ORIGINAL SIN ACCORDING TO ST. PAUL
[ This article originally
appeared in the St. Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 and 2, 1955-6. ]
I. Fallen
Creation
St. Paul strongly affirms the belief that all things created by God are good.[1] Yet, at the
same time, he insists on the
fact that not only man,[2] but also all of creation
has fallen.[3] Both man and creation are awaiting the final redemption.[4] Thus, in spite
of the fact that all things
created by God are good, the devil has temporarily[5] become the "god of
this age."[6] A basic
presupposition of St. Paul's thought is that althought the world was created by God and as such is good, yet now there rules in it
the power of
Satan. The devil, however, is
by no means absolute, since God
has never abandoned His creation.[7]
Thus, according to
St. Paul, creation as it is is not what
God intended it to be--"For the creature
was made subject to vanity...by reason of him who hath subjected
the same."[8] Therefore,
evil can exist,
at least temporarily, as a
parasitic element alongside and inside
of that which God created originally
good. A good example of this is one who would do the Good according to the "inner man," but finds it impossible because of the indwelling
power of sin in the flesh.[9] Although created good and still maintained
and governed by God, creation as it
is is still far from being normal or natural, if
by "normal" we
understand nature according to
the original and final destiny of creation. governing this age, in spite of the
fact that God Himself is still sustaining creation and creating for Himself a
remnant,[10]
is the devil himself.[11]
To try to
read into St.
Paul's thought any type of
philosophy of a naturally well balanced
universe with inherent and fixed moral
laws of reason, according to which men can live with peace of mind and
be happy, is to do violence to the
apostle's faith. For St. Paul, there is
now no such thing as a natural world with an inherent system of moral laws,
because all of creation has been
subjected to the vanity and evil power
of Satan, who is ruling by the powers of death and corruption.[12] For this reason all men have become
sinners.[13]
There is no such thing
as a man who is sinless simply
because he is living according to the rules of reason or the Mosaic law.[14] The possibility of living according to universal reason entails, also, the
possibility of being without sin. But for Paul this is a myth, because Satan is
no respecter of reasonable rules
of good conduct[15] and has under his influence all men born under the power of
death and corruption.[16]
Whether or not
belief in the present, real
and active power of Satan appeals to the Biblical
theologian, he cannot ignore the
importance that St. Paul attributes to
the power of the devil. To do so is to completely misunderstand the problem
of original sin and its
transmission and so misinterpret
the mind of the New Testament writers and the faith of the whole ancient Church. In regard
to the power of Satan to introduce sin into the
life of every man, St. Augustine in combating Pelagianism obviously misread St. Paul. by relegating the power of Satan, death, and corruption to the
background and pushing to the foreground
of controversy the problem of
personal guilt in the
transmission of original sin, St.
Augustine introduced a false
moralistic philosophical approach
which is foreign to the thinking of St. Paul[17] and which was not accepted by the patristic tradition of
the East.[18]
For St. Paul, Satan is not simply a negative
power in the universe. He is personal
with will,[19]
with thoughts,[20]
and with methods of deception,[21] against whom Christians
must wage and intense battle[22] because they can
still be tempted by him.[23] He is active in a dynamic manner,[24] fighting for the destruction of creation and not simply waiting passively in a
restricted corner to accept those who
happen to rationally decide not to follow
God and the moral laws inherent in
a natural universe. Satan is even capable of transforming himself into
an angel of light[25]. He has at his
disposal miraculous powers of perversion[26] and has as co-workers whole armies of invisible
powers.[27] He is the "god of
this age,"[28]
the one who deceived the first woman.[29] It is he who led man[30] and all of creation into
the path of death and corruption.[31]
The power of
death and corruption, according to Paul,
is not negative, but on the contrary, positively active. "The sting of death is
sin,"[32]
which in turn reigns in death.[33] Not only man, but all
creation has been yoked under its
tyrannizing power[34] and is now awaiting redemption. Creation itself
shall also be delivered from the slavery of corruption.[35] Along with the final destruction of all the enemies of God, death--the last and probably the greatest
enemy--will be destroyed.[36] Then death
will be swallowed up in victory.[37] For St. Paul,
the destruction of death is
parallel to the destruction of the devil and his forces. Salvation from the one
is salvation from the other.[38]
It is
obvious from St. Paul's expressions concerning fallen creation, Satan, and death, that
there is no room in his thinking
for any type of metaphysical dualism, of
departmentalization which would make of this world and intermediary domain which for man is merely a stepping stone leading either into the
presence of God or into the kingdom of Satan. The idea of a three story universe, whereby God
and His company of saints and angels occupy the top floor, the devil the
basement, and man in the flesh the middle, has no
room in Pauline theology.
For Paul, all three orders of existence interpenetrate. There is no
such thing as a middle
world of neutrality where man can
live according to natural law and then
be judged for a life of happiness in the
presence of God or for a life of torment in the pits of outer darkness. On the contrary, all of creation is
the domain of God, Who Himself cannot
be tainted with evil. But in His domain there are other wills which He has created, which can choose either the kingdom of God or the
kingdom of death and destruction.
In spite of the
fact that creation is of God and essentially good, the devil at the same time has parasitically transformed this same
creation of God into a temporary kingdom for himself.[39] The devil, death, and sin
are reigning in this world and not in another. Both the kingdom of darkness and
kingdom of light are battling hand to hand in
the same place. For this reason,
the only true victory possible over the devil is the resurrection of the dead.[40] There is no escape
from the battlefield. The only choice
possible for every man is either to fight
the devil by actively sharing in the victory of Christ, or to accept the deceptions of the devil by
wanting to believe that
all goes well
and everything is
normal.[41]
[1] I
Tim. 4:4
[2] Rom.
5:12
[3] Rom.
8:20
[4] Rom.
8:21-23
[5] I
Cor. 15:26
[6] II
Cor. 4:3
[7] Rom.
1:20
[8] Rom.
8:20
[9] Rom.
7:15-25
[10] Rom 11:5
[11] II Cor. 4:3
[12] I Cor. 15:56
[13] Rom. 3:9-12; 5:19
[14] Rom. 5:13
[15] II Cor. 4:3; 11:14; Eph. 6:11-17; II Thes. 2:8
[16] Rom. 8:24
[17] Col. 2:8
[18] e.g., St. Cyrill of Alexandria, Migne, P.G.t. 74, c. 788-789
[19] II Tim. 2:26
[20] II Cor. 2:11
[21] I Tim. 2:14; 4:14; II Tim. 2:26; II Cor. 11:14; 4:3; 2:11; 11:3
[22] Eph. 6:11-17
[23] I Cor. 7:5; II Cor. 2:11; 11:3; Eph. 4:27; I Thes. 3:5; I Tim. 3:6; 3:7; 4:1; 5:14
[24] II Cor. 11:14; 4:3; Eph 2:2; 6:11-17; I Thes. 2:18; 3:5; II Thes. 2:9; I Tim. 2:14; 3:7; II Tim. 2:25-26
[25] II Cor. 11:15
[26] II Thes. 2:9
[27] Eph 6:12; Col. 2:15
[28] II Cor. 4:4
[29] II Cor. 11:3; I Tim. 2:14
[30] Ibid.
[31] Rom. 8:19-22
[32] I Cor. 15:56
[33] Rom. 5:21
[34] Rom. 8:20
[35] Rom. 8:21
[36] I Cor. 15:24-26
[37] I Cor. 15:54
[38] Col. 2:13-15; I Cor. 15:24-27; 15:54-57
[39] II Cor. 4:3; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 6:12
[40] I Cor. 15:1 ff.
[41] Rom. 12:2; I Cor. 2:12; 11:32; II Cor. 4:3; Col. 2:20; II Thes. 2:9; II Tim. 4:10; Col. 2:8; I Cor. 5:10
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