Now moved HERE.

original sin and actual sin

Paul writes in Romans 5:15: "For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many" (NIV). Whenever I read the "how much more" I have the sense that there is much more he means that I do not understand. Augustine's interpretation, which I read this morning, illuminates part of the passage.

Not many more, that is, many more men, for there are not more persons justified than condemned; but it runs, much more hath abounded; inasmuch as, while Adam produced sinners from his one sin, Christ has by His grace procured free forgiveness even for the sins which men have of their own accord added by actual transgression to the original sin in which they were born. (On Forgiveness of Sins, And Baptism 1.4)