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“Is One Born Guilty Of Sin?”
Categories: Daily Living, SinIs One Born Guilty Of Sin?
Jarrod Jacobs
The teaching that man is born a sinner is fairly common in the religious world. Is this true? What does the Bible say?
In the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, God devotes the entire chapter to disproving the teaching that man is born a sinner. He tells His people, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20). I think that it is interesting to note that if these people had listened to God in Deuteronomy 24:16, perhaps God would not have had to devote an entire chapter to inherited sin. Deuteronomy 24:16 says, “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Please read Exodus 32:30-33 also.
In the New Testament, we also see that man does not inherit the sins of his father. In Colossians 3:25, we read, “But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done: and there is no respect of persons.” To say that infants possess inherited sin is to say something the Bible does not say.
In Romans 9:10-11, Paul discusses Jacob and Esau. Paul says, “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad -- in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.” This verse is very clear in showing us that man does not inherit sin or righteousness from his father. We are responsible for our own sins and no one else’s!
