_4_The Cause of Sin

There is in fallen man a strong tendency to make God or other creatures responsible for his sinfulness and thus to remove the blame for his sin, either in whole or in part, from his own person. We see Adam and Eve doing this after the Fall. Gen. 3:12-13: “The woman, whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat… . The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” This sort of excuse is typical of the entire fallen human race. In doctrinal discussions and in practical life we are repeatedly confronted with questions like the following: “Why did God create man with the ability to fall?” And: “Why does God today permit man to be tempted when according to His all-governing providence He could keep temptation away from men?” Such and similar questions tend to confuse the question as to the causa peccati.

According to Scripture the cause of sin in man is a) the devil. He sinned first and then seduced man. And he is still the power impelling unbelievers to sin and tempting believers to sin. Christ tells the unbelieving Jews, John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil,” and those who are delivered from the power of darkness (Col. 1:13) Paul warns in 2 Cor. 11:3: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” Because he seduced men to sin, the devil is called “a murderer from the beginning,” John 8:44 (, “manslayer”); and since he is the prima causa peccati, the inventor of sin, we call sin, with good reason, a work of the devil, even in the case of sins committed by believers. That such is the case is clearly indicated by Christ when He says to Peter, who sought to keep Christ from suffering and dying: “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” 19

The cause of sin in man is b) sinning man himself. Seduction by the devil does not do away with the fact that man perpetrates the sin; it does not relieve him of the responsibility for it. That is the clear teaching of Scripture. Though Adam and Eve were seduced by the devil, they are guilty and are punished by God (Gen. 3:16-18). According to 2 Thess. 2:9-12 those who are seduced by Satan and by Antichrist with all power and signs and lying wonders remain responsible to God and are judged by God. The same judgment is expressed in Matt. 18:7: “Woe unto the world because of offenses”; men are punished because they fall prey to the offenses. And man’s conscience bears testimony to the same effect: It reproves him after sinning. We see Adam and Eve hiding from God after they had sinned (Gen. 3:8). On the causa peccati the Augsburg Confession states: “Although God does create and preserve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the wicked, that is, of the devil and ungodly men” (Trigl. 53, Art. XIX).20 Hence man remains, as the dogmaticians express it, the subiectum quod peccati, active and responsible, even though he was originally seduced by Satan and is today (as long as he is without faith in Christ) wholly ruled by Satan (Col. 1:13) and cannot refrain from sinning (Rom. 8:7).

The true seat of sin in man, the true seat (subiectum quo) of the , is man’s soul. In the soul the (the inscribed Law) had, and should still have, its seat. The body becomes a seat of sin inasmuch as it is the organ of the soul. The contrary opinion, that the body, and not the soul, is the seat of sin, the soul being the innocent captive, is a heathen concept. Christ clearly teaches Matt. 15:19: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc.” The heart is the true seat of sin, the birthplace of all internal and external sinful acts.