Lord’s Day 4
Q9. But does not God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man cannot do?
No, for God so made man that he could do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, by willful disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Genesis 1:31
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Ephesians 4:24
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Genesis 3:13
“And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”
1 Timothy 2:13–14
“For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
Romans 5:12, 18–19
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. … Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
There is here in this portion of the Catechism, an objection on the part of human reason against what is said in the preceding question: If man is so corrupt that he cannot do any thing that is good before his regeneration, then God seems unjustly and in vain to require from him, in his law, perfect obedience. The objection may be more fully stated thus: He who requires or commands that which is impossible, is unjust. God requires of man in his law perfect obedience, which it is impossible for him to perform. Therefore, God seems to be unjust. To this objection we reply as follows: He who requires what is impossible is unjust, unless he first gave the ability to perform what he requires; secondly, unless man covet, and has of his own accord brought this inability upon himself; and, lastly, unless the requirement, which it is not possible for man to comply with, be of such a nature as is calculated to lead him to acknowledge, and deplore his inability. But God, by creating man in his own image, gave him the ability to render that obedience which he justly requires from him in his law. Wherefore if man, by his own fault and free will, cast away this ability with which he was endowed, and brought himself into a state in which he can no longer render full obedience to the divine law, God has not for this reason lost his right to exact the obedience which man is in duty bound to render him. God therefore justly punishes us, because we have cast away this good by transgressing his commandments, and because he threatened punishment in case his law were violated.
Objection 1. But we did not bring this sin upon ourselves.
Answer. Our first parents, when they fell, lost this ability both for themselves, and all their posterity; just as they also received it for themselves and their posterity.