John Chrysostom on Original sin & the human will
Free will substantially intact; God and man cooperate
He draws no one by force or compulsion: but by persuasion and benefits He draws all that will, and wins them to Himself... For He will have no unwilling, no forced domestic, but all of their own will and choice.
THE POSITION
What Adam passed down is death, not guilt. Facing Romans 5:19 he asks outright how another man's disobedience could make me a sinner, notes that on such a reading the man would not even deserve punishment, and settles on a sense in which "sinners" means liable to punishment and condemned to death. Grace is necessary and it comes first, but it does not operate on an unwilling person: God "draws no one by force or compulsion."
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
2 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Archbishop of Constantinople and the most prolific preacher of the patristic era — the largest surviving body of Greek expository preaching is his. This entry rests on the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translations of his homilies on Romans, 1 Corinthians, John, Hebrews and 2 Thessalonians, together with the Instructions to Catechumens.
Cite this page
"John Chrysostom on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chrysostom/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chrysostom/original-sin).