The Doctrine of Sin
Satan, that ancient serpent, the deceiver of the whole world (Rev 12:9), came to mankind’s first parents and convinced them that they could become like God (Gen 3:4-5). Having received the commandment of God (Gen 2:16) regarding certain fruit, Adam failed to be the leader to which God had called him. While standing with Eve, he remained silent and knowingly participated in sin (Gen 3:6). It was at this point that mankind chose to sin and sin and death thereby entered into the world. Sin’s curse was immediate (Gen 3:7) and would affect all of mankind and creation (Gen 3:16-19; Rom 8:22). The image of God in mankind was not fully destroyed at the fall (Gen 9:6), however, it was perverted and distorted (Gen 5:1-3).
Therefore, a sin nature was imputed to all human beings through Adam (Rom 5:12-20) and this position leads them to the punishment of death both physically and spiritually (Gen 2:16; Rom 6:23; Rev 20:14). All of mankind are by nature sinners; and it is with this nature that they cannot help but commit actual sin (Eph 2:1-3; Rom 1:18-19). Because of this sin, they will be held accountable before God in the coming judgment (Rev 20:11-15; Rom 2:6). In light of this, man is totally depraved and incapable of movement towards God or any righteous deeds (Rom 3:10-18; 1 Cor 2:14; John 3:5-15) and is essentially a corpse who cannot please God on his own (Heb 11:6).