1
Westminster Confession of Faith
Chapter VI
Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof
2
By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God,126 and so became dead in sin,127 and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.128
126
Genesis 3:6-8Ecclesiastes 7:29Romans 3:23
127
Genesis 2:17Ephesians 2:1
128
Titus 1:15Genesis 6:5Jeremiah 17:9Romans 3:10-19
3
They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed,129 and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.130
129
Acts 17:261 Corinthians 15:491 Corinthians 15:21-22Romans 5:15-19Romans 5:12Genesis 2:16-17Genesis 1:27-28
130
Psalm 51:5Genesis 5:3Job 14:4
4
From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good,131 and wholly inclined to all evil,132 do proceed all actual transgressions.133
131
Romans 5:6Romans 8:7Colossians 1:21
132
Romans 3:10-12Genesis 6:5Genesis 8:21
133
James 1:14-15Ephesians 2:2-3Matthew 15:19
5
This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated;134 and although it be, through Christ, pardoned and mortified, yet both itself and all the motions thereof are truly and properly sin.135
134
1 John 1:81 John 1:10Romans 7:14Romans 7:17-18Romans 7:23James 3:2Proverbs 20:9Ecclesiastes 7:20
135
Romans 7:7-8Galatians 5:17Romans 7:25Romans 7:5
6
Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto,136 doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner;137 whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God,138 and curse of the law,139 and so made subject to death,140 with all miseries spiritual,141 temporal,142 and eternal.143
136
1 John 3:4
137
Romans 2:15Romans 3:9Romans 3:19
138
Ephesians 2:3
139
Galatians 3:10
140
Romans 6:23
141
Ephesians 4:18
142
Romans 8:20Lamentations 3:39
143
Matthew 25:41
See also
Westminster Shorter CatechismQ13Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?Q14What is sin?Q15What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?Q16Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?Q17Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?Q18Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?Q19What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?Q83Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?Q84What doth every sin deserve?