What is sin?
Sin is any transgression of God’s law.
What is original sin?
This is the sin which comes from our origin.
What do you mean by our origin?
I mean our first parent, Adam. Adam broke God’s law and all his descendants are guilty with him of this transgression.
What law of God did Adam break?
Adam violated the terms of the covenant of works which God had made with him in the garden. (Genesis 2:17; 3:6)
Why are all Adam’s descendants guilty of the sin he committed in the garden?
The Bible does not answer this question.
What does the Bible teach about this sin?
The Bible hints at this doctrine in a number of different places but explicitly teaches it only in Romans 5.
What does Paul say in Romans 5 about original sin?
Paul says that sin entered the world through one man. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, (Romans 5:12) This one man is Adam.
What does Paul mean here by sin “entering into the world?”
He means that sin became a dominant feature of human life and society after Adam’s first sin. When Adam sinned, all his descendants became sinners as well. That is why this sin is called original or origin sin.
There was no sin, then, in the garden of Eden before Adam fell.
That is correct.
Does this mean that God holds people responsible for the sin which Adam committed?
Yes, Paul teaches this later in the same chapter as quoted above. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:12, 15-19) Being “made a sinner” here does not mean that Adam’s disobedience made or led people to commit more sin but rather that their status changed from that of righteous to guilty. They were made sinners in that they were reckoned and charged with sin by God.