📖 Biblical Definition
Original righteousness describes the condition of Adam and Eve as God created them: upright, holy, and in perfect fellowship with their Creator. "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes" (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Man was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), which included true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24). This was not merely innocence or moral neutrality — Adam was positively righteous, walking with God in unbroken communion. Original righteousness was lost in the Fall and is restored in believers through regeneration and sanctification, reaching its completion in glorification.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law.
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RIGHTEOUS, a. 1. Just; accordant to the divine law. 2. Just; equitable; merited. ORIG'INAL, a. First in order; preceding all others; primitive; pristine. Note: Combined, original righteousness is the pristine, first-order conformity to God's law that characterized humanity at creation — before sin corrupted our nature.
📖 Key Scripture
• Genesis 1:31 — "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good."
• Ecclesiastes 7:29 — "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes."
• Ephesians 4:24 — "Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
• Colossians 3:10 — "The new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Denied by those who reject the historicity of Adam or the doctrine of the Fall.
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If there was no historical Adam, there was no original righteousness — and without original righteousness, there is no Fall, no original sin, and no need for redemption. The denial of original righteousness is therefore a denial of the entire biblical storyline. Liberal theology replaces the biblical narrative of creation-fall-redemption with an evolutionary narrative of gradual moral improvement, in which humanity is not fallen from a state of righteousness but rising from a state of animality. This turns the gospel inside out: Christianity becomes not the rescue of fallen beings but the encouragement of evolving ones. Paul's argument in Romans 5 depends entirely on the reality of original righteousness: as Adam's sin brought death, so Christ's righteousness brings life.
Usage
• "Without original righteousness, there is no Fall — and without the Fall, the cross becomes a solution to a problem that never existed."
• "Sanctification is not the invention of something new but the restoration of original righteousness — becoming again what Adam was before he sinned."