Actual sins.
1. Name and concept of actual sins.
We call actual sin (peccatum actuale) up to ανομία, which is done or worked by man, in contrast to the ανομία, which, because it is innate in man, is not done, but exists before all doing, namely as imputatio peccati Adamitici and als corruptio hereditaria, quae in omnes homines per carnalem generationem derivatur. Luther says about the difference between original sin and actual sin:1627) "The original sin or natural sin or personal sin is the right main sin. Where this would not be, there would be no real sin. This sin is not done like all other sins; for it is, it lives and does all sin."
If we ask what comes under the term "actual sin," we must not forget that actual sins are not only those that are committed agendo, that is, by doing what is forbidden, but also those that are committed non agendo, omittendo, by not doing what is commanded. Or even more briefly, peccatum actuale is every action and cessation that is ανομία, that is, stands in contradiction with the will of God. In Scripture, sins of omission are especially emphasized because their sinful character is easily concealed. Therefore, Christ calls Matt. 25:30 calls the servant who buried his hundredweight in the ground a useless servant (άχρεΐον δοϋλον) and pronounces on him the sentence: "Cast him out into the outer darkness, there will be his weeping and gnashing of teeth." To some readers of the Bible, this judgment may have seemed harsh at first glance. But how badly that servant had sinned non agendo becomes clear when we realize that God gives all gifts, spiritual and corporal, small and great, not in vain, that is, for disuse, but for actual use in his service.
1627) St. L. XI, 287. Luther uses original sin, natural sin, person sin, principal sin as synonyms. This sin is called original sin, insofar as it comes to us and in us from the first sin of Adam through the fleshly birth; natural sin, insofar as it adheres to the corrupted human nature; person sin, insofar as it is everywhere where there is a human person, also in the children in the womb (V, 752); principal sin, insofar as it is the evil source of all other sins.
670 ><w:t xml:space="preserve"> Actual Sin. [English ed. 558-9]
He who lacks this service is an unfaithful steward. Not to be ignored is the further powerful word Luke 12:48: "To whom much is given, from him much will be sought; and to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” We see from this that peccatum actuale omissionis is also present when the measure of the service does not correspond to the measure of the gifts. In exposing and punishing peccata omissionis, however, we must be careful not to become "cane masters" (law enforcers), but rather, as befits a Christian teacher, we should entice and rebuke with demonstrated divine mercy in Christ (Rom. 12:1), so that the doing of God's will becomes a pleasure or, as Luther used to put it, that Christians "walk as in a paradise" in the works of their Christian calling ("Make duty a pleasure").1628) It goes without saying and has already been mentioned that all evil thoughts and all evil movements of the will with regard to doctrine and life belong to the actual sin.1629) In the doctrines of sanctification, reference is made to the Initiis obsta.1630)