Overview

This chapter confesses the entrance and effects of sin: how our first parents fell, how their guilt and corrupt nature are conveyed to all their posterity, the total depravity that results, the persistence of corruption even in the regenerate, and the guilt and misery — temporal, spiritual, and eternal — that sin deserves. It is the dark backdrop against which the grace of the gospel shines.

The Confession, Section by Section

6.1 — The first sin

Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food… she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen. 3:6, ESV)

Further proofs: Gen. 3:13; 2 Cor. 11:3; Rom. 11:32.

Exposition: The fall was a real, historical act — Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan, breaking the one command. God “permitted” it (cf. 5.4), purposing to order even this to His glory in redemption, yet without being its author.

6.2 — The fall into sin and death

By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” (Eph. 2:1, ESV)

Further proofs: Gen. 3:6–8; Rom. 3:10–18; Titus 1:15; Jer. 17:9.

Exposition: The fall did not merely wound; it killed. Adam lost original righteousness and communion with God, becoming “dead in sin” and defiled in every faculty — mind, will, affections, body. This is total depravity: not that humans are as bad as possible, but that no part is untouched by sin.

6.3 — Original sin imputed and conveyed

They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12, ESV)

Further proofs: Rom. 5:15–19; 1 Cor. 15:21–22; Gen. 1:27–28; 2:16–17; Ps. 51:5.

Exposition: Adam was not merely the first sinner but our covenant head and “the root of all mankind.” Two things pass to us: the guilt of his first sin, imputed (reckoned as ours), and a corrupt nature, conveyed by ordinary generation. Romans 5 sets Adam and Christ in parallel — by one man’s disobedience condemnation, by the other’s obedience justification (the logic of ch. 8 and 11).

6.4 — Total inability

From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” (Rom. 8:7, ESV)

Further proofs: James 1:14–15; Matt. 15:19; Eph. 2:2–3; Col. 1:21.

Exposition: Original corruption is the polluted fountain from which every actual sin flows. The natural mind is not merely weak toward God but “hostile” and unable to submit — the ground of the doctrine of total inability and the necessity of effectual calling (ch. 10) and free grace.

6.5 — Indwelling sin remains in the regenerate

This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Rom. 7:19, ESV)

Further proofs: Rom. 7:14–25; 1 John 1:8, 10; James 3:2; Gal. 5:17.

Exposition: Even the believer is not yet free of indwelling corruption. It is pardoned and being put to death, but it remains, and its very “motions” are “truly and properly sin” — the lifelong battle of Romans 7 and the necessity of ongoing sanctification (ch. 13) and repentance (ch. 15).

6.6 — The guilt and misery of sin

Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.

Scripture Proofs (ESV):

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23, ESV)

Further proofs: Eph. 2:3; Gal. 3:10; Rom. 2:15; Lam. 3:39; Matt. 25:41.

Exposition: Sin is lawbreaking, and it deserves wrath — spiritual death (separation from God), temporal death (the body’s miseries and dissolution), and eternal death (the curse forever). This is the just desert that makes the “free gift” of Romans 6:23 so astonishing.

Doctrinal Summary

Seduced by Satan, our first parents fell from righteousness into sin and death. As covenant head and root of mankind, Adam’s guilt is imputed and a corrupt nature conveyed to all his ordinary posterity, rendering them dead in sin, wholly defiled, and unable of themselves to turn to God. This corruption remains even in the regenerate, and every sin justly binds the sinner over to God’s wrath and the curse of the law — spiritual, temporal, and eternal death.

Connections

• WLC Q21–29 — the sin of our first parents; the fall; sin; original sin; the misery of the fallen estate; the punishments of sin in this world and that which is to come.
• WSC Q13–19 — the sin of our first parents; the fall and the covenant; sinfulness of that estate; original sin; the misery of the estate whereinto man fell.
• WCF 7 (the broken covenant of works) and WCF 8–11 (Christ the remedy; the second Adam).
• Loci: Hamartiology (original sin, imputation, total depravity and inability).

Pastoral & Practical Significance

This chapter humbles before it heals. It tells the truth no flattery will: we are not basically good people who occasionally stumble, but sinners by nature, guilty and unable to save ourselves. That diagnosis is not despair but the doorway to grace — only those who know they are “dead in trespasses” rejoice to hear of a Savior who makes the dead alive (Eph. 2:1, 4–5). It explains the believer’s ongoing struggle (6.5): if you grieve over sin that remains, that grief itself is a mark of grace, not its absence. And it magnifies Christ the second Adam, whose obedience undoes what the first Adam’s disobedience wrought.

For Reflection

• Do I take sin as seriously as the Confession does — as guilt that binds me over to God’s wrath — or do I excuse it?
• If indwelling sin remains even in the regenerate, how should that shape my expectations and my patience with myself and others in the fight?
• How does seeing myself “dead in sin” make the free gift of life in Christ more precious?