A second passage used to teach the doctrine of original sin is Eph 2:3,
where Paul says that “we too . . . were by nature children of wrath, even as
the rest.” This is used especially to infer inborn (“by nature”) guilt and condemnation
(“wrath”). How may we evaluate this claim?
First we must clarify what is meant by “children of wrath.” The word for
“children” is teknon, which refers to someone’s offspring in either a
literal or figurative sense. Literally it refers to someone’s child, whether
young or adult in age (for the latter see Matt 21:28; Luke 15:31). When used
figuratively it often denotes membership in a family group having a certain
spiritual parentage. (As such it implies nothing about the age of infancy or
childhood.) The word is used, e.g., to refer to children of God (John 1:12; Rom
8:16, 21; 1 John 3:1, 10), children of the devil (1 John 3:10), children of
Sarah (1 Pet 3:6), and children of light (Eph 5:8). In Eph 2:3, teknon
is used in this latter sense, for those who belong to a figurative family group
who share the characteristic of being under the wrath and condemnation of God.
Paul is referring, of course, to the pre-Christian state. In Eph 2:1-2
he has addressed the Gentile Christians “(you”) and described their
pre-Chrisitan life in very harsh terms. But in verse 3 he admits that the Jews
themselves (“we”), before they came to faith in Christ, were also slaves of sin
and “were by nature children of wrath” (i.e., lost and on their way to hell), “even
as the rest” (i.e., the Gentiles). His main point is that the unbelieving
Gentiles and unbelieving Jews are thus part of the same spiritual family, the
family of the damned.
Our question, though, is this: how did they get that way? How did they
become members of that family? By birth, or by choice? As implied above, the
term teknon (as in “children of wrath”) has no connotation here of
infancy and therefore birth. But what about the expression “by nature”? Does
this imply that every person is born into the family of wrath, i.e., in the
lost state of original sin?
The key word here is the Greek physis, used in the dative form
and translated “by nature.” It refers to the nature or essence of something, or
that which belongs to the very nature or identity of something, e.g., God (2 Pet
1:4) or idols (Gal 4:8). When used of man it refers to the natural order of
things as created by God in the beginning, e.g., sexuality (Rom 1:26), gender
differences (1 Cor 11;14), and moral intuition (Rom 2:14). It is also used of
the fact that some are Jews and some are Gentiles “by nature” or by physical birth
(Rom 2:27; 11:21, 24; Gal 2:15).
After the pattern of such passages, many have concluded that Paul is
saying in Eph 2:3 that everyone is actually born under the wrath of God in the
Augustinian sense. It would suggest, however, that in its most general sense physis
refers to the actual identity or to an inward characteristic of something,
however that identity or characteristic was acquired. The physis of God
(2 Pet 1:4) is his own eternal essence; it is who he is by nature. Sexual and
gender characteristics (Rom 1:26; 1 Cor 11:14) are ours “by nature” in the
sense that they are a part of the divinely intended creation-order. They are
built into the universe as part of the proper nature of things. Jewishness is a
characteristic that belongs to some people and Gentileness to others by
physical birth; but these respective identities are not the result of creation per
se but of divine appointment related to the history of redemption.
When Paul says in Eph 2:3 that we are “by nature children of wrath,” he
is simply saying that in our pre-Christian state the characteristic of lostness—membership
in the family of the damned—was who we were. Sinfulness was our nature, our
identity. Our main point here, though, is that this language implies nothing
about how we got that way. None of the other New Testament uses of physis,
summed up in the previous paragraph, can appropriately lend its meaning to Eph
2:3. It is not our eternal nature to be children of wrath; it is not our created
nature to be children of wrath; nor are we children of wrath by divine appointment.
How then did we become children of wrath? This very text shows that we
entered this state not via original sin but as the result of our own personal
sins. Ephesians 2;1 refers to this spiritual state as being “dead in your trespasses
and sins.” It is significant that Paul makes no reference to the one sin of
Adam as the cause of this spiritual state of death, but instead relates it to “your
[not Adam’s] trespasses and sins [plural].” Verse 5 likewise attributes the death
to multiple “transgressions.” In other words, by abandoning yourselves to sin
you made sin to be your very nature; you joined the family of the lost. Thus,
the state of lostness is acquired by our own choice, not born in us as a result
of Adam’s sin.
It is interesting and supportive that Ignatius of Antioch, one of the
first post-New Testament writers, uses the word physis when speaking of
the true inward nature of Christians. In “To the Trallians” (1:1) he says, “I
know that you have a disposition that is blameless and unwavering in patient endurance,
not form habit but by nature.” It is obvious that for Ignatius what the
Chrisitan is “By nature” is an identity that is acquired. We conclude that
there is nothing in Eph 2:3 that requires us to think of our pre-Christian
identity as “children of wrath” in any other way. (Jack Cottrell, The Faith
Once for All: Bible Doctrine for Today [College Press, 2002, 2023], 186-87)
