Thomas Aquinas

After the Apostle showed what goods we have obtained through the grace of Christ, here he consequently shows from what evils we are freed through it. And concerning this he does three things. For first he shows that through the grace of Christ we are freed from the servitude of sin. Second he shows that through his grace we are freed from the servitude of the law, chapter 7, where he says, "know you not, brethren," and so on. Third he shows that through the grace of Christ we are freed from damnation, chapter 8, where he says, "there is now no condemnation," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he shows that through the grace of Christ we are freed from past original sin; second he shows that, kept safe by it, we are ruled against future sins, where he says, "what shall we say then," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he treats of the process of sin; second, of the process of grace destroying sin, where he says, "but not as the offense," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets forth the process of sin; second he makes it clear, where he says, "until the law," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets forth the process of sin; second he shows its universality, where he says, "and so unto all," and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he shows the origin of sin; second, the origin of death, where he says, "and by sin death," and so on.

He says therefore first that through Christ we have received reconciliation. For thus does reconciliation proceed from Christ into the world, just as through one man, namely through Adam, sin entered into this world. 1 Corinthians 15:22: "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive." Now here it must be considered that the Pelagian heretics, denying that original sin exists in infants, said that these words of the Apostle must be understood of actual sin. Which, according to them, entered into this world through Adam inasmuch as all who sin imitate the sin of Adam, according to Hosea 6:7: "but they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant," and so on. But, as Augustine says against them, if the Apostle here were speaking of the entrance of actual sin, which is by imitation, he would not say that sin entered into this world through a man, but rather through the Devil, whom sinners imitate, according to Wisdom 2:24: "by the envy of the Devil death entered into the world," and so on. It must therefore be understood that through Adam sin entered into this world, not only by imitation but also by propagation, that is, through the vitiated origin of the flesh, according to Ephesians 2:3: "we were by nature children of wrath," and in Psalm 50:7: "for behold I was conceived in iniquities," and so on.

But this seems to be impossible, that through the origin of the flesh sin should be transmitted from one to another. For sin is in the rational soul, which is not transmitted through the origin of the flesh, both because the intellect is not the act of any body, and so cannot be caused by the power of the bodily seed, as the Philosopher says in the book On the Generation of Animals; and also because, since the rational soul is a certain subsisting thing — as having operation of itself, and not being corrupted when the body is corrupted — it consequently follows that it is not generated when the body is generated, as other forms are, which cannot subsist of themselves, but is rather caused by God. It seems to follow, therefore, that neither can sin, which is an accident of the soul, be transmitted through the origin of the flesh.

To this, however, it is reasonably answered that although the soul is not in the seed, there is nevertheless in the seed a power disposing the body to the reception of the soul, which, when it is infused into the body, is also in its own way conformed to it, because everything received is in the recipient according to the mode of the recipient. And hence we see that children are made like their parents, not only in bodily defects — as a leper begets a leper and a man with gout begets one with gout — but also in defects of the soul, as an irascible man is born of the irascible, and the demented from the demented. For although the foot, which is the subject of gout, is not in the seed, nor the soul, which is the subject of anger or dementia, there is nevertheless in the seed a formative power of the bodily members and one disposing toward the soul.

But still a doubt remains, because the defects that are drawn from a vitiated origin do not have the character of guilt. For they do not merit punishment, but rather mercy, as the Philosopher says of one who is born blind, or in whatever other way deprived. And this is because it belongs to the nature of guilt that it be voluntary and in the power of the man to whom the guilt is imputed. Thus, therefore, if some defect comes to us through the origin of our first parent, it does not seem to have in us the character of guilt, but of punishment.

And therefore it must be said that just as actual sin is the sin of a person, because it is committed through the will of the person sinning, so original sin is the sin of nature, which was committed through the will of the principle of human nature. For it must be considered that just as the diverse members of the body are parts of the one person of a man, so all men are parts and, as it were, certain members of human nature. Whence Porphyry too says that by participation in the species many men are one man. Now we see that an act of sin exercised through some member — say, through the hand or the foot — does not have the character of guilt from the will of the hand or the foot, but from the will of the whole man, from which, as from a certain principle, the movement of sin is derived to the individual members. And likewise from the will of Adam, who was the principle of human nature, the whole disorder of nature has the character of guilt in all to whom it comes, insofar as they are susceptible of guilt. And just as actual sin, which is the sin of a person, is drawn to the individual members through some personal act, so original sin is drawn to individual men through an act of nature, which is generation. And thus, just as human nature is drawn along through generation, so also through generation is transmitted the defect of human nature that has followed upon the sin of the first parent.

Now this defect is the lack of original justice, which had been divinely conferred upon the first man, not only as he was a certain singular person, but also as he was the principle of human nature, namely so that he might transmit it together with the nature into his posterity. And therefore in like manner he transmits to his posterity the loss of this original justice through sin, having in them the character of guilt, for the reason already stated. And therefore it is said that in the process of original sin the person infected the nature — namely Adam, sinning, vitiated human nature — but afterward, in others, the vitiated nature infects the person, namely when, upon one being begotten, the vice of nature is imputed as guilt on account of the will of the first parent, as has been said.

From this, moreover, it is clear that although the first sin of the first parent is transmitted through origin to his posterity, his other sins, or even those of other men, are not transmitted to their children, because through the first sin alone was the good of nature taken away, which was to be transmitted through the origin of nature. But through the other sins the good of personal grace is withdrawn, which does not pass on to other posterity. And from this it is also the case that although the sin of Adam was blotted out through his own repentance, according to Wisdom 10:2: "she brought him out of his sin," nevertheless his repentance could not blot out the sin of his posterity, because his repentance was through a personal act, since it did not extend beyond his own person. And on account of this there is only one original sin, because only the defect following upon the first sin is originally derived to posterity. And therefore the Apostle says in the singular that "through one man sin entered into this world," and did not say in the plural "sins" — which would have had to be said if he were speaking of actual sins. Original sins, however, are sometimes spoken of in the plural, as in Psalm 50:7: "in sins did my mother conceive me," because it contains virtually many sins, inasmuch as from the corruption of the tinder of sin we are inclined to many sins.

But it seems that original sin did not enter into this world through one man, namely Adam, but rather through one woman, namely Eve, who sinned first, according to Ecclesiasticus 25:33: "from the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die." To this it is answered in the Gloss in two ways. In one way, because it is the custom of Scripture that genealogies be woven not through women but through men, as is clear in Matthew 1:1ff. and Luke 3:23ff. And therefore the Apostle here, wishing to show as it were a certain genealogy of sin, made no mention of the woman, but only of the man. In another way, because the woman too was taken from the man, and therefore what belongs to the woman is attributed to the man. It can also be said in another way, and better, that since original sin is transmitted together with the nature, as has been said, just as through the active power of the man — the woman supplying the matter — the nature is transmitted, so also is original sin. Whence, if Adam had not sinned, though Eve sinned, sin would not for this reason have been transmitted to posterity. For this is the reason why Christ did not draw original sin, because he received flesh from a woman alone, without male seed.

Through this word of the Apostle Augustine answers Julian the heretic, asking in this manner: he who is born does not sin, he who begot does not sin, he who fashioned does not sin — through what crevices, then, amid so many safeguards of innocence, do you feign that sin has entered in? But Augustine answers: why do you seek a hidden crevice, when you have a wide-open door? For according to the Apostle, "through one man sin entered into this world."

Next he touches upon the entrance of death into the world, when he says "and by sin death," namely, entered into this world, according to Wisdom 1: "injustice is the acquisition of death." But it seems that death is not from sin, but rather from nature, as arising from the necessity of matter. For the human body is composed of contraries. Whence it is naturally corruptible. It must be said, however, that human nature can be considered in two ways. In one way according to its intrinsic principles, and thus death is natural to it. Whence Seneca says in the book On Remedies for Chance Happenings that death is nature's due to man, not a punishment. In another way the nature of man can be considered according as it was provided for him, through original justice, by divine providence. Which justice indeed was a certain rectitude, such that the mind of man was subject to God, and the lower powers were subject to the mind, and the body subject to the soul, and all exterior things subject to man: in such a way, namely, that as long as the mind of man was subjected to God, the lower powers would be subjected to reason, and the body to the soul, receiving life from it without fail, and exterior things to man, so that all things would serve him, and he would suffer no harm from any of them. This, moreover, divine providence arranged on account of the dignity of the rational soul, which, since it is naturally incorruptible, an incorruptible body was owed to it. But because the body, which is composed of contraries, had to be the organ of sense, and such a body cannot by its own nature be incorruptible, the divine power supplied what was lacking to human nature, giving to the soul the power of maintaining the body incorruptibly — just as a smith, if he could, would give to the iron out of which he fashions a knife the power to contract no rust. Thus, therefore, after the mind of man was turned away from God through sin, it lost the power of holding together the lower powers, and also the body and exterior things, and thus it incurred natural death from intrinsic causes, and violent death from exterior harms.

Then, when he says "and so unto all," and so on, he shows the universality of this process both as to death and as to sin, though in reverse order. For above he first treated of the entrance of sin, which is the cause of the entrance of death, but now he first treats of the universality of death, as being the more manifest thing; and this is what he says: "and so death" — namely, or the sin of the first parent — "passed unto all," namely, because through a vitiated origin men contract the necessity of dying. 2 Kings 14:14: "we all die." Psalm 88:49: "who is the man that shall live," and so on. Then he touches upon the universality of the process of sin, when he says "in whom all have sinned," which, as Augustine says in the Gloss, can be understood in two ways. In one way, "in whom," namely in the first man, or "in which," namely in sin — because, namely, when he sinned, all in a certain manner sinned, inasmuch as they were in him as in their first origin. But since Christ too drew his origin from Adam, as is clear in Luke 3:23ff., it seems that he too, when Adam sinned, would have sinned. To this Augustine answers, in the Literal Commentary on Genesis, that Christ was not in Adam in every way in which we were: for we were in him both according to bodily substance and according to seminal principle. Christ, however, was in him only according to bodily substance.

Some, misunderstanding this, have thought that the whole substance of human bodies, which pertains to the truth of human nature, was actually in Adam, and that through a certain multiplication brought about by divine power — that is, that what was taken from Adam — was amplified into so great a quantity of bodies. But this is an unfitting thing, to attribute to a miracle what is a work of nature, especially since we see that the human body, however much it be of the truth of human nature, is corrupted and takes on another form. Whence, since everything generable is corruptible, and conversely, it must be said that the matter which, before the generation of a man, was under some form other than human, assumed the form of human flesh; and thus not everything that is in our bodies pertaining to the truth of nature was actually in him, but only according to origin, inasmuch as an effect is in its active principle.

According to this, then, it must be understood that since in our generation there is both the bodily matter which the woman supplies, and the active power which is in the seed of the male, both are derived by origin from Adam, as from a first principle. And therefore it is said that they were in him both according to seminal principle and according to bodily substance: because, namely, both proceeded from him. But in the generation of Christ there was the bodily substance which he drew from the Virgin; in place of the seminal principle, however, there was the active power of the Holy Spirit, which is not derived from Adam, and therefore it was not in Adam according to seminal principle, but only according to bodily substance. Thus, therefore, we receive sin from Adam and draw it from him, and we receive human nature from him, as from an active principle — which is, to be in him according to seminal principle — which indeed does not apply to Christ, as has been said.

It seems further that original sin does not pass into all, because the baptized are cleansed from original sin through Baptism; and thus it seems that they cannot transmit to their posterity a sin which they do not have. It must be said, however, that through Baptism a man is freed from original sin as to the mind, but the infection of sin remains as to the flesh; whence, below, chapter 7:25, the Apostle says: "I myself, with the mind, serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin." Now man does not beget carnal children with the mind, but with the flesh; and therefore he does not transmit the newness of Christ, but the oldness of Adam.