our parents, unless we favor some form of
the immaculate-conception doctrine whereby Mary was made perfect. In that case God could
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