According to Calvinists, is each person "dead in sin" at birth, or only after committing a sin?
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Reformed catechisms make it clear that all of Adam's (ordinary) descendants are conceived and born spiritually dead. First, a translation of Q&A 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?
A. The fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in a sinful condition.
And the less readable but more thorough Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 16 and 18:
Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.Q. 18 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
That is, everyone is born into this sinful condition as a result of Adam's sin, and that sinful condition entails corruption of the "whole nature" as well as all the actual sins that are committed as a result.
Thus the phrase "dead in our sins" (cf. Eph 2:5) shouldn't be understood restrictively. The unsaved are indeed dead in their sins, but they aren't spiritually dead exclusively because of their own sins – their spiritual deadness is rooted in Adam's sin.
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