Huldrych Zwingli on Original sin & the human will
Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed
For this reason, I have said that the original contamination of man is a disease, not a sin, because sin implies guilt, and guilt comes from a transgression or trespass on the part of one who designedly perpetrates a deed.
THE POSITION
The will is in bondage and cannot free itself — but Zwingli reaches that by a route no other Reformer took. He argues that original sin is not sin in the strict sense, because sin means guilt and guilt means a deed done knowingly, and no descendant of Adam ate the fruit. It is instead a disease and a condition: Adam was sentenced to slavery rather than death, and a slave begets slaves. The bondage is therefore inherited as a state, not imputed as guilt, and only the blood of Christ can cure it.
17 In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
17 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Zurich and the first Reformed theologian to leave a confession — the Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523 predate Augsburg by seven years. He pushed further than Luther on the Supper, which split the early Reformation at Marburg in 1529, further than anyone on the reach of election, and further than any other Reformer on who might finally be saved. This entry rests on the Sixty-Seven Articles (1523), the Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), the Fidei Ratio sent to Charles V (1530) and the Exposition of the Christian Faith written weeks before he died in battle — the last of these read only in its chapter on eternal life.
Cite this page
"Huldrych Zwingli on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/zwingli/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/zwingli/original-sin).