Ausserhalb der speziellen Offenbarung Gottes ist der Mensch gezwungen, den Tatbestand der Sünde anders zu interpretieren. Eine (historisch gewichtige) Möglichkeit ist die Verortung der Sünde im menschlichen Willen. Bavinck skizziert dies anhand der antiken Leitfiguren Sokrates, Plato bzw. Cicero/Seneca:
- Socrates: No one is voluntarily evil, that is, unfortunate. Hence the person who knows the good is good and acts according to the good. All that is needed is education to guide humans, who are by nature good, to the practice of virtue.
- Plato even arrived at a totally different theory about the origin of sin, locating it in a fall of preexistent souls. Still, both maintained free will and continued to believe that virtue remains within our power.
- Finally, in the works of Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, and others, there was the ever-recurring thought that sin was an act of the will and could also be undone by the will.
Bavinck, Herman ; Bolt, John ; Vriend, John: Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ. Grand Rapids, MI : Baker Academic, 2006, S. 41-42.