Lord’s Day 2
Q5. Can you keep all this perfectly?
No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Romans 3:10, 23
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. … For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
1 John 1:8, 10
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Genesis 6:5
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Romans 7:23–24
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Romans 8:7
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
Ephesians 2:1–3
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Titus 3:3
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”
Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
This question, in connection with the preceding, teaches us that our misery, (of which there are two parts,) may be known out of the law in two ways. First, by a comparison of ourselves with the law; and second, by an application of the curse of the law to ourselves.
The comparing of ourselves with the law, or of the law with ourselves, is a consideration of that purity which the law requires, and whether it be in us. This comparison clearly proves that we are not what the law requires; for it demands perfect love to God, whilst there is nothing in us but aversion and hatred to him. The law, again, demands perfect love toward our neighbor; but in us there is enmity to our neighbor. It is in this manner, therefore, that we obtain a knowledge of the first part of our misery, which includes our depravity, of which the Scriptures in many places convict us. (Rom. 8:7. Eph. 2:3. Titus 3. 3, &c.)
The application of the curse of the law to ourselves is made by a practical syllogism, of which the major proposition is the voice of the law: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them". Conscience supplies and affirms in us the minor proposition: "I have not continued in all things written, &c." The conclusion is the approbation of the sentence of the law: "I am condemned". Conscience dictates to every man such a syllogism as this; yea it is nothing else than such a practical syllogism formed in the mind, whose major proposition is the law of God; the minor, is the knowledge of what we have done, contrary to the law; and the conclusion, is the approbation of the sentence of the law, condemning us on account of sin—which approbation will be followed by grief and despair, unless the consolation of the gospel is brought nigh unto us, and we obtain the remission of sins for the sake of the Son of God, our Mediator. It is in this way that we obtain a knowledge of our sinful state and exposure to eternal condemnation, which is the second part of our misery; for by this argument, all are convinced of sin. The law binds all to obedience, and if this is not performed, to eternal punishment and condemnation. But no one renders this obedience. Therefore, the law binds all men to eternal condemnation.
Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (1616). Public domain.