A Doctrine & Theology Reflection | The Way Bible Blog
Setting the Stage
The story of sin does not end in the Garden of Eden; it begins there. When Adam and Eve stepped beyond God’s command, their act of disobedience—what Scripture calls transgression—opened the door for moral corruption to enter human experience. Yet, every person since Adam bears not only the inherited consequences of that event but also the responsibility for their own deliberate wrongdoing. Jack Cottrell describes this as the difference between original and personal sin. Original sin refers to Adam’s representative act in Eden (Romans 5:12–19), while personal sin is the conscious, voluntary choice of each individual to cross God’s moral boundary. Understanding this distinction brings us face-to-face with one of theology’s most sobering truths: sin is not just humanity’s story—it is my story.
