Unlike personal sin, original sin is not an evil thing we’ve done but an absence of God’s grace in our souls. Baptism “removes” original sin by filling our souls with the love and life of God, or grace. So, when I was baptized, not only did God forgive every sin I committed, but he filled my heart with his life and took away the stain of original sin. In that moment he gave me, as Paul says, “the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! [literally, Daddy!] Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16).
