The Bible easily refutes the Lutheran & Reformed view of Original Sin

Sorry for the delay in posting, my life has been so busy that I've not had any chance to post, and when I sit down to post I run into all kinds of unfortunate distractions that leave many things as an unpublished "draft". That said, I have been occasionally active on Twitter (HERE), and have met some great Catholic and Protestant people on there, with some good topics that have been discussed. For this post I want to discuss a fundamental and serious error that I saw a Lutheran espousing about Original Sin, which is a major reason why they espouse Imputed Justification against Catholicism (and Scripture). I see it as a simple and short refutation of their erroneous view of Original Sin.

The Protestant Reformers erroneously saw the "evil desires" that remain within the Christian as truly and properly sinful before God. As one Lutheran put it on Twitter: "Man's fallen and wicked desire, Concupiscence, is itself actually sinful, for it is lawless and rebellion against God's law and holy will." This sinful desire, called "Concupiscence," is a major point of contention between Catholics and Protestants. If such desires as the temptation to lust after a woman, which are constantly arising within us, are truly sinful, then the Christian is in a serious bind, for how can they hope to live a life of holiness before God if they are constantly hit with lustful desires throughout their Christian life? The Protestant view is that these lustful desire are truly sinful, and thus the only way to "escape" this constant feeling of defeat and guilt before God is to "hide" behind Christ's Righteousness through Imputation, such that God now only sees Christ's holy life instead of you whenever God looks at you. It would seem that some kind of Imputation model would be the only "solution," even though this doesn't really amount to a solution when other factors are considered. Meanwhile, the Catholic view is that Concupiscence is not sinful in itself, but rather is an inclination to give into sin, and thus Concupiscence is only a temptation in the Catholic view, whereas sin is an act of the human will to choose to give into temptation. In short, for Catholicism and Scripture, we would say concupiscence is not sinful in itself but it certainly is a result of Original Sin and an unfortunate effect that remains even in Christians.

One primary Catholic proof text that concupiscence is not formally/truly sinful comes from the Epistle of James, chapter 1, which says:

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial [temptation], for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire ["concupiscence" in Latin]. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

What James is saying is that there is a distinction between temptation/concupiscence versus that of sinning. Merely being tempted or feeling lustful desires is not sinful, but it is an effect of Original Sin. This passage would not even make sense if temptation itself was formally (i.e. truly) sinful rather than an effect of Adam's sin. In fact, this passage would seemingly undermine the Protestant view quite plainly, and I think it does. But to turn up the heat against the erroneous Protestant view, I pointed the Lutheran to many passages from the First Epistle of St John, which I will now cite here, and which he didn't seem to have any response to.

Consider these passages from First John:

• 1Jn2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

• 1Jn2:14 I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life ["concupiscence" in Latin] - is not from the Father but is from the world.
  

• 1Jn3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
  

• 1Jn4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
  

• 1Jn5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
  

• 1Jn5:16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life - to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

All these passages powerfully go against the defeatist Protestant idea of Concupiscence as a truly sinful behavior that they think is continually causing us to appear sinful before God. In all these passages, St John explains that those who are truly regenerated Christians are radically transformed and are required to avoid sinful behavior and to keep God's Commandments. How can John speak like this if the Christian cannot help but continually sin? I see this as a slam dunk against a fundamental tenant of classical Protestantism.

The Protestant will falsely object by saying that John is not endorsing a perfectly sinful life. That is correct, John is not saying a Christian will never sin and never need to ask for forgiveness. But this is a false excuse because John is saying you don't have to sin and that one born of God will not make a habit of continually sinning, which the Protestant view of concupiscence contradicts. These verses from 1st John above must be taken seriously and if a person is of the mindset that they are constantly sinning then they must conclude they are not keeping God's commandments and thus do not truly love God in any genuine manner. Thus the only real explanation is to conclude that Concupiscence is not formally sinful, or (less likely) that it is of a 'venial' sort that doesn't significantly affect one's love and obedience to God.

It is fascinating to see how such fundamental errors are at the very heart of Protestantism and their erroneous views of salvation. We can see just how badly a wrong diagnosis of a problem will lead to an erroneous "solution" such as Imputation, as well as defeatism and making God's grace and the Holy Spirit of no real positive effect in our life. If everything we do is tainted with actual sin, then Christians cannot even be said to be doing good works. And by rejecting the distinction between Mortal and Venial Sin, it means the Protestant view is saying all sinful behavior is Mortal Sin, and thus Concupiscence means the Christians is constantly committing mortal sin. How outrageous is that? Why would Paul even warn against fornication and other things if Christians are effectively committing it constantly? Such is the insanity of the Protestant view of Original Sin and the laughable false solution of Imputation which cannot explain the repeated Biblical call for a change in our personal behavior. From this it is clear that these kinds of issues must be regularly brought up within any Catholic-Protestant discussions if we are going to make any progress in bringing them back to true Christianity. 

The Lutheran Confession says: "Concupiscence is a
disease and original vice that is truly sin. It damns..."