# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1892_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1892. 9

"flesh" as human beings corrupted by sin, and so the passage "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" means as much as: whoever descends from a sinner is likewise a sinner, and indeed precisely through this descent of his; human beings, apart from the first pair, are not made but born sinners. In agreement with this is David's confession, Ps. 51:7: "Behold, I was shaped in sinful seed, and in sin did my mother conceive me." And those from whom such inheritance first proceeded are the first human beings, who indeed were created in God's image but through the Fall lost this image of God and so could not pass it on to their descendants either, to whom they rather passed on their present corruption. For it is said of Adam: "He begot a son in his own likeness." Gen. 5:3. And Paul writes: "Through one man sin came into the world." Rom. 5:12. There is, then, original sin. Sin is innate in all human beings, inherited.

That this condition in which we are born is truly sinful, that original sin bears its name rightly, is likewise clearly attested in Scripture. "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness," writes John, 1 John 3:4. Sin is wrong, that which contradicts the right and law of God, and of this nature is the "flesh," which is what man, descending from the "flesh," is born as. The "flesh" will not let itself be rebuked by the Spirit. (Gen. 6:3: "Men will no longer let my Spirit rebuke them, for they are flesh.") To be flesh means to be carnally minded. Being carnally minded, however, according to Rom. 8:5-7, is enmity against God. The "flesh" is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. In short, "to be flesh" means to stand in opposition to the law, to have the nature of sin, or in other words: original sin is truly sin.

From the passages cited the greatness and depth of the corruption of original sin is also at once evident. This comprises two things: complete inability to be subject to the law, or incapacity for everything good in God's eyes, and enmity against God, which naturally is a fruitful mother of countless transgressions of the law and sins. Other passages also attest the greatness and depth of the corruption of original sin. The Lord attests the inability to do anything good when he says: "How can you speak good things, since you are evil?" Matt. 12:34, and still more strongly when he describes natural human beings, human beings in their unconverted natural state, as spiritually dead: "Let the dead bury their dead," Matt. 8:22; a name by which his apostle also describes himself and others when he writes: "When we were dead in sins, he made us alive together with Christ." Eph. 2:5. As over-