Why Sin Must Be Treated as a Process

Most theological discussions treat sin as a static condition—something one either has or does not have. While this framing is useful at a pastoral level, it is insufficient for understanding how sin enters history, persists across generations, and is ultimately interrupted.

Scripture presents sin not merely as a moral state, but as something that moves.

• It has direction.
• It has consequence.
• And it has a mechanism.

To understand original sin properly, sin must be examined as a process, not simply a verdict.

The Necessity of Functional Distinctions

If all sin were identical in role and effect, Scripture would not insist on distinctions of sequence, agency, and responsibility. Yet the biblical text repeatedly differentiates between:

• Being deceived and transgressing knowingly
• Being involved in sin and introducing sin
• Being subject to sin and causing sin to spread

These distinctions suggest that sin operates through differentiated roles. This chapter proposes three such roles, not as speculative theology, but as categories implied by the narrative itself.

The Recipient of Sin

The recipient of sin is one who encounters sin and internalizes its effect.

This role is characterized by:

• Exposure to sin from an external source
• Participation in sin through deception or influence
• Moral culpability without generational causality

To receive sin is to become fallen.
It is not, by itself, to make sin inheritable.

Eve occupies this role first. Her deception results in real disobedience and real consequence, yet Scripture stops short of identifying her as the point through which sin enters humanity as a whole.

This distinction is deliberate.

The Carrier of Sin

The carrier of sin is one who bears the condition of sin within embodied existence.

Carrying sin includes:

• Living under the curse of death
• Producing life while subject to decay
• Bearing the effects of sin without determining its transmissibility

Carriage is passive but consequential. A carrier does not neutralize sin, but neither does a carrier originate or advance it independently.

Women, throughout Scripture, occupy this role in a unique and consistent way. They carry humanity forward, even while humanity remains fallen. This fact becomes theologically decisive later, particularly in the birth of Christ.

The Progressor of Sin

The progressor of sin is the agent through whom sin becomes generational.

Progression involves:

• Transforming sin from an individual act into an inherited condition
• Passing sin forward without requiring new deception
• Establishing death as a permanent feature of human reproduction

Progression is not about committing the first sin.
It is about making sin unavoidable for those who follow.

Adam’s sin fulfills this role. Scripture does not merely say that Adam sinned; it says that through him sin entered the world, and through sin, death spread to all. This language is causal, not symbolic.

Adam is not simply the first sinner.
He is the first progressor.

Why These Roles Cannot Be Collapsed

If recipient, carrier, and progressor are collapsed into a single category, several theological problems arise:

• Eve becomes responsible for generational sin, contradicting explicit biblical claims.
• The virgin birth becomes unintelligible without redefining Mary as sinless.
• Inherited sin becomes biologically vague rather than theologically precise.
• Redemption becomes arbitrary rather than targeted.

Distinction preserves coherence.

Theological Precedents for Asymmetry

Asymmetry in theological roles is not an anomaly; it is a pattern.

• Priests and prophets serve different functions.
• Kings bear responsibility distinct from their subjects.
• Federal headship assigns consequences beyond personal action.

Adam functions as a representative head, not merely an individual. Eve does not occupy this role—not by accident, but by design.

A Crucial Clarification

These categories do not rank moral worth.

• Recipient does not mean innocent.
• Carrier does not mean passive.
• Progressor does not mean uniquely evil.

They describe how sin moves, not who matters more.

Failing to maintain this distinction has led to centuries of theological confusion—often to the detriment of women, and sometimes to the misrepresentation of redemption itself.

Preparing for the First Generation

With these roles established, the Genesis account can now be read with greater precision. The question is no longer simply who sinned first, but how sin changed status—from act to condition, from event to inheritance.

The next chapter will therefore return to the beginning.

Not to retell the story,
but to examine it structurally.