Luther on Original Sin [Psalm 51]

[GHansen]

The prophet proceeds in a most beautiful sequence in the doctrine of repentance. He asks for mercy and then gives the reason: “because I am a sinner and acknowledge my sin so that Thou mightest be righteous and we all be confounded.” Then he adds the cause of this knowledge, the sentence of God, because sin is revealed through the Word. What follows now is connected with the preceding in such a way as to illumine it. He shows the cause of sin and, as it were, opens up the basis of the whole transaction, explaining why he confesses his sin and begs for mercy: “because,” he says, “I was conceived in iniquity.” What could be said more clearly and meaningfully? He does not say, “I murdered Uriah.” He does not say, “I committed adultery.” But he wraps up all of human nature as in one bundle and says, “I was conceived in sin.” He is not talking about certain actions but simply about the matter, and he says: “The human seed, this mass from which I was formed, is totally corrupt with faults and sins. The material itself is faulty. The clay, so to speak, out of which this vessel began to be formed is damnable. What more do you want? This is how I am; this is how all men are. Our very conception, the very growth of the foetus in the womb, is sin, even before we are born and begin to be human beings.”

Furthermore, he is not talking about sin in marriage or about the sin of parents; as though he were accusing his parents of sin when he says, “I was conceived in sin.” He is not saying, “My mother sinned when she conceived me”; nor is he saying, “I sinned when I was conceived.” He is talking about the unformed seed itself and declaring that it is full of sin and a mass of perdition. Thus the true and proper meaning is this: “I am a sinner, not because I have committed adultery, nor because I have had Uriah murdered. But I have committed adultery and murder because I was born, indeed conceived and formed in the womb, as a sinner.” So we are not sinners because we commit this or that sin, but we commit them because we are sinners first. That is, a bad tree and bad seed also bring forth bad fruit, and from a bad root only a bad tree can grow.

Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 12: Selected Psalms I. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 12, pp. 347–348). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.