Original Sin, Sanctifying Grace, & Old Testament Justification

Aug 24, 2025

Sanctifying Grace/Original Sin
‘Born Again’ Refutes ‘Faith Alone’ & The Demonic Possession of James White (video)
So the supernatural endowment that Adam and Eve originally had is restored to believers in Christ? Did this only start happening after the Cross? How did people before get saved? How were the OT saints able to be righteous with God? Please explain.
T S

MHFM: Yes, the supernatural endowment that Adam and Eve had was sanctifying grace. It is a supernatural endowment: i.e. a gift that is above man’s nature. It is a participation in the divine nature that is bestowed upon people in Christ. It enables one to enter Heaven.

2 Peter 1:3-4- “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

This supernatural endowment was lost by Adam and Eve. That’s why original sin is consistently defined by Catholics as essentially the privation of sanctifying grace in consequence of the sin of Adam. In other words, original sin is the state of being deprived of (or not having) the supernatural endowment of sanctifying grace. It is the state of not having the participation in the divine nature that one needs to enter Heaven.

This supernatural endowment is only restored and received in Christ through the grace of New Testament justification (regeneration). That’s why those justified in the OT (with the inferior justification available then) could not get to Heaven until after Christ came.

Hebrews 11:39-40- “And all these [Old Testament righteous men], though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”